Direct action against G8 summit in Petersburg brutally repressed

Hunger strike of prisoners facing police beating, sexual assault and deportation.

Eye-witness account by the Ukrainian activist Vlasta Viktorovna PIDPALA, just after liberation from prison on the 18th of July 2006.

On the morning of 16th of June 2006, the second day of the G8 summit in Petersburg, I took part in direct action against the G8 together with an international collective of activists. Against heavy police presence, 60 people managed to occupy the whole Nevsky Prospect adjacent to the main entrance of the Royal hotel. Trumpet signals and banners made this clear to a large number of bystanders and the official summit delegations housed in the complex. The action was successfully filmed and photographed by independent media. Despite of attempts at seizing the material, valuable parts of this documentation are now available (see on the internet www.indymedia.ru).

The occupation of Nevsky prospect began, when seemingly isolated groups of activists suddenly joint to cross the street at green lights. A white banner was exposed saying in Russian «No to Capitalism! No to authoritarian rule!». A graphic on the banner showed the official symbol of the G8 summit, with the autocrat, Peter the first prominently falling off his horse. Activists involved came from Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Greece, Italy, Spain, Finland, Poland, Moldova, Poland and the United Kingdom. We all shouted: «No G8». I could blow sum trumpet signals. The traffic lights were still green, when an agent of the OMON anti-riot special police with a body weight of more than 120 kg ran up to me, seized my hair and dragged my head down. Even now, 50 Hours later, my neck and my head hurts from the impact.

During this treatment, I could observe how the blockade chain of my comrades was split up one by one. My neighbour in the blockade, a comrade from Wales, tried to free me from the brutal officer’s grip and managed to hold him up for some seconds. At that time, lots of police ran up to us. Nevertheless, a woman from Moscow tried to help me out even then. The police began to mistreat others as well then. Comrades from Germany and Poland were caught by their heads, a young woman from Germany and a comrade from Russia got their arms caught in the aggression, and others were deliberately beaten. While the action had lasted 2 minutes, our arrest took more than 20.
We were literally squeezed into an «ОМОН» special forces bus. On the last seats, made for 8 persons, 20 activists were forced to find a place. OMON officers accompanying our transport abused us with different slang expressions for genital organs. They shouted to us: «We fuck you in your mouth! On my dick! Fucked wretches!». One expression referred to gay people taking the form of female genital organs. Threats of physically violence followed and were then put into practice. The officers made a point of not allowing us to look out of the window. I was forced to sit on one seat with other 3 male activists. One of them got hit on his head by police. Women were not hit in this incident, but severely abused as “prostitutes (kurwy)”. Officers shouted to female activists “Why do you smile, bitch?” and “Fuck your mother!” As soon as we got sight of other arrested comrades who were severely beaten by police and male officers body-searching female arrested, we shouted: «No violation!», «No G8!». After this, one German activist was fetched out of our bus, her hands were forcefully wound on her back and she was conducted to a second bus.

Already in the bus, officers started an illegal search without a protocol. They ripped apart my trumpet case. Then they searched my body and brought me to the other bus with only the German woman activist inside. We two woman were thus forced to have serious concerns that the 5 male policemen present were able to rape in this bus without any witness. On the 7 minute drive to the police station, the officers directed the following question us: «How much did they pay you?». They boasted that for 500 Roubles (i.e. 20 US $) they would readily shout Fascist slogans in public, such as “Aliens go home!» и «Heil Hitler!». Their talk was as to sexual objects «How can we take (fuck) you?», «Why this?», «You are such nice girls!». We noticed that the OMON squat pulled itself up to a much more disciplined behaviour towards us as soon as they were being watched by other police units.
At nine o’clock, all the arrested were at the station № 28. Police counted 31 of us: several Byelorussians, one Moldavian, two Ukrainians (counting myself), and almost a dozen citizens of Western countries (Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Poland). We were immediately separated into foreigners and Russians (including Ukrainians and Byelorussian). Foreigners insisted to get proper translation which could not be provided at this police headquarter. Officers even lacked rudimentary knowledge of the English language. Nevertheless, all foreigners were seperated from us and taken to the second storey, despite of strong appeals from all arrested to stay together. The foreign comrades were forced to sit down on the floor.

Immediately after arriving at the police station, I had declared a hunger strike refusing to eat and drink until liberation. I decided to do so as a continuation of my opposition to the rule of the G8 governments and to protest against the brutal crack-down on our non-violent protest. My decision was commented by the officers in command “Do as you like, it is your right.” This way, the government arresting me granted me the principal right to kill myself.

