16 August 2001
"Chain of concerned people" in Brest

 Some 20 persons amassed on a central street in Brest on the evening of August 15 to form a "chain of concerned people." The demonstrators displayed portraits of Gennady Karpenko, Yury Zakharenko, Dmitry
Zavadsky, Viktor Gonchar, Anatoly Krasovsky and other prominent individuals who are believed to be victims of the Lukashenko regime, and signs saying, "People are disappeared in our country! Why are we keeping silent?" "Krasovsky, Zakharenko, Gonchar, Zavadsky.... Who's next?"
Among the demonstrators were Natalya Galanina, a member of the Brest City Soviet (elected council); Inna Kulei, head of the Center for Support of Civil Initiatives "Vezha"; lawyer Galina Drebezova; actress Dina Doiban; and others. Two participants were reportedly detained by police after the demonstration. According to representatives of the Zubr youth movement, prior to the protest, they had delivered "summons" to
Mikhail Kolotukhin, chief of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Brest Regional Executive Committee, the chief of the police department of the Brest district, and the chiefs of two district police departments in Brest to appear near the Belarus Hotel at 1 p.m. on August 17. "We would like to find out what the police of our region are doing to find the disappeared," the Zubr activists explained.