25 February 2004, 20:30
Meeting in Petersburg in commemoration of 60th anniversary of deportation of Chechen people
An antiwar meeting devoted to the 60th anniversary of the deportation of the Chechen people was held on February 23 in Petersburg, at the memorial to victims of political repressions on Troitskaya Square. It was arranged by the Petersburg branch of the Memorial Society. Liberal human rights defenders, former political prisoners, about twenty anarchists and Workers' Democracy members participated in the action. The total number of demonstrators slightly exceeded 100 people.
Unlike the last year's action, there were no white flags of the Yabloko party - no one of its leaders considered it possible to come to the action. There were no members of the Vainakh Diaspora, the reason for it being rather incomprehensible. Members of the NGO Soldier's Mothers of Saint Petersburg did not attend the action either.
During the action, its participants distributed anti-Fascist booklets, newspapers of Petersburg and Yaroslavl anarchists (Noviy Svet and Vintovka), as well as leaflets of the Movement for Nonappearance containing calls to boycott the presidential election on March 14.
Editors note: See also the articles "Films of international Chechnya Film Festival shown in Ryazan" "Attack on participants in antiwar picket in Izhevsk", "Over 200 people in Prague stage rally for peace in Chechnya", "International Helsinki Federation condemns break-up of meeting in Moscow to oppose armed conflict in Chechnya".
Source: Indymedia independent media center (Russia)
