Prayer Service For Liberation Of Belarus From Evil Took Place In Minsk (Online, Video)

The Minskers came out to the Lukashenka administration.

The prayer service in defense of the faith and the country took place in Minsk on April 15.

The Narodnaya Hramada party, which is a part of the Belarusian National Congress, called for this service ''Deliver us from the evil'' near the Lukashenka administration (Karl Marx Street, 38) in Minsk.

On April 4, the authorities demolished the crosses along the perimeter of Kurapaty - the people's memorial to the victims of Stalinist repression at the place they were shot.

About 100 crosses were brought down and taken away.

On April 12, the authorities destroyed 50 more crosses in Kurapaty.

The website Charter97.org has provided live text coverage of the action. The video materials have been provided by Belsat.

18:45 The prayer service is over. The participants are dispersing. We are finishing our coverage.

18:39 It has been reported that the European Belarus civil campaign coordinator Yauhen Afnahel is arrested.

18:38 A police officer approached the participants of the action and announced that the action is “non-sanctioned”.

18:37 Valiantsin Trokski informed that activist of the Narodnaya Hramada Siarhei Sparysh, who was one of the organizers of today’s action, is probably detained. The police came to his house today.

18:35 Nina Bahinskaya said that the action had a symbolic character, to stop the mayhem in Kurapaty. According to her, there are much more people who are outraged by the “cross massacre”.

18:30 The participants in the prayer sing the hymn “Mighty God”. Police officers in civilian clothes capture the event on video.

18:28 People pray for the souls of people shot in Kurapaty, for the preservation of memory, for “delivering Belarus from the evil.”

18:26 The participants in the prayer join hands and raise a white-red-white flag. The prayer begins.

18:25 Nina Bahinskaya unfurls the Belarusian national white-red-white flag.

18:23 Minsker Sviatlana has come to prayer with her son. “This the first time I’m out to protest, I just can't stand it anymore,” – the woman says.

18:21 One of the participants in the prayer service, Andrei, has come with a wooden cross. “Our authorities are the successors of the Stalinist authorities, the successors of the NKVD, the crosses in Kurapaty haunt their minds, they see them in their dreams,” – the activist says.

18:19 The participants in the public prayer protest against the arrests of opposition leaders Mikalai Statkevich, Pavel Seviarynets and Maksim Viniarski and demand their release.

18:18 “The authorities deliberately hive people off outside the ring road, where it’s easier for them to blow up the activists. I believe that the meetings must be carried out only in the city center. The changes are long overdue. We must do something,” – BNC activist Valiantsin Trokski says.

18:15 Some more people approach the Lukashenka administration.

18:12 Nina Bahinskaya urges the authorities to recognize the shooting of people in Kurapaty as genocide, rather than destroy the crosses in the tract. “The anti-people, anti-Christian government must resign,” – the woman says.

18:10 Activists Nina Bahinskaya and Valiantin Trokski are among the first to come to the Lukashenka administration. Nina Bahinskaya holds a poster “Freedom to People”.