More than 1,000 demonstrators came out in the Belarusian city of Brest on March 5 to protest against a law on "social parasitism" that obliges nonworking people to pay a tax.
While chanting against the legislation, the crowd also called on President Alyaksandr Lukashenka "to go away," as they marched across the city's central streets.
A correspondent with RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports that a group of anarchists were also present at the peaceful protest.
The law, which is reminiscent of Soviet-era legislation, is aimed at combating what Lukashenka has called "social parasitism."
It imposes a special tax -- equivalent to more than 200 U.S. dollars -- upon Belarusians who work less than half of a calendar year and do not sign up at the country's labor bureaus.
The law exempts registered job-seekers, homemakers, subsistence farmers, and those working in Russia.
Lukashenka has ruled Belarus for more than two decades, quashing political opposition, civil society groups, independent media, and other forms of dissent.
