Arrests of youth in Minsk (Updated, photo)

The symbolic pillow fight in Minsk on an occasion of the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald ended with mass arrests.

As the charter97.org website learnt from witnesses, three buses with the riot militiamen stood near the National Library at 6 pm, where the action was to take place an hour later. A large number of plainclothes militiamen and riot militiamen were standing near the library.

Dozens of people were detained. Riot militiamen detained everyone approaching the library with a pillow and guarded to them to a bus. Many passers0by had their bags searched.

The militia continued arrests at a metro station. Journalists saw militiamen guarding about ten people with pillows from metro to a militia bus.

Three busses were nit enough for all detainees. Riot militiamen took a part of people to the reservoir and ordered them to go home. Some participants were taken to a militia department. One of the buses later returned to the library.

Parents of the teens began to gather near the library demanding to release their children. They were speaking with their children through bus windows.

Riot militiamen stayed near the library for some hours. In total, 70 persons were detained.

“I didn’t expect this. This is idiocity. Until now, the people who do this could be compared with ordinary patients of a mental hospital, but now they are like padded cell patients,” Andrei Kim, one of the organizers, commented on the situation.

Andrei Kim was detained, too. If common participants were released some hours later, the youth leader will be brought to responsibility as an organizer. Kim spent the night in the Pershamaiski district militia department of Minks. He stands trial today.

We remind that the Minsk city executive committee denied registered organization Historyka holding a street action on an occasion of the 600thaniversary of the Battle of Grunwald.