FSB detains bus with Belarusians going to Katyn

The bus has been detained at the border between Belarus and Russia.

Today, on the occasion of the International day of remembrance of the victims of Stalinism and Nazism, civic and human rights activists from Belarus planned on commemorating the Katyn victims at the site of the tragedy.

Representatives of a human rights organization Memorial, the ‘Together’ movement, movement ‘For Freedom’, the initiative for ‘Saving the Kurapaty’ (about 30 people altogether) left Minsk by bus today in the morning in order to commemorate the Katyn victims at the site of the tragedy. According to Halina Karzhaneuskaja, at the border between Belarus and Russia the bus was stopped by Russia FSB’s border service. The Russians are checking the passports of all the passengers of the bas and do not put forward any claims yet, Radio Svaboda reports.

On 23 August 2009 the European Parliament proclaimed this day the Remembrance Day. The Belarusian civic activists planned on laying flowers at the memorial to the victims of the 1941 tragedy as well as at the site of the 2010 plane crush of the Polish government delegation.