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Police claim Rainbow Family camp participants were naked and disorderly
Police published this picture, apparently as evidence of some crime.
July 31, Pozirk. The interior ministry has confirmed reports of a police raid on a gathering of the Belarusian Rainbow Family community near Rasony in the Viciebsk region on July 29, alleging that participants were displaying religious symbols and staying naked in front of children.
Dźmitryj Ziacieŭ, a spokesman for the regional police department, said that police, who were responding to a complaint about a noisy mass event near Lake Biełaje, found more than 300 people at the scene, including foreigners, teenagers and little children. Police photos of the site feature pitched tents, burning fires, symbols of “various religious movements,” including an image of Hindu goddess Saraswati and musical instruments. According to Ziacieŭ, participants were playing loud music and partying noisily, with “many of them naked in front of little children.”
They have been charged under the Administrative Code with holding an unsanctioned mass event and may be punished with fines or short jail terms. The ministry did not disclose the number of arrested people, merely reporting that police had arrested two “organizers,” namely, a 23-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man.
The Viciebsk regional branch of the Viasna Human Rights Center reported two hours earlier that police arrested about 350 people, including entire families, during the raid.
Following the arrests in a tent camp, several children spent the night in a temporary detention center alongside adults, the report said. Law enforcers accused the arrested of participating in an unauthorized mass event and warned that their cases would be heard in courts within two months.
Belarus’ restrictive legislation bans any unauthorized gatherings.
The Rainbow Family movement originated in the United States in the 1970s and was largely inspired by the Woodstock Festival. Its members organize non-commercial, multi-day gatherings in nature, live in tent camps, run communal kitchens and make decisions by consensus.
A similar incident occurred in Viciebsk last year, when police arrested more than 300 Sri Lankan students who were celebrating New Year and classified their gathering as an unauthorized mass event.
Viasna: police arrest over 300 people at Rainbow Family event in Viciebsk region
July 30, Pozirk. Police arrested about 350 people, including entire families, during a raid on the annual gathering of the Belarusian Rainbow Family community near Rasony in the Viciebsk region on July 29, the local branch of the Viasna Human …
