In Moscow Saturday Gay Pride participants includingUS gay activists Andy Thayer & Dan Choi plus Moscow
Gay Pride committee member Anna Komarova & other
Russian gay activists were arrested & beaten by police
near the Kremlin. DADT Activist Dan Choi, was violently
manhandled by police, wrestled to ground & punched.
“Right ear ringing, small bleeding,” Choi text messaged
shortly after he was grabbed by several police officers &
shoved into a police van. Other activists reported minor
injuries from scuffles with the police & other unidentified
men. Neo-Nazis made repeated attempts to bash the LGBT
campaigners as they were being arrested & taken to police
buses. Some of the campaigners were struck but none were
hurt seriously. Within 4 hours all 18 arrested gay pride
protesters had been released. Anna Komarova reports
being pressured by the police to give information about
the organization of Moscow Gay Pride. The police
threatened to detain her for 48 hours unless she gave
them the information they wanted.
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I went to City Hall to protest but was separated from our Gay Pride group. Neo-Nazis identified me for attack. Being alone and with the police refusing to protect us, I had to escape down side streets and alleyways to avoid a beating. A total of 18 gay rights protesters - 15 of them Russian - were arrested, as they tried to stage the banned Moscow Gay Pride parade. We witnessed a high level of fraternization and collusion between neo-Nazis and the Moscow police. I saw neo-Nazis leave and re-enter police buses parked on Tverskaya Street by City Hall. Our suspicion is that many of the neo-Nazis were actually plainclothes police officers, who did to us what their uniformed colleagues dared not do in front of the world's media. Either that, or the police were actively facilitating the right-wing extremists with transport to the protest. During the Second World War, Muscovites stood against the Nazis. Now the Mayor of Moscow is colluding with neo-Nazis. He gave the neo-Nazi groups permission to stage a protest calling for violence against gay people, while denying Moscow Gay Pride a permit to rally for gay equality.
ReplyDeletePeter Tatchell British Gay Activist