“Lukashenka is not a president”. Mass arrests on Freedom Day (Photo, Video)

The rally on March 25 has proved that Lukashenka’s regime is bankrupt and reposes only on suppression of citizens by force.

Detentions of participants of the rally on Freedom Day in Minsk on March 25 started long before people came near to Yakub Kolas square. They were arrested by riot policemen in mufti. By 6 p.m. a huge number of riot policemen gathered in the centre of the city.

Journalists managed to hear from policeman’s walkie-talkie an order of a higher officer: “We’ll work in accordance with the tentative plan. Preventive detention of people on their way to the square [to be carried out].”

One of the organizers of the rally Mikalai Dzemidzenka, Deputy Chairman of Young Front, was arrested immediately. Policemen carried him to a paddy wagon in their arms literally. Then the coordinator of “European Belarus” civil campaign Viktar Ivashkevich was seized and thrown into a police bus. And soon after the arrested were counted in tens.

Public transport – buses and trams - no longer stopped at Yakub Kolas Square. Riot policemen in mufti urged activists and journalists to leave Yakub Kolas Square. To the observation that journalists were performing their professional duties, one of the “tikhars” (special service officers in plainclothes) answered: “So what? We’ll have the same situation as during the elections.”

Riot policemen kept journalists from their work on Yakub Kolas Square. Cameramen, including representatives of Russian TV channels, and photoreporters, were pushed aside and driven back.

When participants of the rally started marching from Victory Square to Yakub Kolas Square, a cordon of riot policemen blocked their way. People were started to be pushed back to the square. People were driven away with the use of force. Many of them fell on the ground.

One of the participants of the rally unfurled a streamer “Lukashenka is not a president”. It was seized from his hands, and a white-red-white ribbon was torn off his chest.

People were detained in other parts of the city centre and taken to police departments.

Finally, people spontaneously started to march towards Victory Square along two sidewalks. Near the Modern Fine Arts Museum a police cordon in mufti stopped them and started to drive back to Yakub Kolas Square. They were divided and pushed away from the square.

At that time, in Yakub Kolas Park, where people wanted to lay flowers at the monument of the great poet, a multitude of policemen was observed as well.

A man came up to journalists, he presented himself as Deputy Head of Criminal Investigation Department of Central district of Minsk Alyaksandr Arlouski. As said by him, police received a phone call warning that a suspicious object was found in the park, and police detect “an object with elements of wire.” Arlouski informed that a mine deactivating group had been invited into the park. It is forbidden to stay in the park while they are working, he said.

In the end, people laid flowers and portraits of political prisoners at the entrance to Yanka Kupala Park, but riot police took them away.

Police and riot police had arrived on Yakub Kolas Square some hours before the beginning of the rally. All streets nearby were filled with paddy wagons and buses with riot police.

Activists of democratic organizations were preventively arrested across Belarus in the morning March 25. People in Minsk and in regions were detained at their homes (sometimes doors were broken), on buses and trains on their way to Minsk. Activists were threaded with criminal responsibility for taking part in a peaceful protest action. Hundreds of democratic activists were detained in the country.

The authorities forbade to have a rally on Freedom Day on the announced route, from Yakub Kolas Square to Yanka Kupala Park. It was the first time in the contemporary history of Belarus when organizers from BPF party and Alyaksandr Milinkevich’s For Freedom movement have refused to hold a rally on March 25 and suggested instead to lay flowers to monuments to Belarusian poets. Political immaturity of these party functionaries has drawn criticism on the part of European Belarus civil campaign and Young Front.

European Belarus and Young Front stated that in the conditions when real leaders of Belarus are imprisoned, it is necessary to protest. They called upon Belarusians to come to Yakub Kolas Square in Minsk on March 25 at 6 p.m.