Petersburg, Russia: antiwar protest violently disrupted by the police

On the 15th of april at 5 p.m. a meeting against the occupation of Iraq should have been taken place near the USA consulate in St. Petersburg. The meeting was planned bu the Antiwar committee - a coalition of anarchists, trotskyists, independent human rights activists and people not belonging to any organisations, who have been organising protests against the war in Chechnya since 2000. While the law says that those who want to organise some action on the streets just have to inform the authorities in advance (before 10 days), in fact the organisers have to apply and wait for a permission. This time the permission was not given.

Several hundreds of posters and stickers informed about the meeting and at 5 p.m. more than 100 mostly young people gathered by the cosulate. There was another picket there, organised by stalinist RKRP, which lasted from 4 to 5 p.m. and gathered some tens of mostly old women and men as well as some younger stalinists and nationalists. At 5 p.m. the police informed the Antiwar committee that their meeting was against the law and so they have to go away. The activists didn't obey and spoke to the crowd through the megaphone. The cops broke the megaphone and detained a person who was taking pictures, beating him. Other activists intervened and also got beaten and detained by OMON (police special forces) and men with no uniforms, supposedly from FSB or some secret service (anarchists say some of them smelled of alcohol). A female journalist of local paper "Petersburg News" was also beaten. 9 detained people (4 of them anarchists) were put on the floor of OMON bus and taken to the police station #78.

The meeting was disrupted. About 60-70 people went to the police station to show solidarity with comrades and demand their release. There one more activist got detained for "disobedience" to the cops. One anarchist was beaten the most severely and needed medical help, so with the help of human rights activists he was released and taken to the hospital, although another protester who also needed help was left in the police station.

After 4 hours 4 activists were released and one managed to run away. 5 people spent the night in the police and were taken to court in the mourning.

On 16th of april 7 people's case was considered in the court. 4 people got fined - 500 rubles (about 16 USD) each, 2 were released without fines and right now we have no information about the 7th activist - his trial had to take place today.

The antiwar activists are going to gather today to plan more actions against wars and police brutality.

Full info in russian language is at
http://russia.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=4927&group=webcast

P.S. Some hours ago we got information that antiwar demonstration in Moscow on 19th of april, planned by left-wing (non-stalinist) organisations is also not permitted by local authorities. As canadian hardcore punk band No Means No said "there are some things that never die - ones that never really were alive". That's what we can say about democracy in Russia.

arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)