Activists of Radio Electronic Industry Trade Union detained by militia for handing round leaflets

• 1.06.2010, 15:15

Three activists of the Belarusian Trade Union of Radio Electronic Industry Workers were detained in Gorky Park by the riot militia.

The activists were handing round leaflets calling to return social benefits for students and children abolished by the president in 2007. The detainees were taken to the Partyzanski district militia department for examination.

The website praca-by.info learnt this from trade union activist Mikalai Pakhabau, one of the detained.

According to the trade union, the activists were spied upon from the very beginning. Two riot militiamen, one of them a major and another Ales Bokan, came up to them at the park gates. They asked the activists to follow them to a militia station for identification. Later the activists were forced to get into a car and taken to the militia department. They sat in different offices and were called for an individual conversation. As it became known later, all of them were fingerprinted.

We remind that the Radio Electronic Industry Trade Union applied to the authorities for holding pickets on June 1, the International Children’s Day. The activists wanted to express their protest against repealing social benefits for students and children under three years old and call on the public to struggle to return the benefits.

The trade union and its members filed 30 applications in all regions of the country. Te authorities didn’t permit a single picket.