Action at St. Joseph’s Church dispersed (Photo report) :: Charter'97 :: News

Militia didn’t allow oppositional youth activists to hold the action of solidarity near the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Svabody Square in Minsk 16 August evening.

As the Youth activist Baris Garetsky reported to the BelaPAN those who came to the church with candles and portraits of the political prisoners were forced out by the staff-members of the special militia division to the bus stop in Nyamiga Street .The action participant took the trolleybus moving in the Kamarousky market direction.

Opposition youth leader Pavel Sevyarynets, who took part in the aborted protest, was followed by two plainclothesmen for hours later in the day.

The United Civic Party (UCP)`s press office reported that members of the UCP youth wing had lined along Independence Avenue in Yakub Kolas Square in Minsk on the same day, holding images of the disappeared politicians and imprisoned oppositionists. They then walked down the city`s thoroughfare to Victory Square. Police reportedly did not interfere.

The party`s press office noted that plainclothesmen had arrested opposition activist Mikita Sasim near the Moskva movie theater in the Belarusian capital on Thursday. Mr. Sasim`s associates, Tatsyana Tsishkevich and Mikhail Pashkevich, who attempted to interfere were reportedly beaten up by the officers. The woman was taken to hospital as a result of the attack.

Opposition activists in Belarus and sympathizers throughout the world have been observing a so-called Day of Solidarity on the 16th day of each month since September 16, 2005, the sixth anniversary of the abduction of opposition politician Viktar Hanchar and his friend, businessman Anatol Krasowski, in which high-ranking government officials are believed to have been involved.

Photo by Arseni Pahomau, "Nasha Niva"