The hunger strike was taken up by other comrades from Moldavia, Byelorussia and Ukraine. The officer in charge tried to body-search me. I resisted and insisted to have a proper protocol set up and a female officer to do the search. For a long time the male officer tried to exert psychological pressure on me to submit to his own body-searching. He threatened and abused me. It was only after 10 minutes that he finally gave up and handed the matter over to a female officer. After another hour, we were called one by one into another room (among the so-called “Russian” women there were 2 from Russia, one Byelorussian and one Ukrainian (i.e. me). Body-searching lasted up to half an hour for each. We were forced to undress completely. It turned out that all of us were menstruating. This would not temper the eagerness of the officers for a complete body-search. So they forced us to take even our hygienic slips off. I took the order literally and placed my bloody underwear and the hygienic materials on the table of sequestrated objects. With us standing naked and with blood before them, one searching officer abused us as idiots, fools and not normal. I was promised to get the copy of the body-search protocol but did not get it afterwards. For the arrest protocol and the written charges I had to wait from 9:00 until 19:17. This should have been done within three hours. We were photographed and our finger prints should have been taken but at first I managed to avoid that. The photographer whispered brutally with sexually discriminative contents.

The first group of arrested who were driven to the court only to be driven back after two hours. It was told that they were provided with a protocol with blunt spelling errors. Yet, there could be another motivation for this manoeuvre. On the machine-written protocols it was all-too evident that – due to the copying machine involved - the text went identically for all. Interestingly though, in the second go the text accusing us was rewritten… but with the same wording. The only difference seemed to be, that it was now hand-written documents.

So after all this stop and go, the text went again uniformly for all as it seemed „arrested for resisting a legal order from a police officer, who fulfilled his duty to preserve public order and secure public safety, taking part in an illegal demonstration on the street Nevskogo Prospekta at house no. 49/2 as well as refusing to follow freely to the police station and in the patrolling police car, thereby holding the police officer by his clothes, calling attention and shouting loudly. With the use of physical force delivered to the 28th police station.

As I have already described, it was not police officers but agents of the special anti-riot-unit OMON who arrested us.

Another hour later they drove the new first group to the court that was not to come back again this time. .

In the police station, a comrade who claimed her legal right not to abandon her passport, officers took it away from her by force. Only one arrested comrade who worked in the Legal Support Team managed to refuse handing out his passport, because a layer was present when he happened to be attacked. A cold wind was blowing in the police arrest. I had only a T-shirt because my sweater had been ruined during the OMON assault. When I asked the police to close the window, I got the answer “Then sit on the other side, you whore”. It was by no means warmer there. When we talked to each other silently, we were shouted at “Silent, get fucked in your mouths, shut your animal mouths“ 15 men were driven into a room of 1,5 Х 2,5 metres and shut away. After some time, they were let out. We were not allowed to make any use of telephones (as the legal code prescribes) including cell phones. We could only inform by smuggling information out. When we asked for layers, we were told “later”.

Layers and the Consulate representatives of Ukraine and Germany were only let through to us after more than 4 hours of arrest.

It was already 9 o’clock at night when the second group was driven to the court – Byelorussians, Ukrainians and Moldovians. Russian citizens stayed in the police station as well as Western activists. And so, once more we were forced into the traumatic OMON busses. Now the mood of the anti-riot units was up for joking about alterglobalists. They approached and asked „Where are you from?” If somebody choose to ignore their approaches or answer in a self-assured manner, they started beating. A comrade from Byelorussia was beaten on his head and another activist from Moldova was severely kicked into his knees. When they turned to me, they asked „Are you a girl or a gentlemen”

-“I do not make a difference, I answered and turned to the window. My friend from Moscow told me later what happened in the other bus in the meantime. When they were still only two activists in the bus and the OMON squat had not yet entered, they shouted: «No G8». AN OMON gang then stormed the bus, dragging the male comrade out. He was pushed into another bus and beaten so heavily that the organs of repression gave him over to an ambulance after the treatment.

At court, not every activist could get support from a lawyer because during the day, they were denied their legally guaranteed phone call. Even after 3 days Legal Support still had no complete list of activists arrested. Only two or three were let to go from the court, one of them a journalist from Moscow. As a rule, the more witnesses testified for your innocence, the longer the prison sentence.

I sat in the entrance of the court for about half an hour before being let in. In the meantime OMON special guards moleted me with questions who I am and where I came from. I had to understand these approaches as having a context of sexual discrimination. They addressed me like a street acquaintance. When they got tired of their advances, they would say things: «Do not come here once more!» Another one obliged me to listen to the following: „Basically, there is nothing with you, girly, would just have to wash you, cloth you and paint you over with make-up…”.

