Epress.am News from Armenia
Three Ukrainian FEMEN activists disappeared on Monday in the Belarusian capital Minsk, after protesting in front of the KGB building against the country’s long-ruling president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, RT reports.
“From 6 pm Kiev time, the connection with the FEMEN activists has been lost, and one hour later all their mobile phones appeared to be switched off,” a statement on the movement’s webpage says.
The movement initially announced that that Australian journalist Kitty Green, who was along to film the protest was detained with two local journalists, while three FEMEN protesters – Inna Shevchenko, Oksana Shachko and Aleksandra Nemchinova – managed to escape right after conducting their protest.
According to reports, Kitty Green and Belarusian journalists Yulia Doroshkevich and Tatiana Gavrilchik were released from detention several hours later. Green was deported to Vilnius, Lithuania, while the Ukrainian protesters went missing and their whereabouts remains unknown.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has denied detaining the FEMEN protesters, nor have they confirmed that they are aware of the activists’ whereabouts.
According to FEMEN’s LiveJournal account, “Everything indicates that Inna, Sasha [Aleksandra] and Oksana are in the clutches of ‘legendary’ Belarusian KGB, responsible for repression, death and missing persons.”
During their anti-Lukashenko protest, the topless activists chanted, “Long live Belarus!” with one of them donning a Lukashenko mask.
Dec. 19 is the anniversary of an unauthorized opposition rally that took place in Minsk in 2010 following presidential elections which was brutally dispersed by police, with many protesters beaten up and arrested.
The FEMEN movement is notorious for politically-motivated naked protests held at home in Ukraine and in countries throughout Europe, including Vatican City. One of their latest actions was held in the Russian capital, Moscow, in front of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.