Chronicals of the Camp-Town: A day after assault

Here are some highlights of the events that took place in Belarus after the campttown was raided by riot police

As the Charter`97 press center was informed by Tatsyana Snitko, who was detained by police together with tent camp dwellers, people in buses were beaten up. As she told, many young men have smashed faces, and policemen used foul language and threatened. During the detention policemen ordered: everybody on the floor, faces down!

One of detained defenders of tent camp managed to call to the Radio Svaboda. He said that about 100 people are placed to a territory of some police camp. “Now we are at the territory of some police camp. I cannot say what it is, but it’s some place of confinement. We are freezing here for a long time already, for about two hours and a half. Nobody is taken out, that is why I ask people, everybody who can, to gather on the square on March 15. For our sake, for the sake of the people, for the future of our nation,” said a young man, who had not told his name.

12:05, 24/03/2006

“I think that world’s reaction to the developments in Belarus would be harsh and consolidated, and it’s very important. I am also interested by the position of Moscow. Moscow is becoming more and more estranged from the position of the civilized world. It is known that it influences the situation in Belarus. I would like Moscow to assess the developments justly. It shouldn’t support a bankrupt regime, the regime that violates rape the Constitution,” Alyaksandr Milinkevich said, commenting on the police’s sweeping into a tent camp in the center of Minsk to the Radio Svaboda.

12:25, 24/03/2006

Former Polish Ambassador in Belarus Mariusz Maszkiewicz was detained during the storming of the protesters’ tent camp. The Radio Svaboda has contacted him right after the detention. “I ask to advise Polish Foreign Ministry to arrive as soon as possible. People are hauled [to cars], the square is cordoned off. Everybody has sat to the ground, and they were hauled one by one – by an arm, by a leg, by hair, And then they were beaten up in the paddy wagons”.

12:33, 24/03/2006

As the Charter’97 press center has found out, about 60 people were taken to the detention center in Akrestsyn Street from October Square. It is unknown were the rest of the people is. About the preliminary information, about 300 protesters were detained. There is information that as the special detention center at the moment is filled to capacity by oppositionists detained in the day before the tent camp clearing; the detainees were forced to stand in the corridor face to the wall the whole night (March 23-24). The most horrible thing is that people were allowed to go to the lavatory only if they had passports. Those who hadn’t passports were not allowed to go to the lavatory

13:02, 24/03/2006

Workers of the special detention center in Akrestsyn Street refuse to pass food to the protesters from the tent camp, arrested today. Now their friends, parents and colleagues are by the walls of the detention center. The atmosphere is extremely oppressive: mothers are crying, asking to release their children.

14:48, 24/03/2006

45 underage protesters have been released from the special detention center today. They had been arrested during the police operation against the encampment this night. Reporters, human rights watchdogs and the single opposition candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich met them in front of the detention center

14:56, 24/03/2006

Activists from the tent camp arrested today night are taken to the courts of Partyzanski, Maskouski, Frunzenski, Savetski, Kastrychnitski, Leninski districts. Part of the people is transferred to the Interior Affairs Department of Minsk city executive committee. One of the detained girls, Darya Zyalinskaya, fainted, and an ambulance was called in. As the Charter’97 press center informs, the girl was almost unconscious and could not speak.

While covering the night assault some Russian TV channels on October Square in Minsk, they reported that policemen detained people “humanely”, and, moreover, all girls were soon released. The Russian channels are lying: half an hour ago three paddy wagons appeared by the Interior Affairs Department of Minsk regions executive committee. They are filled with girls detained in the night. Many of them are beaten up.

Updates 9:53 pm est

Now we know some details about a treatment of arrested demonstrators, charter97 reports: Among the detainees there is a 22-year-old guy, who managed to hide a mobile phone. He told to the Radio Svaboda that he was transported in the last bus. There were about 70 detainees there. They were ordered to line up along the wall. When guards were absent, he called the Radio Svaboda and told the names of people near him. “Everybody is placed near the barrier and made set heads against the concrete wall. We are standing for an hour in the freezing temperatures. They came, wrote down our names, birth dates, nationality. Underage were taken somewhere, and then the girls were taken to the building. They have not told anything to us, they are only joking that nobody would bring hot tea to us. They asked whether it was good on the square. It seems that nobody had been beaten up yet, but before we were packed to the paddy wagons, a blow or two were delivered to everybody,” the young man said.