The court worked mechanically: drive the accused in, the judge comes in, the prosecutor comes in, the layer comes in (if there is any), then witnesses, the court goes out for deciding in private, the court comes back to deal out is sentence without any reference to proves. All activists imprisoned that day got one to 3 days. I got two. In the legislation of the Russian Federation, there is a rule to exempt anybody from administrative punishment who has a child of under 14. But the court simply ignored the fact that I have a two and a half year old child at home. I could prove that easily, because my daughter is registered on my passport in its official language, Ukrainian. But the Russian authorities refused to take notice the passport registration in Ukrainian language. I was also refused the help of a translator. Already in the police station, I had asked for a translator from Ukrainian. My request had been wiped away with an arrogant laugh from the officers on duty.

At 10 o’clock in the night, us prisoners from the close neighbour states were brought to the arrest № 27. There were already 8 comrades from Russia there. Still that night, they were transported to a special arrest. Before falling asleep we were deprived of our belongings, again without a protocol. At two o’clock in the night we were forcefully waken up and pressured into signing a paper that we are obliged to leave Russian territory within 3 days. This document was left in the arrest; we were not even given a copy. Our request to be handed out paper and pencil to write about our hunger strike was ignored. I was also refused warm clothes. That night, I was chilled on a wooden bench. The electric light in the cell was preventing us from really sleeping all night. I shared my cell with a woman from Russia and Byelorussia. In the neighbouring cell there were 13 prisoners. Of course, not all of them found a place on the wooden benches and some had to lie on the bare floor.
In the morning at around 6 o’clock, we were woken up and handed out our things. I checked them and found that nothing was missing. At 9 o’clock, we were loaded into the special arrest at Sachorovskaja St. 6 at the Underground station Tchernyshevskaya. We were checked by a female doctor for lice. When I explained to her, that I was on hunger strike, she just remarked „You are stupid and you will get health problems“

Until 2 o’clock we were put into special cages on the first floor. I was the only woman to be looked up all alone. Men prisoners would not get locked up. They could at least go to the toilet. Before they again took my things from me, I wanted to go to the toilet too. I refused to enter he toilet I was shown to, it was indescribably dirty, without light and emanated a hellish odour. I could not possibly change my menstruation slips in such a place. Only after prolonged pledges, I was allowed into room no. 33 which was slightly less dirty. When I was deprived of my things, I could nevertheless write down a hunger strike declaration. Other hunger striking comrades managed to do the same.
On the morning from 8 to 10 o’clock, long-term prisoners have to wipe the floors. One of them used the occasion to take me aside and frighten me „Tonight, I will come into your cell“ This gave me a big shock.

After checking my things, they handed me out linen and brought me to room No. 146. My cell-mate was a 20 year-old Byelorussian prisoner sitting for criminal offence. She was constantly smoking one cigarette after the other and did not stop to cough.

After one and a half hours, I was taken out to meet the Ukrainian consul. He did not help me a bit, but made a lot of nice words. After his visit, I was brought to one cell with my friend from Moscow.

In this special prison, they deal out something called food twice a day, at 6:00 in the morning (porridge with water with cheap fat and tea), and in the evening (soup with cheap fat, bread and something else) Those who did not hunger strike would have had a pretty bad time, if comrades outside had not spent the whole day forcing in food fort them. The prison “drinking water” was an insult to all senses in itself, my friend told me.

Before sleeping, we managed to get into contact with the Russian comrade, who had been imprisoned in his house shoes when he went down to meet German comrades who had come with the bike caravan.

Officially, he had been accused to have used swearwords and got 10 days of prison for that. The German bikers had already been freed due to high pressure from abroad.

In the morning all were forcefully woken up, no matter whether they wanted to eat or not. At 7:30 they took me out on the corridor. I met my comrades there who had, like me, got 2 days. Only one was missing as I noticed with distress: my friend from Byelorussia, though he had got 2 days as well, as I knew. Later it turned out, that the prison administration had not been able to read his papers properly and intended to keep him for longer. When they noticed their error he was set free having spent hours in a prison ignorant of its own severe rules. Again, we were put into the cages on the first floor. But this time, I was not locked in. At 9 o’clock then, we were let out. Some comrades were waiting for us on the street and a television team. We wanted desperately to drink and shower. The G8 had already made its way out of the town, and we were still and again walking on its streets. Whose streets? OUR STREETS!