Charnobyl Way in Minsk (Online report, video, photo)

The action Charnobyl Way is held today in Minsk. It is timed to the anniversary of the accident on the Charnobyl nuclear power plant. The participants of the rally gather near the Academy of Sciences at 2.00pm. they plan to march along Independence Avenue and Surhanau Street to Park of People’s Friendship. The main demands of the demonstrators is that the authorities don’t hush up consciences of the accident, return social privileges to liquidators and victims, don’t construct a nuclear plant in Belarus. The Charter’97 site is going to cover the rally online.

5.05 p.m.

“The Chernobyl Way-2008” is finished. Participants lit candles and laid flowers near the chapel, and started to break up. A little memorial meeting with a one-minute silence was held before that in remembrance of victims of Chernobyl tragedy.

5.00pm

Alyaksandr Vauchalin, one of the applicants for the Charnobyl Way, has been released from the Zhodzina militia department, where the activist spent about three hours. He was offered to sign some papers warning of criminal responsibility. He refused. Militia officer gave him back a poster “Charnobyl victims for social guarantees,” he was going to take with him to the Charnobyl Way. The head of the public organisation “Union Charnobyl-Minsk” (Kyiv) was detained in Zhodzina in the morning of 26 April, when he was going to Minsk for the Charnobyl Way.

4.50pm

Participants of the Charnobyl Way have reached the terminus of their route – the chapel of icon of Our Lady “Seeking of the lost, in memory of liquidators of the Charnobyl disaster consequences.”

4.10pm

The column goes on moving to the Icon of Our Lady Chapel, situated near the Park of Peoples’ Friendship. The column is followed by two paddy wagons and two buses with riot militia officers.

4.05pm

The column of the Charnobyl Way has reached participants the Park of Peoples’ Friendship, where they are going to have a memorial prayer in the chapel, built in memory of the Charnobyl accident victims.

4.00pm

The United Civil Party refused to continue the Charnobyl Way rally. After the meeting at the Academy of Sciences had ended, the UCP members and its leader Anatol Lyabedzka furled their banners and flags. “We are not going to participate in the action, imposed upon us by the authorities,” Anatol Lyabedzka said, meaning the route from the Academy of Sciences to the Park of Peoples’ Friendship.

3.45pm

The column is moving along Riga supermarket. The icon of Our Lady is carried in front of the column. The people are shouting “Long live Belarus!” Traffic militia cars stay along the road not allowing the mob to take to the traffic area.

3.40 p.m.

As the press-center of the Charter’97 has found out, one of the applicants for holding the “Way of Chernobyl”, the chairman of the Kyiv-based public association “Union Chernobyl-Belarus”, the head of the United Civil party’s commission on Chernobyl, Alyaksandr Vauchanin is at the moment held in the police department of Zhodzina (Smalevichy district). As we have informed, he was detained when he tried to move to the highway Minsk-Barysau, in order to arrive to Minsk to take part in the oppositional rally “The Chernobyl Way -2008”. Policemen in three cars have carried out the operation. A. Vauchanin has been detained “for identification”.

3.35pm

Ihar Rynkevich, one of the applicants for the Charnobyl Way, to walk along the pavements and obey the road regulations.

3.22pm

The number of participants of the rally is near 3000 people. The column is still divided into two sites, as traffic militia officers blocked the road crossings with cars.

3.30

As the Charter’97 press center has learnt from Uladzimir Labkovich, one of the organisers of the rally, they had arranged with the administration of the traffic militia that traffic militia officers would block the traffic when a column of demonstrators will be moving. But the authorities have broken the preliminary agreements by splitting the column into several parts.

3.20 p.m.

The demonstration moves very slowly along Surhanau Street. Traffic policemen give protesters of the “Way of Chernobyl” no more then 15 seconds for passing the road crossing. 20-30 persons manage to cross the street over this time. Thus the column is rather standing than moving.

3.12pm

Traffic militia officers don’t provide conditions for holding of the rally, forbid people to walk on the right lane of the road, though the pavement is too narrow, don’t block off the traffic at road crossings. The column is split into three parts, because the people had to wait for the green light.

3.10 p.m.

The march along Independence Avenue towards Surhanau Street has started. Participants are marching towards the Park of Nations’ Friendship. A huge streamer “Chernobyl Way” is carried in the head of the column. Other streamers are carried in the column as well: “Spare our land!”, “From exclusion zone to coercion zone?”, “No to construction of nuclear power station!”, “We are against atomic reactor”, “1986. Future under threat”. People are carrying names of the cities from where they have arrived – Rahachou, Homel, Zhytkavichy, Karma, Rechytsa and others. A large streamer “Freedom to Kazulin!” is carried as well. People are chanting “Ling live Belarus!”, “Atom cannot be peaceful”. Some protesters have wrapped up faces in bandanas with the sign of radiation and are beating drums.

