Anti-nuclear action in Minsk on April 25, 2011

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An international action of some 40 activists from Belarus, Germany and Poland took place in Minsk the day before Chernobyl Day 2011. In the most seriously by the Chernobyl disaster affected country, this action was supposed to remind of the deadly threats of nuclear power and to show objection against the Belarussian's government's plans to build a nuclear power plant in Astraviec.

Due to the Belarussian's state repression against concerned citizens most political actions are illegal in this country. For this reason the action neeeded to be designed to be short and effective. To avoid contact to police, it was just a 5-10 minute event - showing anti-nuclear banners on populated squares and distributing flyers. The first action worked out well at a shopping mall and the people could disappear without problems after there session. When they repeated the action at another highly frequented place, at the Pushkin Square, within five minutes special police forces jumped into them and arrested 12 activists.

A red van and a second civil car had stopped next the street, releasing men in black suits jumping out to the activists. They teared the ones with the banners down to the ground and pushed them into there cars. Others, who could escape, were hunted by them for several hundreds of meters. Like a kidnapping action. Six German activists, five Belarussians and a Polish activist were arrested by this police unit (probably special riot police unit).


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