And the fact that just about everything is prosecuted by Belarusian authorities can be best illustrated here: A photo editor of the independent Belarusian newspaper “Nasha Niva” Artsyam Lyava, who was near the camp on October Square this night, has been sentenced to 15 days of arrest by Frunzenski district court of Minsk. A string correspondent of the newspaper, Tatsyana Snitko, is among the detainees. As we have informed, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Andrei Dynko, was arrested for his attempt to bring food to the tents on March 22. Yep, you just want to bring some food and here you go: 15 days in a prison cell…

as we reported before, there were numerious protests around the world in a connection with the events that are taking place in Belarus. Here is another example of how the world shows its solidarity with Belarusians: In Antwerp (Belgium) a rally was held in front of the building of the Russian consulate. The protest was aimed against Russian government’s support to the Belarusian regime. The picket by the Russian mission in Antwerp was organized by the members of the Belarusian – European Association. Participants of the protest were holding white-red-white flags and a streamer with the slogan: “Shame to President Putin for supporting usurper Lukashenka”.

It appears that Police is afraid of the next Camp-town. According to the news, all groups larger than 10 people are not allowed on the October Square. Minsk dwellers discuss the unprecedented cruelty of the riot policemen, express indignation, and say about the desire they had to come to this “territory of freedom” every day, when young patriots were holding the fort heroically..

Among other news most notable are:

1.Vital Vasilkou, a member of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), one of the founders of the association’s former Magilou office and, presently, a German radio station “Deutsche Welle” correspondent accredited in Belarus, was detained in Magilou, March 23, and sentenced by the Leninski district court to the 7-day arrest for “hooliganism”. The journalist must have been spied on, since the detention took place in the morning, 15 minutes before train’s “Magilou-Minks” departure. The journalist had the certificate of the “Deutsche Welle” correspondent. Having seen the document, policemen talked to someone on the phone, but then went on with filing the protocol “on the administrative violation”. According to the BAJ monitoring service, the journalist might have been spied on since Mach 7, when he returned to Magilou after an international conference held in Germany (on that day people in muftis detained Vital Vasilkou after leaving the train and took all his cash “on suspicion of forged money transfer” and promised to give it back “after the examination”).

2.Today in Copenhagen the Dane social-democratic youth have set up a tent camp by the Russian Embassy. The tents were pitched in solidarity with the defenders of the tent camp on the Kastrychnitskaya Square of Minsk. Moreover, the demonstrators protest against the actions of the Russian government, which upholds Lukashenka’s regime. The tent camp is to be held out for 24 hours.

3.Mariusz Maszkiewicz, former Ambassador of Poland to Belarus, detained on the Kastrychnitskaya Square, said he had been beaten unmercifully while being transported to the isolation jail in Akrestsina Street. Pan Maszkievicz told this to the officials of the Polish Embassy in Belarus consular service. We received the information from Monika Skadowska, the secretary of the Polish Embassy. The Polish Embassy addressed the Belarusian Foreign Office with a note of protest demanding medical examination for Mariusz Maszkiewicz

4.The Party of European Socialists (PES) has urged the European Union to impose tough sanctions against Aleksandr Lukashenko and his top officials and politicians. “Those who deprived the people of Belarus of free and fair elections should be held responsible and accountable, avoiding actions that hurt the people of Belarus,” said Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, president of the party. “There can be no accommodating an authoritarian regime in modern Europe.”

5.The European Union has described Belarus` presidential election as fundamentally flawed, promising to consider together with the United States “restrictive measures against those responsible for the violations of international electoral standards.”

6.Opposition leader Aleksandr Milinkevich urged the West to be “tougher and more resolute” in its assessments of developments in Belarus. Speaking at a news conference in Minsk following an overnight crackdown on his supporters in Minsk, Mr. Milinkevich welcomed solidarity of the United States and the European Union on Belarus, but stressed that statements on support for pro-democratic forces were not sufficient. “It is necessary to send a stronger message that Belarus has experienced a constitutional coup that brought to power a man who is not eligible for it.”

7.Reporters Without Borders said it was appalled at an unprecedented crackdown against independent journalists after the overnight arrest of nine more, bringing to 22 the number rounded up since the start of the week, 13 of whom are still in prison.

As of now, we are all anxiously waiting development of the events on Saturday, when all-out demonstration is called up by opposition leaders.

Related posts:

1. Camp-town being demolished.
2. It’s going on right now in Belarus.
3. Second day of Struggle for Freedom in Belarus!
4. Struggle for Freedom. Day 3rd. Vernal equinox.
5. Unveiling Freedom in Belarus. Day 4.