26 January 2008, 12:55
Ingushetia: protesters move from Nazran to Magas
The participants of the rally have stopped their mass action in Nazran (Ingushetia) and now make their way to Magas, where Murat Zyazikov, President of Ingushetia, has his residence.
"We want to express our protest against application of force against peaceful people and to call Murat Zyazikov out to the street for him to know the opinion of the people," one of the young people, who moved to the bus station from the Concord Square, said.
The organizing committee of the rally asked the protesters to disperse till February 23.
As to the Square itself, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that there are no more disorders there.
Most of the dwelling districts of Nazran have no electricity supplies. Besides, broadcasting of "Echo Moskvy" Radio was stopped, as sources from Ingushetia report.
According to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, collisions in the Concord Square started after in reply to the militia's attempt to hustle away the protesters, the latter began stoning militiamen and throw petrol bombs at them.
"It all started after a huge column of militaries arrived to the Square. They tried to push the rally crowd aside. It's difficult now to say what collisions began with. It was impossible to clear anything out. The militaries began catching everyone they could, threw them into buses and drove away. Power agents opened fire into the air. The protesters started throwing petrol bottles at them," one of eyewitnesses of the events said.
The "Ingushetia.Ru" reports that they were shooting also at the demonstrators; as a result, one person was wounded and hospitalized.
During collisions between demonstrators and power agents, several persons were beaten and detained. According to some sources, among them there are two correspondents of "Echo Moskvy" Radio (Vladimir Varfolomeyev and Roman Plyusov), a correspondent of Radio Liberty Danila Galperovich and a journalist of "Novaya Gazeta" Olga Bobrova. The latter reported later about detention of the camera crew of the "Rossiya" TV Channel ("Vesti" Program) and another one of the "5th Channel".