3.00pm

Alyaksandr Milinkevich, head of the Charnobyl Way organising committee, leader of the ”For Freedom!” movement, said he wouldn’t go to Park of Peoples’ Friendship. He said he had attended the chapel, constructed in memory of the Charnobyl victims, in the morning, laid flowers and lighted a candle there. He offered that other participants of the rally should go to Park of Peoples’ Friendship. In the interview to the Charter’97 press center he said he wouldn’t go to the park because he is going to stand to his principles: “Once I said I would never go to Banhalor Square, and I am going to keep my word.”

2.50 p.m.

A public activist from the settlement of Druzhny, Yury Khadnevich, delivered a speech at the meeting dedicated to the Chernobyl catastrophe. In the settlement of Druzhny people protest against construction of a plant of chemical pesticides. He told that on the way to Minsk an activist Syarhei Abrazouski was detained. After the detention he was hospitalized. Khadnevich has also called upon solidarity with the dwellers of the settlement of Druzhny, who are set to fight against construction of the plant of chemical pesticides in the most active way.

2.43pm

As the Charter’97 press service has learnt from a student of the European Humanitarian University, who was driving from Vilnius to Minsk to participate in the Charnobyl Way, today besides border guards, a KGB officer was checking the people at the Kamenny Loh border crossing. He addressed the youth and said they shouldn’t attend the Charnobyl Way.

2.40pm

Lyavon Barshcheuski, chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front party, spoke to the participants of the Charnobyl Way. He said Maris Luisa Beck, a German member European Parliament, had sent her greetings to them. She noted in her greeting that the situation in Belarus would always be in the center of attention of the European Union.

2.30 p.m.

Academician Ivan Nikitchanka has delivered a speech in front of the Academy of Sciences. He has stated that the regime is hushing up the real consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. “Today Belarus has turned into one entire ‘Chernobyl Zone’. The health of the population is decreasing catastrophically, while the regime is populating the contaminated areas again, and cultivating the land and harvesting crop there,” Academician Nikitchanka noted.

2.32pm

Ihar Rynkevich, one of the leaders of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party “Hramada,” former lawyer of Alyaksandr Kazulin, is speaking to the participants of the rally. He calls on the authorities to release all political prisoners – Alyaksandr Kazulin, Sayrhei Parsyukevich and Andrei Kim. The people are shouting “freedom!”

2.25 p.m.

One of the organizers of the rally, a politician and a human rights activists Liudmila Hraznova, has called upon the participants of the “Chernobyl Way” who have gathered near the Academy of Sciences, to pay tribute to the memory of the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear power station by one-minute silence. There are getting more and more people on the square.

2.20pm

The number of the participants is near 2000 people. More and more EU and Belarusian national white-red-white flags are waving above the square. Applicants for the Charnobyl Way are addressing the mob from the terrace steps of the Academy of Sciences.

2.15pm

The oppositional leaders Alyaksandr Milinkevich, Mikola Statkevich, Paval Sevyarynets, Zmitser Khvedaruk and other politicians took part in the rally. Political prisoner Alyaksandr Kazulin’s daughters also came to the Charnobyl Way, they carry a banner “Freedom for Kazulin!”

2.05pm

The number of the participants of the rally has grown to 1000 people. They are shouting “Long live Belarus!” A stream of people continues to come to the Academy of Sciences.

2.00pm

Participants of the Charnobyl Way unfurled banners “We are against nuclear reactor!”, “Nuclear power is a dead lock!”, “No to second Charnobyl accident!” near the Academy of Sciences. In the meanwhile a group of young people, calling themselves anarchists, has appeared at the square. They hid their faces and shout radical slogans.

1.55 p.m.

There are about 500 protesters near the Academy of Sciences now. They have unfurled white-red-white flags and flags of the European Union. There are almost no policemen seen in the vicinity of the square, just a few of them are standing nearby. Meanwhile people continue to draw near the square.

1.50 p.m.

At about 1 p.m. an activist from the settlement of Druzhny, Pukhavichy district Syarhei Abrazouski was detained on his way to Minsk. Policemen stopped the car near the village of Dukora. During the detention a coat of Abrazouski was torn. His blood-pressure rose. After that policemen were to call in an ambulance. The doctor said Abrazauski should be taken to hospital, Radio Svaboda informs.

1.35 p.m.

On April 26 about an hour and a half before the beginning of the rally “Chernobyl Way” policemen detained one of the applicants for holding the rally, the chairman of the Kyiv-based public association “Union Chernobyl-Belarus”, the head of the United Civil party’s commission on Chernobyl, Alyaksandr Vauchanin. He was detained at the road to Minsk.

According to reports, he is taken to the police department of Zhodzina and is unavailable on the phone yet.

Today morning policemen visited Vauchanin at home and recommended not to go to the capital.