Freedom Day rally in Minsk (online coverage)

A rally to mark the 95th anniversary of the proclamation of the Belarusian People's Republic is held in Minsk on March 24.

The Belarusian authorities do not recognise March 25 as an official holiday, but the democratic community celebrates it as Freedom Day.

Actions to celebrate the event will be held today in Belarus and abroad. The Minks city authorities allowed to have a rally on Freedom Day on March 24.

People gather at 12:00 near the Oktyabr cinema to march to Bangalore Park for a rally and a concert.

11:22

Police vehicles with riot policemen are standing near the gathering place, Mikhail Hulin wrote on his Facebook account.

11:28

Crowd control barriers were set up in front of the Oktyabr cinema, where people are supposed to gather. Policemen with megaphones are seen near metro entrances, Nasha Niva newspaper reports. Scores of riot policemen are waiting in the cinema lobby.

11:50

Participants of the rally raised some national white-red-white flags and a flag of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party. Politicians Vital Rymasheuski and Valer Shchukin were noticed in the crowd, Radio Svaboda reports.

11:56

More than 300 people have gathered in front of the Oktyabr cinema. No one enters the territory enclosed with barriers.

12:10

A Radio Svaboda journalist Natallya Haurylchyk was detained in the pedestrian subway near the Oktyabr cinema for filming police officers.

12:12

Aleh Trusau, the head of the Belarusian Language Community, former presidential candidate Ryhor Kastusyou, coordinator of the European Belarus campaign Viktar Ivashkevich and journalist Uladzimir Khalip have come.  

12:19

Some people hold portraits of Kastus Kalinouski in their hands: 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the uprising led by him. Activists collect signatures for setting a monument to Kalinouski in Minsk.

12:35

A march along Independence Avenue toward Surhanau Street has begun.

12:35

The column is headed by people carrying portraits of disappeared politicians and public figures – Uladzimir Hanchar, Yury Zakharanka, Anatol Krasouski and Dzmitry Zavadski.

12:38

The number of participants is about 2,000 people, Europradio reports.

12:44

Many people have willow branches: Catholics mark Palm Sunday today.

12:45

Young Front activists brought big portrats of political prisoners and a placard “Mark next Freedom Day out of prison”. Former political prisoner Anastasia Dashkevich holds a portrait of her husband Zmitser Dashkevich.

12:50

The column turned to Surhanau Street. People walk on narrow pavements through piles of snow.

13:02

The column, accompanied by riot policemen and road police officers, reached the intersection of Surhanau and Yakub Kolas Street.

13:05

Nasha Niva's video operator Tatyana Haurylchyk has been set free.

13:11

People in the column exoloded firecrackers. Cars are honking in support.

13:16

The column is crossing Kuibyshau Street.

13:27

Some participants of the rally put on T-shirts with portraits of political prisoners.  Young people are singing Lyapis Trubetskoy's song “Not to be cattle”.

13:34

A part of Peoples Friendship Park is enclosed with crowd control barriers. People will have to go through metal detectors.

13:36

Fireworks were again set off.

13:37

The head of the column has reached Bangalore Square. The tail of the column can be seen near the Riga shopping centre.

13:45

Riot police closed one of the entrances to the park. There are piles of snow in the park. Only a few roads are cleaned.

13:51

Police officers screen demonstrators with metal detectors.

13:59

Riot policemen blocked the way to a bus stop on Bahdanovich Street. Even people, who don't take part in the rally, are not allowed to go.

14:01

Policemen received the order to detain people holding portraits of political prisoners.

14:04

The authorities banned to use sound-amplifying equipment during the rally. Demonstrators have only one megaphone.

14:10

Vital Rymasheuski, a co-head of the organising committee to found the BCD party, called charter97.org and said he personally heard the order to detain activists with portraits.

14:14

Human rights activist Tatyana Ravyaka writes on her Facebook account she saw a few police vehicles driving down Surhanau Street to the place of the rally.  

14:15

Young Front activists left the column.

14:20

Alyaksei Yanukevich, the BPF party leader, said the topic of fighting for Belarus's independence remains important today due to attempts of the authorities to sell the country's largest enterprises.

14:21

Dzyanis Sadouski, a spokesman for the BCD organising committee, began to chant “Go away”. Demonstrators caught up the slogan.

14:28

Ales Lahvinets, an activist of the For Freedom movement, thanked people for coming to pay tribute to Belarusian heroes.

Anatol Lyabedzka, the head of the United Civil Party, urged to struggle against the privatisation orchestrated by the authorities. He recalled he had been in the KGB jail on Freedom Day two years ago and called not to forget political prisoners.

14:29

Organisers invited to celebrate Freedom Day tomorrow at the BPF's party office.

People are folding the flags and leaving the park.

The rally is over, but it's possible that the police will begin to arrest people.

14:45

A police officer tried to detain a female activist with a white-red-white flag, as she was leaving the park, but people fought her back, Belarus News Photo writes. Human rights activist Tatyana Ravyaka reports on her Facebook account that four demonstrators were detained near a McDonald's restaurant. Policemen hopped on a trolleybus carrying some demonstrators.

15:05

Vital Rymasheuski said to charter97.org that some groups of young people were detained as they were going home after the rally.

15:30

Aleh Rahouski and Aliaksandar Kavalyou, activists of the European Belarus civil campaign, were detained near Bangalore Square.

The detainees are taken to Minsk's Savetski district police department. Seven demonstrators are there now.

15:40

Young Democrats leader Zmitser Kavalhin and UCP activist Stanislau Ramanovich were detained by the police on the corner of Vera Kharuzhaya and Maksim Bahdanovich Streets, ucpb.org reports. A policemen hit Kavalhin in the head several times. Both activists were searched. Policemen seized national white-red-white flags and let the activists go.

The Belarusian People's Republic (BNR) was proclaimed independent in Minsk in early hours of March 25, 1918. The idea of creating the BNR was proposed at the Belarusian National Compress in 1917. The Bolsheviks left Minsk after wrecking the peace negotiations and offensive of the German troops. In this situation representatives of the Central Belarusian Military Council and the executive committee of the Rada of the Belarusian National Congress announced themselves the interim authorities within the territory of the country until calling the constitutional Sojm (convention). On February 21, 1918 the Executive Committee of the Rada elected the first government of the BNR - the Council of the Belarusian People's Republic headed by Jazep Varonka.

The BNR Government applied much efforts to establish the national institutions. A decree on the state status of the Belarusian language was signed; Belarusian schools and colleges, educational centres, theatres and printed houses were opened; Belarusian newspapers were published. There were plans to open a national university in Minsk. BNR passports, including diplomatic ones, were introduced and the white-red-white flag and Chase court-of-arms were proclaimed the state symbols. Diplomatic missions of the BNR existed in a number of countries.

Due to a difficult military and political situation, the BNR Council failed to implement the idea of the state sovereignty of the country – it found itself defenceless in the face of the Bolsheviks and Polish legions. The BNR Government had to emigrate in 1918.