i don't wish that happened to you...

Sat Mar 25 17:40:00 UTC 2000

NB: hit "delete" button if not interested and my apologies for
spam in that case.

Minsk, Belarus. 25th of March, The Independence Day
INDEPENDENCE DAY TURNS INTO MASS BEATING OF
PEACEFUL PROTESTERS BY POLICE
Fearing its own people the authorities have flooded Minsk streets
with riot police units and armed personnel carriers.  Still, a few
thousand people gathered for a national holiday of Independence.
In the morning reinforced military brigades, police and armed personnel
carriers appeared on Minsk streets, along with numerous firefighters'
vehicles, ambulances, trucks with armed law-enforcers and empty buses
for the potential detainees.  Lots of plain-clothed detectives kept
approaching police patrols and, after having a short chat, disappeared in
various directions.
By 11 AM riot police, equipped with truncheons and helmets,
completely sealed off the entire Skaryna prospect as well as the adjacent
streets.  By 11:30 police patrols with dogs entered Jakub Kolas square.
The main square was cleared and no one was allowed to enter.  The
people, wishing to get there, were captured in underpasses leading to the
square. The crowd accumulated on the other side of the prospect.
Police announced through loudspeakers that anyone standing on the
square is considered to be a protestor.  They blocked all passages in the
vicinity of the Jakub Kolas square, which on Saturdays is always
flooded with people, going to the central marketplace Kamarouka.   It
appears to be the largest gathering of the police and the military in the
Minsk center ever since the Wolrd War II.  Equipped with weapons and
truncheons, they stood all along Krasnaja and Jakub Kolas in chain that
streched several kilometers, each at a distance of a stretched arm from
one another.  In the very depths of the adjacent courtyards one could
see numerous khaki-colored military trucks.  Minsk residents, who
happened to be downtown, appeared to be shocked.  Skinheads,
dressed in leather suits, were looking into the faces of pedestrians and
inviting some of them into their cars.
Most schoolchildren were gathered in the assembly halls of their high
schools at 12 sharp, and parents were ordered to sign an oath that their
children will be placed under "home arrest" for the period of March 25
mass rally.  In some of the state-run universities this Saturday was
announced to be a working day.
At around noon policemen detained several people who entered the
headquarters of the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF).  This produced a
chain reaction - BPF members got out of their office and attempted to
defend their friends.  Consequently, around forty people got arrested on
the spot.  Another raid on the headquarters left 20 United Civil Party's
members arrested.  Police blocked the entrance to the BPF office and
drove anyone, who tried to get inside, into their trucks.  Some people
were arrested pretty far from the square, just for walking in that direction.
But these were only the first of the detainees, among whom there was a
Vice President of the Belarus Congress of Democratic Trade Unions
Viktar Ivashkevich.  At around 2 PM he contacted Charter'97 with his
mobile phone.  According to him, there were 80 more people detained
in that police station.  Reportedly, about 200 more protesters and
pedestrians were locked up in one of the sport halls on Majakouski
street under police surveillance.
In total 500 citizens fell victim of the manhunt in the area of  Jakub
Kolas square. People were taken out of the crowd for either speaking in
Belarusian or expressing their indignation with police arbitrariness.
Minor clashes between people and the police took place on the grand
stairs of the Opera Hall.  All of them ended in more people being carried
away towards police vehicles.
Several foreign observers suffered from police actions today.  Two
Polish Sojm's (Parliament) deputies got arrested near BPF office who
had recently come to Minsk to monitor the action.  Deputy Chair of the
OSCE AMG Mr. Panika was also arrested, alongside with seven Polish
and one Slovakian journalists.
The police detained TV observers from the biggest Russian TV
companies - ORT, NTV and RTR.  ORT journalists got their video
camera smashed; RTR camre man was severely beaten. About 40 more
representatives of the biggest news agencies and media were also taken
to the police stations.  After 2 PM some detainees were released.  First,
police released NTV and ORT people, then some other journalists.
Most other people are still held in custody. The law-enforcement officers
filed protocols against them.  New detainees are taken to the sport hall
on Majakouski street.
At around 1 PM a part of the demonstrators, who avoided the manhunt,
headed toward the Kulman bus terminal, where the meeting had been
officially allowed.  Four thousand people finally reached the destination
to witness a few more thousand protesters waiting for them there. The
influx of people did not cease. By 2.20 PM around ten thousand were
present at the Banhalor square.  Its organizers declared that full
responsibility for the incident lies with the municipal authorities, police
chiefs and, of course, mister Lukashenka, who had left this morning for
the Arab Emirates.

© Copyright Charter97 { HYPERLINK http://www.charter97.org/English/default.asp }http://www.charter97.org/English/default.asp

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