1 November 2020 | BYHelp-Mediagroup
The March Against Terror took place in Minsk
The column was supposed to move towards Kurapaty, the site of mass executions during the Soviet repressions of the 1930s. However, not all participants reached the designated point.
By 12 o’clock in the afternoon in Minsk, the mobile internet was switched off again and three metro stations were closed.
At 2:30 pm, the first arrests had already begun on Independence Avenue. The security forces dispersed the column, and the people continued their journey to the designated location via different ways. Further along the entire route, the security forces pursued the protesters and detained them very harshly: they used paintball guns, rubber bullets and stun grenades. The march participants behaved peacefully, as always.
The most brutal detentions took place directly near the Kurapaty memorial complex. The security forces “arranged a safari” on people who were moving to the site of mass executions, chasing the protesters on buses across a field.
Nevertheless, several thousand participants managed to reach the graves of those repressed by the Soviet authorities, light candles and honor the memory of the victims.
Security officers brutally detained a cyclist on the field and then damaged his bicycle.
Security forces threw stun grenades at people’s backs.
Protests took place in other cities of Belarus and abroad
People took to the streets in Navapolatsk, Pinsk, Hrodna, Vitsebsk, Brest and other cities of Belarus. They were also detained. It is known that at least 9 people were detained in the small town of Zhodzishki.
Solidarity actions with Belarusians were held in:
- Berlin, Germany
- Lviv, Ukraine
- St. Petersburg, Russia
The hunt for journalists continues
Today, during the march, journalists doing their job were detained again.
Dzmitry Dmitriev (a Novy Chas newspaper journalist) was detained and beaten. “He managed to tell his wife by phone that press secretary Volha Chamadanava said that Dmitriev would be treated on a common basis, despite the fact that he is a journalist,” the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) reports.
Dzmitry Soltan (an operator of the Belsat TV channel), according to eyewitnesses, was also beaten: they beat him during his arrest, beat him in the prisoner transporter, then beat him on the head with a video camera; the video camera was broken, according to the BAJ report.
According to the Association of Journalists, at least 6 media representatives were detained today.
But Vadim Zamirovsky and Vsevolod Zarubin, employees of leading Internet publications of Belarus BelaPAN and TUT.BY, were released today. They had served 14 days of detention for working during one of the protests.
Two doctors detained in Slutsk
In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in Belarus, doctors continue to be detained. Today in Slutsk, the head of the trauma department of the Slutsk central hospital, Yury Akaiomau, and the surgeon, Yury Mikhailouski, were arrested, but released pending trial. They went to the local mayor’s office in white coats with a white-red-white flag. The trial is scheduled for 2 November.
Russia will be required to confirm that electricity supplied to Latvia was not produced in Belarus
The Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) has approved a methodology that will prevent electricity produced at the BelNPP in Astravets from entering Latvia, the head of the PSRC Roland Irklis told the LETA agency. According to him, the basic principle of the methodology stipulates that, for example, Russia, having an interconnection with Belarus, will have to provide confirmation that the electricity supplied to Latvia from Russia is not produced in Belarus.
According to Viasna Human Rights Center, more than 280 people were detained on 1 November
More than 16,600 people have been arrested during the protests in Belarus.
For more information on the events of 1 November 2020, please visit Infocenter Free Belarus 2020: