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Authorities permit Chernobyl anniversary march

The Minsk City Executive Committee has granted an application for permission to stage a traditional demonstration in Minsk on April 26 to mark the 26th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

As opposition activist Dzyanis Sadowski told BelaPAN, on Friday the organizers visited the office of the city government and were handed a permit to stage the "Charnobylski Shlyakh" (Path of Chernobyl) demonstration. The organizers and city government officials also discussed certain technical aspects of the coming demonstration.

Participants are to gather in the square in front of the National Academy of Sciences at 6 p.m. and then march along Surhanava Street to Peoples' Friendship Park in Bangalore Square for a final one-hour rally, which is to begin at 7:30 p.m. The Charnobylski Shlyakh demonstration has been staged by opposition forces in Minsk every year since 1988. A crowd of up to 50,000 took part in the demonstration on the 10th anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl accident, with participants overturning cars and clashing with riot police. Dozens were injured and more than 200 were arrested. About 10,000 people took part in the demonstration on the 20th anniversary in 2006. Last year the Minsk city government banned a march along Surhanava Street and therefore the demonstration was limited to a rally near Bangalore Square with some 500 people in attendance.