BPR’s 100th Anniversary: Dozens Of Detentions Across The Country

(Updated) The authorities are arresting activists who are going to celebrate Freedom Day.

Festive rallies, meetings, concerts and other mass events in honor of the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of the BPR were planned today in dozens of Belarusian cities and towns. Local authorities gave permission for holding mass events in Hrodna, Brest, Homel, as well as in other cities: Baranavichy, Lida, Slutsk, Salihorsk, Kobryn. The celebration of the Day of Will was announced in Hlubokaye and Sharkovshchina, according to the website of the HRC Viasna.

However, in Vitsebsk, for example, the bills for the services of protecting the rally, which the law enforcement agencies prepared for the applicants, are so large that the event had to be abandoned. Vitsebsk police demand from the organizers of the action for the 100th anniversary of the BPR almost 60 rubles for the work of each police officer.

It is also known that the Mahiliou City Executive Committee banned the picket at Stars Square on March 25, since the site is not on the list of authorized places. Instead of the city center, the authorities proposed to celebrate th picket in a deserted stadium in Chaliuskintsau street.

On the eve of March 25, preventive detentions of local activists took place in Babruisk, Biaroza, Brest, Slutsk, Vileika. Many of the detainees will be tried on Monday, March 26.

Public activist Mikalai Charnavus from Baranavichy was summoned to the Baranavichy Interdistrict Department of the Investigation Committee of the Republic of Belarus at 10 o'clock on March 25 in order not to let him attend the meeting in the capital.

In the morning of March 25, police officers began to put obstacles in way of those who were going to Minsk to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the BPR. In social networks, it is reported that BCD member Yauhen Anishchanka from Vorsha, who was traveling to Minsk, was detained by the police early in the morning. At about 8 o'clock in the morning at the railway station in Maladzechna, police officers detained public activist Ales Abramovich, the head of the Minsk regional BSDP organization (Hramada).

Poet Slavamir Adamovich, who was going to get to Minsk from Marjina Horka by train, was detained.

"At the exit from Babruisk, 5 Belarusian Social Democratic Party members have just been detained together with Central Committee member Yury Hryniavitski. All of them were going to Minsk to a concert allowed by the authorities. Now their car is escorted to the police department. They are being accused of a crime," Ihar Barysau says on Facebook.

Human rights defenders from Babruisk specify: Uladzimir Chaban, Eduard and Yury Hryniavitski, Yauhen Habrelian Aliaksei Kalesnikau have been detained. They are being returned to Bobruisk under escort.

Journalist Volha Chaychyts writes on Facebook: "We cannot leave the village where we live. They have detained me near the house."

Human rights defender Barys Buchel reports: "Mahiliou. At 9-50, Valiantsina Ukharenka called (that’s how I’ve heard her surname): 11 people were detained near the village of Sumarokava 5 kilometers from the city along the Minsk highway. They were traveling to Minsk... They were taken to the Mahiliou district police department. The cop said they had got an order. And didn’t specify what the reason for the detention was. He only answered: you will find out everything in the police department, get into their car, and he warned about using force. Valiantsina Ukharenka said that one woman was forced to the police car. Several more police cars drove up. There were a lot of riot police. I switched off the phone."

In Maladzechna, Anatol Hmyza was detained, allegedly for checking documents. Now he is in the police department. This is reported by local human rights defenders.

Vitsebsk. March and rally applicant Uladzimir Kiyko is blocked in his apartment by people in civilian clothes. There is a UAZ car at the house entrance. Activist Leanid Autukhou has been blocked in his house in Haradok, Vitsebsk region

The traffic police of Belarus has scheduled for March 25 a special operation "Filter," the oals and objectives of which are not clear. There is a possibility that in this way the authorities are trying to stop the motor transport, in which many regional activists are getting to Minsk.

The European Belarus activists Andrei Sharenda and Artsiom Charniak has been detained.

Near Yakub Kolas square, the monitoring group of the HRC Viasna was detained.

Six people are in the police van: Maksim Kavaliou, Tatsiana Mastykina, Andrei Krechko, Hanna Sakhanenkava, Nastassia Loika.

Public activist Volga Nikalaichyk has also been detained.

Belsat journalist Andrei Kozel has been taken to a psychoneurological dispensary.

Activist Uladzimir Shyla was detained on his way from Salihorsk to Minsk. Activist Eduard Balanchuk has reported that he was detained at the bus stop, when he was waiting for a bus to Minsk. He was taken to the police department for a "conversation". Journalist of the newspaper Evening Babruisk Iryna Kuptsevich writes that their car was detained at the exit from the city near Bayary. All four of them were detained and taken to the police department. Their surnames are: Ivan and Aliaksandr Khamrenka, and journalist Iryna Khamrenka-Ushakova.

Liubou Luniova, Belsat journalist, was detained at Yakub Kolas Square.