18.10
Not far Yakub Kolas Square metro station police detained activist and former political prisoner Eduard Lobau, eyewitnesses told HRC Viasna.
In Kalinin street a plainclothed policeman detained a young participant of the march. He was pushed into a blue minivan. HRC centre Viasna says that his name is Tsimur Sidoryk. Allegedly, the reason for his arrest was that fact that young man flatly refused to fold his white-red-white flag.
17.35
Azerbaijani Ayaz Abdullayev, a holder of the Belarusian passport, has been detained. He had a small Azerbaijani flag and a white-red-white one. The man has been taken to Savetski district police department in Minsk.
The police are preventing people carrying flags from coming closer to roads.
17.10
The participants are leaving; riot policemen, however, have become more active asking the people to take white-red-white, Ukraine and EU flags away. For example, they were after activist Ales Taustyka who has an EU flag. But at the sight of journalists they decided not to leave the activist alone.
‘It is a very cordial action, there are a lot of people, the weather is fine. All people who came are united by a common idea,” politician Alyaksandr Milinkevich told belsat.eu.
16:55
The organisers have already reached the park where a rally is to be held. They appealed to the participants asking them to gather at its gate and not to enter the park. They call to celebrate in pubs and cafes, walk around the city. Two thousand people are present at the event, a correspondent of Belsat.eu reports.
16.30
The head of the column is approaching Kuybyshev street. Most people are near medical center ‘Nordin’ now. As the road is narrow the participants divided into three small columns which are likely to be merged into one then. Some of the demonstrators said that were not going to Bangalore Square.
16.15
The first slogan the people cried out was “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to its heroes!” People are demanding freedom for Belarus and Ukraine and singing ‘Pahon’ set to the words of famous Belarusian poet Maxim Bahdanovich.
The column reached the crossroads of Surganau and Kuzma Chorny streets. The riot police in their new uniform are standing along the road. There have been no incidents.
[vc_single_image image=”8″ img_size=”large”]
The participants have formed a column and started marching. The column is preceded by politicians Nyaklyayeu, Yanukevich, Rymasheuski and representatives of public organisations.
There are different opinions about the number of participants, but it is safe to talk about 600 people. People are still arriving and joining joined the tail of the column.
Policemen, including those in senior ranks, are standing in chain along the roadway.
15.45
Civil activists, former Young Front members (Mikola Dzemidzenka, Pavel Yukhnevich, Dzmitry and Nasta Dashkevich) came with their small children. “Freedom Day should become a family holiday,” they say.
People keep arriving. By now there have been about 600 persons at the cinema and some 100 on the other side of the street.
Policemen are behaving calmly so far.
Although horning on Independence Avenue is prohibited, drivers are welcome the participants in such a way.
In spite of the police’s earlier request, there are people in balaklavas. A lot of people are wearing embroidered shirts.
15:25
Over 300 people have gathered since the start of the meeting.
But there are many plainclothed agents with cameras among them. However, they are not misbehaving now, which often happened in previous years.
Politicians Pavel Sevyarynets, Vitaly Rymasheuski, Alyaksei Yanukevich, Yury Hubarevich, Ryhor Kostuseu came.
The atmosphere is festive, but clouds are forming and it looks like rain.
15.00
About 50 people, mainly women, have gathered by the moment At the Kastrychnik cinema. Some have white-red-white ribbons. There are many plainclothed people, allegedly policemen or their agents, near the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences. The increased presence of the police in the streets catches the eye; traffic police cars near the House of Printing.
At first, there were only two white-red-white flags, but by the moment their number has grown. Youngsters brought national symbols under jackets. There are also lots of small flags of Ukraine and a banner: “Crimea – to Ukraine, Happiness – to Country.” Young people are holding balloons with the image of Pahon (a chaser), posters ‘Send Putin to the Hague’, ‘F … ck the Empire!’
13.00
Two hours before the start of the festive march security forces began to move into the city centre. Despite the fact that the participants are to gather the Kastrychnik cinema, several buses are situated close to Yakub Kolas Square. A few buses are in Academichnaya Street. Lots of policemen are seen at metro station ‘Academy of Sciences’.
Unlike the previous years, the city authorities seem to abandon the practice of preventive arrests of democratic activists.
(UPD)According to pro-Kremlin website sputnik.by, the police asked the participants not to cover their faces.
Pro-Russian supporters of the movement ‘AntiMaidan’ showed signs of interest in the action on Freedom Day. Its activists from Belarus promised on their Vkontakte social network profile that they would be following the procession. They also called the participants ‘fascists’, naviny.by reports.
Earlier, supporters of the ‘Russian world’ demanded Minsk city executive ban the march on Freedom Day.
But Minsk officials delivered a formal answer saying that the decision may be challenged only in court.
(UPD) The organisers of the Freedom Day in Minsk say they had to cancel the performance of rock bands in Bangalore Square.
“Our plans change – a concert in Bangalore [Square] has ben canceled. Unfortunately, today all the musicians have refused to participate in the event. Someone fears, others won’t manage to leave work earlier,”organiser Mikita Semyanenka told tuzin.fm. Band ‘Mutnae Voka” stated that they wouldn’t be able to perform as the time of the concert was advanced, which did not suit the band. Band ‘Amaroka’ stressed that the organisers failed to provide necessary equipment. Besides, he says the band members do not support any of the political parties and they are opposed to the politicisation of the holiday which is significant for all Belarus.”
People who are eager to celebrate Freedom Day in Minsk will start gathering on Wednesday at 3 pm near the Kastrychnik cinema; then they are the planned march to the park of Friendship of Peoples, where a gala meeting is scheduled at 5 pm.
At first gathering of participants was planned for 5 pm, but Minsk City Council advanced the beginning of the action. Its organizers believe that this decision was caused by the authorities’ desire to scale back the number of comers. On a weekday most of Minsk residents are still at work.
“There would be no problems if Freedom Day were a public holiday, as it should be,” the movement For Freedom! says. “But as a result, the authorities want to make parasites of the patriots and free citizens of Belarus – potential participants of the action – saying they prefer rallying to working.”
On Wednesday read our online report from the scene on belsat.eu!
Freedom Day is an unofficial holiday in Belarus, which is celebrated on March 25 to commemorate the creation on that date in 1918 of the Belarusian Democratic Republic (BNR). It came into existence at the end of the First World War, when Bolshevik forces left Minsk and the city was occupied by German troops. On March 25, 1918 the Provisional Government (Rada) proclaimed the independence of the BNR. After the Red Army re-entered Minsk, the Communist government replaced the Rada; its members had to emigrate. The current regime denies Freedom Day and often prevents the opposition forces from celebrating it.
