No Stopping of ZUBRs At This Point :: Charter'97 :: News

Three interior forces servicemen seized from two ZUBR girls a white-red-white flag. They didn’t even bother to provide explanations or at least draw a protocol. The law-enforcers discovered the banner in their bag. Right now all those wearing ZUBRs T-shirt are exposed to police searches. The group of thirty ZUBR activists asked policemen to pronounce their names. In response, they were told that “police acts upon orders not laws”.

Then they attempted to apprehend two ladies and a bloke, from whom they took away the flag. After vain attempts to radio for reinforcement, they determined to deliver the activists to Central police station on public transport. By the time they got to the station, 30 ZUBRs were already there. However, they took the guys not to the station itself but rather to a police bus where their commander was. The commander ordered his subordinates to let the people go.

But police still had the national flag with them. ZUBRs immediately took the bus into a circle and demanded a return of their flag. When the bus pulled out, ZUBRs blocked the road. The bus was signaling and flashing lights but this didn’t work. The soldiers had nothing else to do but return the banner.

When ZUBR activists started to walk away policemen came back to their senses and informed their colleagues about the incident. A group of 15 ZUBRs was leveled by three police vehicles, from where the armed cops jumped out, pointing machine guns at them. Claiming that somewhere near-by there happened a burglary, they started searching the guy’s bags for stuff. The most zealous searchers were police officers Melnikov and Ignatenya.

They rudely threw the boys into the car, accompanying it with foul insults, whereas the girls were led to the police station on foot. In the station they involuntarily searched their personal stuff again. Police major slapped Alexandra Andjievskaya in the face, grabbed her neck and started swearing at her. When ZUBR activist Alexander Otroschenkov demanded to cease the humiliation and dragged away the lady from the major, he got in no time handcuffed and punched a few times. Otroschenko spent with his hands cuffed more than one hour, suffering from bad pains.

In the meantime, more ZUBRs started assembling at the entrance to the police station. At seeing that, police checked the detainees’ IDs and let them go. Otroschenkov, who sat in cuffs, was released the last one, facing protocol under art.156 of Administrative code (minor hooliganism). He will file a complaint to procuracy over police arbitrariness, urging them to investigate into this harassment episode.

Radio “Svaboda” reports that orders to arrest and search people in ZUBR T-shirts were given not only in Minsk but all regional and big towns of Belarus. However, despite the pressure exerted by the authorities, ZUBR continues their activities, knowing that not all law-enforcers are ready to obey the command.