Young Activists From Ukraine and Russia Arrested In Minsk :: Charter'97 :: News

Protest action in Minsk on the anniversary of Chernobyl nuclear power station accident ended in mass arrests. About 40 people were detained. Among them were representatives of right-wing organizations from Russia – Yabloko’s youth branch, the youth branch of Union of Right Forces, movement “Marching Without Putin”, “Oborona” (Deefense) organization, Ukrainian organization “National Alliance”, as well as activists of the Belarusian youth organization “Young Front”. There are journalists among the detainees.

Activists of Belarusian opposition have planned to deliver a petition to the office of Belarusian president. They demand to resettle people from strongly polluted areas, to provide people affected by Chernobyl with medicines and treatment, to stop production of foodstuffs in contaminated areas; to cancel the new regulations that make it more difficult for children from the contaminated zones to travel abroad; to cancel limitations for humanitarian aid delivery; to stop forcible job allocation in “Chernobyl-affected” areas for graduates. About 30 activists of youth organizations from Ukraine and Russia have arrived to take part in the protest.

It was planned to deliver the petition at 6 p.m. However an hour and a half before policemen and riot policemen encircled the building of the presidential Administration and blocked the passage in Engels Street.

Several hundreds of people gathered on the square at the planned time. Each of them was holding the petition to A. Lukashenka. Many of them had their national flags (Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian) on their shoulders, and also held little flags of the EU in their hands. Three priests of the prohibited Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church joined the protesters as well.

After several fruitless attempts to approach the Administration building, youth activists unfurled an orange streamer “For Yours and Our Freedom”, banners “Today Ukraine, Tomorrow Belarus”. They formed a column and marched towards the Administration. The column was preceded by the priests with crosses.

However, Belarusian riot police was not stopped by the crosses, and the attempt to bring the petitions into the administration of Lukashenka ended by brutal dispersal.

First the people were simply pushed away from the Administration building along the Skaryna Avenue. But the policemen formed a circle and started to beat up protesters. Many of them had fallen on the ground, they tried to protect their heads with their arms, but it had not defended them from truncheons and boots of riot policemen. After that the beaten Belarusians, Ukrainians and Russians were packed into police buses and taken away.

The second attempt of the young activists to come to the Administration building has been stifled in the same way. Young people clutched their hands and tried to approach the building, but they were seized and packed into the buses. Thus, the chairman of Minsk regional branch of the United Civil Party Maryna Bahdanovich, who was an organizer of the authorized meeting on Bangalor Square in Minsk, was detained. She came to the building of the Administration to deliver a petition.

The detainees are placed to police departments of Lenin and Tsentralny districts of Minsk. About 40 people were arrested in Minsk today, including the Russian citizens that had been detained preventively.

According to the latest information, everything is quiet at the authorized meeting on Bangalor Square in front of Chernobyl chapel.