About 10 Belarus opposition supporters and independent journalists were detained during a protest march in the capital, rights activists said.
Some 2,000 people marched through the centre of Minsk yesterday carrying opposition flags and portraits of political prisoners.
They were commemorating Freedom Day, the anniversary of the 1918 declaration of the first, shortlived independent Belarusian state.
The demonstration has become an annual tradition for the Opposition in Belarus, a former Soviet republic now under the authoritarian leadership of President Alexander Lukashenko.
Protesters shouted “long live Belarus” and “down with Lukashenko”.
Tatyana Revyako, of the human rights centre Vesna, said the special forces detained demonstrators who were carrying portraits of political prisoners.
Eleven people remain in prison for their political activism, including former presidential candidate Nikolai Statkevich.