News

Reuters

Imagine a painting of a female nude but with the bare flesh of her legs and body blotched with purple, green and yellow bruises as she lies on the floor and embraces an outline of her country Belarus. The striking protest image, an oil painting by Belarusian artist Yana Chernova, takes aim at what rights groups says is systematic violence and torture used by police to try and quell mass anti-government protests. Tens of thousands of Belarusians have taken part in nationwide protests against veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko for more than five weeks.