Minsk besieged again. Mass arrests (Photo, video)

(Updated) Special services blocked ways to the new places where citizens planned civil protest rallies in Minsk.

It happened right after the information about the new assembly points for participants of the silent protest was spread on the web.

On this Wednesday July 6 activists of “Revolution through social networks” campaign offered Minsk dwellers to gather in the central points of every district of the capital instead of gathering on October or any other square.

Thus, dwellers of Frunzenski district had been offered to gather near the Ice palace (Prytytski Street). However, access roads and approach routes to this building had been blocked by policemen since the morning.

Since 6 p.m. force structures’ officers in mufti were standing near the entrances to October and Kupalauskaya metro stations. Police buses were situated in the nearest yards. The same happened in Nyamiha Street and near the Town Hall in Svaboda Square. Two traffic lines of Independence Avenue were blocked.

Near the National Library by the construction site three police minibuses were hidden. People in mufti were inside the minibuses. Near the library policemen were walking. The National Library was named as the rallying point for the “silent protest” in Pershamajski district.

Near McDonalds’ in the crossing of Independence Avenue and Lenin Street two persons in mufti recommended young people not to gather in groups larger than three at a time. Meanwhile, the spot near McDonalds is a traditional assembly point for young people who are apolitical. The unknown also advised passers-by not to stop near the entry to Tsentralny supermarket.

At about 7 p.m. near October Square a reporter of “Belgazeta” Vadzim Zamirouski was detained. Near “Hyppo” supermarket a journalist of “Ezhednevnik” Andrei Aleksandrovich was arrested. In other parts of the city journalists of “Nasha Niva” Yahor Martsinovich and “Radio Svaboda” Aleh Hruzdzilovich were detained, as well as Ales Dashchynski and photoreporter Antol Motolko.

Near the Palace of Sports in Nyamiha Street people in mufti obstructed journalists’ work, closing cameras and pushing journalists, forcing them to go away. They also came up to passers-by and threatened: “Do not gather more than three at a time.”

Later people were started to be detained near the National Library. As soon as passers-by started to clap, policemen stroke down to the ground an elderly man, and he could not stand up. A thrashing started. People were seized and thrown into buses.

In the same place people in mufti seized a biker riding nearby. He was brutally beaten. The bike was seized, and the man was packed into the bus as well.

Journalists were forbidden to unjacket cameras. They were threatened by arrests in case they would perform their professional duties.

At the same near the Ice Palace in Prytytski Street from 300 to 500 persons gathered. Near Frunzenskaya metro station the unknown detained and forcibly placed into the bus without number plates the leader of the fan movement of Dinamo Minsk football club, Anatoly Khamenka.

In the same Frunzenski district a group of protesters, several dozens strong, left the Ice Palace where detentions were taking place. Clapping their hands, this group started to move along Prytytski Street. Cars passing by supported the participants of the rally by honks. Law-enforcers made an attempt to suppress the march; however the protesters dispersed and ran away to the yards. Then they flocked again and came to the site in front of Avrora cinema, where they were standing and clapping again.

About 10 persons were detained in Kastrychnitski district. One of the participants of the rally fell into a fountain while running away from the police.

A yellow minibus arrived to the area in front of the Palace of Culture of Railwaymen, and a few unknown in mufti, without telling their names, loaded young people into it. Resentful questions of pensioners sitting on a bench not far from this place remained unanswered.

In the Park of Friendship of Nations near Bangalore Square people were detained again. At about 8 p.m. about 100 persons gathered there. They started clapping. A white Mercedes minibus drove up, and people in mufti got out of it. After the law enforcers came in the direction of the group of the young people, they started to disband.

However, arrests started. People standing near were shouting and fuming, saying where are the police and why they were paying no attention to the action of the unknown in mufti.

There were arrests near “Belarus” department store as well. 10 persons were arrested, “European Belarus” coordinator Maxim Vinyarski being among them.

“There are 5 persons here: three young men, a girl whose glasses have been broken, and who was unaware of what was happening there at all, and Uladzimir Marozau, (born in 1958), who was taken bad during the arrest. Two policemen in mufti attacked me purposefully, however I showed them my accreditation document,” a journalist of Radio Svaboda Aleh Hruzdzilovich managed to inform from the police bus.

In Maskouski district near Titan club arrests took place too. Several persons, including girls, were carried into buses. At a bus stop on the opposite side of the road there were about a hundred of people. Before the arrests they were walking or pretending they were waiting for a bus. They started to applaud loudly, and the cars driving by honked in support. The trading centre and the drugstore were closed, which made dwellers of the district angry.

As arrested Interfax correspondent Syarhei Kutsuk informed the editorial office on the phone, about 25 persons were just in one minibus with him. Kutsuk underlined that he had been detained on purpose. “I heard them talking on the walkie-talkie: he’s got a camera, catch him, catch him,” the journalist told.

Near “Volgograd” supermarket a brutal mopping-up operation was taking place as well. Andrei Yeliseeu, a Euroradio correspondent was detained. Then detentions of people inside the building started.

Ales Dashchynski, a detained “Radio Svaboda” correspondent, told on the phone from the police bus: “A policeman came up to me, he seized me by elbows harshly, and passed me to people in mufti, and they took me to a minibus. There are 15-20 arrested there. An Interfax correspondent is with me here. We were told that we would be taken to the police department of Zavadski district. I do not know why I had been detained. My documents, and accreditation document from the Interior Ministry had been checked twice before that. I was told that it is forbidden to carry out photographing and video shooting.”

Everywhere passers-by and participants of the rally expressed solidarity with the detained, applauding.

More than 400 persons were detained in Belarus during the rallies of silent protest on July 6.