Bomb searched for in Viasna office, human rights activists from Russia and Ukraine detained (Video)

On Wednesday evening police cordoned off the headquarters of “Vyasna” human rights organization and was “searching” for an explosive device there.

Officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus and migration service came into the head office of the human rights organization and stated that the police allegedly received information that suspicious boxes had been brought into the flat.

At 7 p.m. a presentation of an independent report by the Committee on International Control over the Human Rights Situation in Belarus was to start in the human rights organization office.

The presentation was to be organized as a video conference led by Neil Jarman, the Special Rapporteur of the Committee on International Control over the Human Rights Situation in Belarus.

All present in the Viasna head office were ordered not to leave the premises. At the same time, journalists who arrived later, including the journalists of Russian state TV channels, were not allowed to enter the office.

Since no supposed “bomb” was found, all present including representatives of the International Observation Mission and Russian citizens Victoria Gromova and Lubov Zakharova, were told go to the Pervomayskij (Pershamajski district) Police Department.

Policemen underlined that those persons were not detainees, but they were simply taken to the police department in order to give explanations about the reasons of their staying in the office of “Viasna” human rights organization.

While part of human rights activists of the International Observation Mission were taken to the police department, others organized an impromptu presentation of the report for journalists on the street near the “Viasna” office. The report was presented by Yuri Dzhibladze, President of the Moscow based Center for Democracy and Human Rights, and a member of the Presidential Council for the Promotion of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights, Alexander Mnakatsanyan, a Russia-based representative of the International Observation Mission and member of Board of Directors of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, and an independent expert of the Mission, Vladimir Chemerys (Ukraine).

After the presentation, those present shared the fate of the rest of the human rights activists and were requested to go to the police station as well.

The Russian Consul arrived to the police department where Russian human rights activists are kept.

After release, two Russian human rights activists, Victoria Gromova and Alexander Mnakatsanyan, were ordered to leave Belarus within 24 hours.

According to Interfax, Gromova, who has been released from the police department of Pershamajski district of Minsk, demonstrated a document reading that she was put on the blacklist of persons banned entry to the country till March 31m 2012, while Mnakatsanyan has been banned entry to Belarus till May 31, 2013.

Alexander Mnakatsanyan said: “We have not been explained why we had been blacklisted, moreover we have been even told that “no one will explain that to you ever.”

Thus, officers of the Interior Affairs Ministry of Belarus have in fact thwarted the presentation of the report dedicated to the events on Independence Square on December 1, 2010. The aim of the special reporter was to give an objective and impartial assessment of the oppositional protest on Independence Square and the arrests that followed.

“The report had been prepared by an independent expert group led by Neil Jarman. The International Observation Mission put high hopes on this report,” said the head of the IOM Andrei Yurov. “It is absolutely clear that the significance of the report has been also appraised not only by journalists and human rights activists, but by the authorities, which has been demonstrated by such an unexpected and harsh reaction to its presentation,” the human rights activist concluded.