| On April 12 another appeal on holding a democratic march
was forwarded to the Moscow Mayor's Office. The appeal was signed by the
leader of the Russian Democratic YABLOKO Party Grigory
Yavlinsky, Chairperson of the Moscow Helsinki Group Ludmila Alexeeva
and Chairperson of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers Valentina Melnikova.
The Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS)
also sent an official letter in the address of the Mayor of Moscow, including
notification that the SPS would also participate in the march on May 1.
"In the new application we amended even those absolutely formal and
insignificant faults that served as a pretext for the refusal of the Mayor's
Office. This time the application is legally impeccable. We are waiting
for the reaction of the Moscow authorities, however, we confirm that the
action will take place in any case on the basis of provisions of the Constitution
that, fortunately, have not yet been abolished," said Coordinator
of the democratic march Alexei Navalny.
On April 9, 2004, the Moscow Mayor's Office refused an appeal from the
Democratic Party YABLOKO and a number of public organisations to hold
a march on May 1, 2004, under the slogan "Civil Society Against a
Police State." The formal grounds for the refusal stated that the
documents had been incorrectly drafted.
The participants of the action planned on May 1 to march along Myasnitskaya
street to Lubyanka square and conduct a meeting there by the Solovetsky
Stone. An estimated 6,000 were expected to attend.
In addition to YABLOKO, the following organisations planned to participate
in the action: the Committee-2008, the Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS),
the Moscow Helsinki Group, the movements "For Human Rights,"
"Common Action", the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, as well
as a number of environmental organisations and independent trade unions.
The members of the organisational committee of the action are bewildered
about the refusal: YABLOKO has extensive experience in filing applications
for such actions. However, this is the first time that they have faced
such fault-finding. Nevertheless, the organisers of the action will defend
the right of citizens to freedom of assembly and are going to file another
application with the Mayor's Office on conducting a march and a meeting.
The meeting in Moscow represents only part of the nationwide action
"Civil Society Against a Police State," marches and meetings
in defence of democracy, civil rights and liberties are planned in a number
of Russian cities. One of the pretexts for the action was the adoption
by the State
Duma of the law "On Assemblies, meeting, Demonstrations and Picketing."
According to YABLOKO's activists, the law violates the constitutional
rights of citizens to freedom of assembly; based on this law the authorities
would be able to ban any public action.
Commenting on the refusal of the Moscow authorities to let YABLOKO and
other organisations to conduct a march on May 1, Deputy Head of the YABLOKO
party Sergei Mitrokhin
said, "this is already an example of our dealings with representatives
of the police state who have not yet adopted a draconian law on meetings,
but have virtually implemented the law."
See also:
Freedom
of Assembly
The Moscow Mayor's Office refused
the application from Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO and a number of
public organisations to hold a meeting on May 1, 2004. Press release,
April 9, 2004
RIA "OREANDA", April 9, 2004.
YABLOKO Forbidden from Holding Meeting in Moscow
Moscow Mayor's Office turns down
YABLOKO's application to organize a demonstration. By Konstantin Demchenko,
Russkiy Kurier, April 10, 2004.
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