Human rights defenders' rally in front of Nizhny Novgorod Tax Inspection building dispersedDispersal of the human rights picket
Today, on 2 September 2005, the unauthorized human rights picket that was being held in front of the building of the tax inspection of Nizhegorodsky district of Nizhny Novgorod situated at the address 52a Il’inskaya Street was dispersed by order made by the administration of Nizhny Novgorod and the prosecutor’s office of Nizhegorodsky district of Nizhny Novgorod. Members of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, Nizhny Novgorod Committee against Torture, Nizhny Novgorod Region Society for Human Rights, the Soldiers’ Mothers’ Committee, Nizhny Novgorod branch of “Yabloko” party and its youth movement participated in picketing the tax inspection. More than twenty people took part in the picket. It started at 3 pm under the following slogans, “Tax inspection – hands off from funds of public organizations”, “Return money of the Chechen disabled people”, “We’re not going to give in! Don’t expect it!”
The decision to hold a picket although it had been prohibited by the authorities of Nizhny Novgorod was taken by all its participants after on 1 September they had had the prohibition signed by the vice-mayor S.V. Gladyshev faxed to them and the prosecutor of Nizhegorodsky district of Nizhny Novgorod justice counselor A.A. Ponomaryov had issued a warning not to hold the picket. They motivated their decision by the breaking the terms of notification about the intention to hold the picket and by the fact that “exact information about the measures taken by the organizers to maintain the public order and to provide people with medical aid were not indicated in the notification…”. Besides, Mr. Gladyshev drew attention of the human rights people to the “existing moral reasons to forbear from holding a public action” in connection with commemorating the anniversary of the tragic events in Beslan. Issuing the warning , prosecutor Ponomaryov refers to the information that he allegedly has at his disposal concerning “great possibility of unlawful acts being committed while holding this public action that have signs of extremist activities (public calls to forcible change of the constitutional order and breach of the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, seizure of power, inciting to racial, national or religious hatred, …public disorder, committing ruffian or vandalism acts reasoned by ideological, political, racial, national hatred or hostility)”.
At about 3.10 pm representatives of the prosecutor’s office arrived at the scene of the occurrence and at 3.22 pm a bus brought an OMON unit to the scene. There were some twenty five OMON servicemen there. Having received the order over a portable radio, they came up to the participants of the picket and asked to disperse referring to the unlawfulness of these actions and the instructions given by the city administration. Oleg Khabibrakhmanov, a staffer of the Committee against Torture, was the first participant of the picket who was detained without any grounds. One of the OMON servicemen came up to him and asked to show his passport. When Oleg gave the passport to him, the OMON serviceman immediately took the passport to the militia bus. The OMON servicemen tried to snatch the banners of the Russian Federation and the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria out of hands of the picketing people. One of them grabbed the Russian flag and was going to throw it to the ground. The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society staffer Elena Sofronova got indignant at it and she prevented this law-enforcement agent from committing an act of vandalism against one of the state symbols Of the Russian Federation. By 3.29 pm twelve participants of the picket had been taken to the militia mini-van. They were Stanislav Dmitrievsky, the managing director of the RCFS; staffers of the Information Agency at the RCFS Elena Sofronova and Tatiana Banina, Igor Kalyapin, the leader of Nizhny Novgorod Committee against Torture and the staffers of the Committee Ylia Antonova, Evgeny Gladkov, Oleg Khabibrakhmanov, Elena Trmalova; the leader of the youth branch of the “Yabloko” party Vyacheslav Lukin, members of Nizhny Novgorod Society for Human Rights Viktor Gursky, Aleksey Grafov and Sergey Shimovolos. All the detainees were taken to the police office of Nizhegorodsky district of Nizhny Novgorod. As of the present moment, it’s impossible to reach the detainees at their cell phones.
The leader of the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers Natalia Zhukova commented on the picket dispersal, “The events that took place at the building of the tax inspection are can be described as arbitrariness. The matter is that…Absolutely peaceful people came to state that they considered the decision taken by the tax inspection unjust. A group of these “frights” in camouflage was called against this absolutely peaceful demonstration that was of no threat to anybody. The first thing they did was grabbing the Russian banner and throwing it into the mini-van. I think that such law-enforcement agents should not treat the state symbols like that. Then they kept treating people in the same arbitrary way…Without any hesitation and paying no attention to journalists’ cameras and many people who were watching what was going on, the force agents grabbed the participants of the picket at their sleeves and violently pushed an elderly woman who felt bad afterwards. I can’t feel any other feeling except indignation”.
(The text was not edited by Prague Watchdog, except for the headline).
Source: Russian-Chechen Information Agency (T/B) |
