A huge 5 thousand-strong crowd approached the Academy of Sciences for a final meeting. The folks filled the terrace opposite the Academy of Sciences, while the Skarina prospect remains crammed with protesters.

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Though the rally is still underway one can rest assured that the Chernobyl Shlyach-2001 was a success. It was a peaceful one and quite massive. The observers and the press claim that it attracted up to 5 thousand dissenters. The organizers say that it could serve as a good example before the fall presidential ballot.
At present the column left Yakub Kolas and is now approaching the destination point - Academy of Sciences.

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Over 5 thousand are crowded in close proximity to the Yakub Kolasa square. They blocked the traffic and public transportation alike. The protesters keep moving toward the Academy of Sciences.

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Chernobyl Shlyach successfully reached the Victory square. The crowds are walking past the war monument with grieving faces. Numerous journalists are covering the course of the action, along with foreigners from the Chernobyl charity foundations, diplomats and OSCE officials. Police doesn`t crack down on them.

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The action in central Minsk is coming to an end. The number of protesters is now under 100. Police doesn`t interfere. Seemingly, that`s the end of it.

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The demonstrators flooded into the Skarina prospect and occupied a few central lanes. The head of the column reached the bridge over the Svisloch river, while the tail is lagging somewhere around the circus. According to different calculations the average number of protesters is around 5 thousand. The procession is quietly making its way to the Academy of Sciences.

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The crowds set off along Internatsionalnaya str. Apparently, it`s formed by the representatives of the whole spectrum of various political parties - BPF, UCP, Freedom Party, Youth Front, Belarusian social-democrats, Free trade unions. The people are slowly descending the sidewalk leading to the Yanka Kupala park.

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At the moment the CCP BHF guys are listening to their leader Zyanon Poznyak`s address in the central square, being read out not by acting CCP chair Yuri Belenki but rather his aide Popkov. For some vague reason Belenki never showed up at his own action. Police refrains from manhunt against the dissenters.

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The column started its move from the Svabody square. It stretched all along the Internatsionalnaya and Yanka Kupala streets. As usual they bring a huge bell and Mary`s icon to the front. According to rough estimations the manifestation includes 3-5 thousand by now.

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Around 200 pulled into the central square of Minsk downtown. Police grew nervous, though the uniformed agents dare not attack the crowd. They keep filming them and walky-talking.

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"You`re on a borrowed time, man!", "Let`s protect our children and Belarus!", "Chernobyl`s our common grief!" - such slogans were unfurled by the action participants. In the front rows they raised a huge banner, just reading "Youth Front". With candles alight a few hundred teens and youngsters keep shouting slogans, impatient for the beginning of the procession.

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CCP BPF rally marchers are now 150. They keep moving fast to the Oktyabrsky square. The law-enforcers are doing their video-records and actively consult their bosses through portable radio transmitters.

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The mourning prayer meeting got underway on the Svabody square. The text of the prayer is read aloud by an Orthodox priest and a Catholic clergyman. Many kindle the candles. Traditionally the event is visited by the youths from the Anti-fascist Youth Movement of Moscow, who will join the column as a separate group.

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Over a 100 participants of the CCP BPF rally moved out from the Independence square in the direction of Oktybrskaya central square. The folks are carrying white-red-white flags and burning candles, chanting "The Almighty Lord!". Practically all of the action participants are liquidators of the Chernobyl disaster. Police interfere not but actively record the thing on video. In the crowd there are numerous civilian dressed plants, recognizable by walky-talkies noise, coming from inside their clothes.

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5 thousand are standing on the Svabody square with flags and banners in hands. "Chernobyl - our common pain!" is written on some banners. From time to time the youths cry out slogans, while the police bullhorns keep shut. Multitudes more are streaming out of the tube stations. Let us remind you that the action was scheduled for 18.10, after which the protesters will rush along the Skarina prospect. According to the preliminary information the march will end at the Academy of Sciences.

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Around 30 gathered at the alternative action, run by the Conservative Christian BPF wing. The people are crowding by the building of the chief post office, a few dozen meters away from the Government`s Palace. So far, police doesn`t do anything about them.

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Action participants continue to raise new flags and banners. One can see here red-black flags of anarchists and the blue ones of the Free trade unions. Young people of the Youth Front pick up official EU flags. They shout "Long Live Belarus!" and other traditional stuff. New folks are moving fast towards the place of gathering.

