April 14, 2007
Police Clamp Down
at
Moscow Opposition Rally
Moscow
Police in the Russian capital Saturday arrested at least 250 people,
including former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, for defying a
ban on their rally to call for democratic reform and fair elections.
Several thousand supporters of an anti-Kremlin opposition coalition
gathered on the streets of Moscow for the peaceful demonstration
against the government of Vladimir Putin Saturday.
Witnesses said riot police at times used truncheons against the
peaceful supporters of the Other Russia coalition as police and
interior ministry security personnel maintained a strong presence.
"The security forces grabbed demonstrators and beat them brutally,"
an eyewitness said. Demonstrates shouted: "Down with the police
state" and "We want a different Russia."
A Japanese journalist sustained head injuries at the hands of
police.
Former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, addressing the rally at the
city-centre Turgenev Square, called for fair parliamentary and
presidential elections scheduled for December.
Kasyanov was earlier among those arrested by police, but was freed a
short time later.
"With elections we will achieve a change of course," Kasyanov said.
"But they must be honest and free elections and not just an
imitation."
A short time later police cleared the up to 2,000 demonstrators from
the square and declared the protest over.
Protestors had marched from the famed Pushkin Square, around two
kilometres away, which had been designated as the start point of the
rally. Police, however, sealed off the square, arresting up to 170
activists according to initial reports.
Witnesses meanwhile said police used batons against protestors in
the square. "They struck grandmothers and other pensioners,"
lawmaker Vladmir Ryshkov told Echo Moskvy radio.
Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov insisted that the police
actions were justified, saying all security personnel had remained
within the law in implementing the protest ban.
Also speaking to Echo Moskvy by mobile telephone, Kasparov described
his own arrest.
"We were merely walking on the pavement and had done nothing to
break the law," the chess player-turned-political activist said.
Between 100 and 200 supporters later gathered in front of the police
building where he was being held to demand his release.
A police spokesman said Kasparov was arrested on the grounds of
"openly provocative behaviour."
The Other Russia movement, a marginal but vocal coalition of various
anti-Kremlin groupings, criticises Putin and the current Moscow
administration for what it says are measures that curtail democratic
freedoms.
Authorities had refused the opposition permission to hold the rally
on the grounds that the date and venue had already been booked for a
rally by Kremlin supporters. Several hundred supporters of the
pro-Kremlin Young Guard movement were seen assembling close to
Pushkin Square in the early morning.
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