On Human Rights Day human rights activists are being arrested in Minsk :: Charter'97 :: News

The action “We remember” in defense of human rights and memory of the missing people in Belarus was held in Minsk on December 10, on the 55th anniversary of the Universal Human Rights Declaration. Wives of the missing people Svyatlana Zavadskaya and Iryna Krasouskaya were the initiators of the action. The European Coalition “Free Belarus”, the resistance movement “ZUBR”, “The Young Front”, businessmen and remedial organizations supported the action. About five hundred people were standing in a chain along Skaryna Avenue, holding candles and Yury Zakharanka’s, Anatoly Krasousky’s and Dzmitry Zavadsky’s portraits. Despite the peaceful nature of the action people in civilian arrested a member of Human Rights Department of the Civil Initiative “Charter’97”, a journalist Natallya Kaliada. At the present moment she is kept in Minsk Central Department of Internal Affairs.

Within an hour, while the action was held, the policemen, as a rule dressed in civilian clothes, tried to prevent it. It was vivid that the police were scared by the number of people. In recent years there have not been so many people with portraits of the missing standing along Skaryna Avenue. The high rank police officials consulted over portable transmitters and then started preventing the chain from stretching from Kastrychnitskaya Square to Peramohi Square. The reason named was that people were standing at the bus stop and that created certain difficulties. The policemen tried to push people away. A bit later a compromise was found. The chain was broken to free the bus stop.
Nevertheless, the policemen were walking along the chain looking for the organizers of the action. So Natallia Kaliada, a journalist, a member of Human Rights Department of the Civil Initiative “Charter’97”, just standing with Dzmitry Zavadsky’s portrait, was detained. A few robust policemen captured Natallia and brought to the closest building. People were not let in, until a police car came and brought the human rights activist to the Central Department of Internal Affairs.