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Brutal crackdown on the Rally of Love in Minsk

“It was the cruellest crackdown in the 13 year history of St. Valentine’s Day rallies. They were beating up even girls,” says Zmitser Dashkevich, a leader of the opposition youth organisation Young Front.

Published: February 15, 2009 Author: According to www.nn.by, Zmitser PANKAVETS

After several unsuccessful attempts to register a rally with the municipality youth activists staged a theatrical performance to celebrate Valentine’s Day on the Yakub Kolas square in central Minsk. The rally, organised by the Young Front, started out peacefully under national Belarusian and EU flags. Since the gathering was not sanctioned by the authorities, police several times called on youth to break up their festivities.

According to Nasha Niva, a newspaper and a web-based news centre, after the youth tried to move along the Independence avenue, the main street in Minsk, and started to sing a “God Almighty” hymn, the riot police blocked their process and began beating up gathered youth. Zmitser Dashkevich and Mikalai Dzemidzenka, rally organisers, and several other activists and journalists were injured during a scuffle with police. The rally was brutally dispersed.

After the rally Zmitser Dashkevich issued a statement saying that “Nothing really is changing in Belarus. There is just an external make over directed at the Western consumer.” He has plans to contest police actions in a court room.

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