Professor Lepin: “We were made to stand face to the wall”
- 29.05.2012, 13:17
Professor Ryhor Lepin (Grigory Lepin) is pushing for return of documents and manuscript copies on nuclear power industry safety, seized by riot policemen during his detention on Sunday.
As a result of detention by Minsk police, documents and materials on nuclear power industry safety problems were seized from him. On May 27 Ryhor Lepin was detained near Traktor stadium, with at least 20 young men, who gathered to listen to his lecture:
“When all the guys gathered, a huge crowd of riot policemen poured out of a bus and started to seize everyone and pack into the bus. To the questions why we were seized, and for what reason, there were no answers. We were simply snatched and thrown into the bus. When I was arrested, they grabbed my brief case from me. In the brief case there were materials on nuclear power industry, ecology of industry, which I planned to show to the young people. All the materials were seized, as well as my book called “Nuclear power industry – peaceful murderer”, which had been published in Russia recently. It was seized as well,” Professor said to Radio Svaboda.
The yesterday’s incident is explained by Ryhor Lepin as struggle of Belarusian authorities with those who are against construction of the nuclear power plant. The scientist considers this construction a great mistake. He offers Germany and Japan as an example, as they had decided to give up on nuclear power industry or considerably decrease the number of currently working stations. Besides, Ryhor Lepin notes that the Belarusian authorities do not allow people gathering and discussing issues which are of interest for them:
“This all could be explained only by a great fear: they can gather, and start to discuss something! So what? When I asked riot policemen at the police department what the reasons of our detention were, one of them answered: “Don’t you know that it is prohibited to gather in groups of more than 3 persons?” But I know when it had been started. It was issued in Nazi Germany! How could we abased ourselves so far as to do that? So when people have gathered in our country, they could be attacked, detained, taken away, couldn’t they? What a country we are living in?”
Alesya, a Minsk dweller, was among the 20 young people detained on May 27 near Traktor stadium. The girl asked not to tell her surname. During detention and on the way to the police department of Zavadski district policemen did not present themselves, Alesya said. That’s what she recalls about the three hours spent at the police department:
“We were placed in an assembly hall, and made stand our faces to the wall as criminals. And then they started to write down our personal details. They videoed us and made pictures, and fingerprinted everyone. When a girl first refused to be fingerprinted, we were told that three riot policemen would be invited, and we would be forced to.”
As said by Alesya, some young people who had been detained, were beaten. “Riot policemen seized even those who had arrived to the meeting on their bikes,” she recalls.
It is not the first time when brutal dispersals of meetings of active young people are taking place in Minsk. On March 24 in the MTZ House of Culture riot policemen detained more than one hundred of punk concert participants. They gathered in support of Food not Bombs movement. Most of them were released, some persons were fined or sentenced to administrative arrests on the next day.