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Police cars, equipped with megaphones, pulled up at the Svabody square. The law-enforcers bark through the loud-speaker: "Please to disperse and get reunited on the Bangalor square". That`s where the Minsk city hall sanctioned the Chernobyl Shlyach. People are disobeying police commands for now. Youth Front boys are putting on gas-masks and forming lines. Folks keep coming. The adjacent streets are crammed with people likewise.

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The number of dissenters already mounted to 1 thousand. In the middle of the Svabody square the Youth Front guys unfurled their mourning placards. A few young people are wearing black T-shirts, picturing radiation danger emblems, their heads covered with white ribbons. The flow of people is streaming in that direction.

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Around 500 assembled by now on the Svabody square. Fearing the follow-up of the opposition`s rally the sellers of handiwork stuff in the painters` park are hastily packing their belongings and fleeing the place. The influx of people to the Svabody square seems unceasing.

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6 squad vehicles (a few four-door bangers, buses and the ones, designed for transporting criminals) are parked in the courtyard of the Chief military procuracy, which is at a stone`s throw distance from the Svabody square. Behind the steering of all the vehicles there sit uniformed law-enforcers.

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At the moment the Svaboda square is at peace. One could only marvel at the abundance of light vehicles in the vicinity. No UAZ police cars or buses around, except a bunch of minivans with video-cameras and bullhorns atop. A few easily recognizable plain-clothed moles are strolling around the area.

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An anonymous caller contacted Charter`97 office, warning us that a huge column of covered trucks and military vehicles with water cannons aboard were dispatched to Minsk this afternoon. At the moment they are pulling closer to central Minsk, where opposition will stage its action. According to the latest information, emanating from the BPF Council, at 5.30p.m. prominent scholar Ivan Nikitchenko will hand over to the authorities a petition of his, demanding that they speed up elimination of Chernobyl consequences and the like. At 6.10p.m. the dissenters will move out from the Svabody square, walk past Internatsionalnaya and Yanki Kupaly streets towards the Skarina prospect in downtown. No further route has been reported. The organizers of the action, having obtained no official permission, may go for it at their own peril.

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The "Chernobyl Shlyach-2001" will take place in Minsk on April 26. The action organizer, the organizing committee of the "Chernobyl Shlyach-2001" intends to gather the participants at 5p.m. on the Svabody square, where they will host an hour-long commemoration prayer meeting in remembrance of the victims of the Chernobyl tragedy. Afterwards, the crowds will move out past the Lenin square along the Skarina prospect towards the Independence square, where the protesters will hand over to the Government`s Palace their petition on the disastrous follow-up of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion. April 26 at 4p.m. Minsk time Charter`97 press-center will launch on-line coverage of the mourning processions in central Minsk. Stay with us!

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Authoritative global initiative ARTICLE 19 addressed April 26 an OSCE official for the freedom of expression Mr.Duve with a letter of the following content:

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"Y.S.News" agency received a letter from the deputy Russian prosecutor general, who wrote on behalf of his boss Vladimir Ustinov: "As concerns legal proceedings on the disappearance of the cameraman of the Belarusian ORT Bureau Dmitry Zavadsky, the Belarusian procuracy has numerously contacted us, seeking international help in resolving this incident. Their requests were satisfied and all the necessary investigation procedures on the territory of Moscow and other Russian regions were conducted. The concomitant files were passed over to the requesting side. In the meantime the Russian general procuracy considers the possibility to set up a special investigation crew to handle the case…"

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Five renowned politicians - Vladimir Goncharik, Syamon Domash, Sergei Kalyakin, Pavel Kozlovsky and Mikhail Chigir - announced April 25 that they agreed to coordinate their future activities to achieve common goal - beat Lukashenko at the forthcoming ballot. In this connection they passed a joint statement, laying down their key principles.

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"Information on the detention April 18 of a foreign national, captured red-handed while getting secret documentation from someone, is likely to be fake", BelaPAN quotes an anonymous foreign diplomat, accredited in Belarus as saying April 23.

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"It is prohibited to set up affiliates of foreign organizations on the territory of Belarus, whose activities are aimed at overthrowing or enforced changing the country`s constitutional order," - reads the draft amendment to the Civil code, signed April 25 by the "house of representatives". The amendments actually back the scandalous decree#8, which Lukashenko passed in order to prevent foreign support to the human rights NGOs ahead of the presidential elections.

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Belarusian businessman Andrei Zhukovets must be extradited to Belarus on the basis of the documentation, supplied by the Belarusian law-enforcement bodies, ruled April 20 the district court of Belostok (Poland).

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Prominent Belarusian cyclist Natalya Markovnichenko - twice world champion in bike race will apply for Russian citizenship unless the Ministry of Sport and Tourism fails to satisfy her demands.

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