Ten thousand Belarusians gathered to commemorate the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown twenty years after the disaster. It was organized by the democratic opposition led by Alexander Milinkevich and was the first such rally since the end of March when protestors were brutalized following a peaceful gathering of tens of thousands. You can see a minute-by-minute log of the events at Charter 97.

They had hoped to gather in October Square, the sight of the post-presidential election protests last month, but lines of riot police blocked all avenues to the square. Furthermore, the trains were ordered not to stop at the station there. Alexander Milinkevich swore to defy a warning of his arrest if he led the protest there, but it was impossible to get there. Instead, all those who were going to October Square met up in Yanka Kupala Park, the site of the last opposition rally. From there, Milinkevich led them to the Academy of Science under the slogan ???????Freedom. Truth. Justice.???????

At the Academy of Science, Milinkevich and other opposition leaders spoke to the crowd of ten thousand about the truth of their country; that thousands of people have been beaten and arrested for political reasons, that the government is corrupt, and that it has covered up the truth about Chernobyl for two decades. Thousands of people are still affected by its aftermath. It????????s a scar on the country that can????????t be fixed because much of the truth is being hid by the authorities. That????????s the message that the opposition to getting out to the people.

Milinkevich also had this to say to the crowd: ???????We have taken part in the presidential elections in order to wake people up, to convey truth to them. If we stay united, we shall bring down the dictatorship that had deprived the Belarusian nation the right for choice, and robbed the chance to elect a president of our country in a legal way. We can win if we stay united. I call upon everybody to join the people????????s liberation movement ???????For Freedom!??????? The truth is on our side, and the truth is the strongest weapon. The whole democratic world is at our side. We won????????t wait five years. We will be able to defeat the dictatorship in the two years immediately ahead???????

I believe it!

The demonstration dispersed peacefully, but a few leaders of small opposition groups have been detained for unknown reasons. For the most part, however, the opposition has done very well at remaining peaceful and not instigating the police. So long as they can continue to gather and spread their message within the law, however totalitarian it is, then the police will have no authority to clamp down on them.

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You can see more pictures from the protest rally here. Radio Svaboda has more pictures here and here. And protest babes from the past month here.

Br23 reminds us that October Square isn’t always a center of political protest and violence, but a place where young people traditionally gather and lounge about. Fun photos.

Ivan Lenin notes some communists in the opposition rally, showing that even they are anti-totalitarian.