Militia doesn’t defend opposition pickets from provocateurs

Signature collectors say the militia stays indifferent towards their problems.

An unknown man was hanging around pickets and demonstrating his discontent on October 17. on October 18, he began to curse and insult female activists. Then the men twisted his arms and called for the militia.

According to signature collector Kanstantsin Ivanou, it looked like a deliberate provocative act. The man was watching the activists at first and the next day he began to instigate a quarrel or a fight, the campaign Human Rights Activists for Free Elections reports.

It took a rather long time for the militia to come, though the Kastrychnitski district militia department is situated only some 200 meters away from the place in Lenin Street where the pickets for Andrei Sannikov, Yaraslau Ramanchuk, Vitaly Rymasheuski, and Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu stand. The activists had to quiet the hooligan by own forces.

The signature collectors who have pickets far from the city center say the militia is indifferent to the problems they sometimes have with voters. The militia is supposed to maintain public order in crowded places. But the real picture is different: for instance, 22-year-old Liya Baturonak had to meet a drunk hooligan face to face. He tried to flirt with the girl rudely. Liya Baturonak says though her picket is located in a rather crowded place, Paudnyovy Market, she has never seem a militia patrol nearby.