17:34, 21 February 2004

Police disperse anti-Chechen meeting in Moscow

On February 20, at 5:00 p.m., the Movement Against Illegal Immigration made an attempt to stage an anti-Chechen meeting on Lubyanskaya Square in Moscow. OMON (special tasks police platoon) fighters, who had been given notice in advance, came to the place of the action in 10 buses, as well as police detachments and ambulance cars.

Police conducted a selected search of those who came to the stone (Editor's note: The Solovetsky stone is a memorial on Lubyanskaya Square). They found a man having a pistol with him. Then police officers started mass detentions of the people. A correspondent of Gazeta.ru turned out to be among those detained. After being released, she reported they all had been conveyed to the Kitay-Gorod police department. Altogether 31 people were taken there, and only 4 of them confessed to their belonging to the Movement. The other proved to be journalists, observers for human rights organizations (in particular, the Civic Assistance committee), or passers-by.

Editors note: See also the articles "Amnesty International: anti-Chechen sentiment in Moscow post-metro blast", "Member of presidential Commission on Human Rights asks Luzhkov to place barrier to Fascist ideology".

Source: Gazeta.ru Website