On July 22 four activists from the radical
environmental movement "Rainbow Keepers" and cultural center "Duplo"
with two Dutch journalists headed off for another action to take
off the locks from the tubes of the poachers` dams on the territory of
the national park. It was decided to go to Orekhovskaya dam, where we had
already taken off the lock on July 17, but it was put back by poachers.
We also planned to try to find out the location of a distant dam, which
we wanted to tear down at our future actions. When we came to Orekhovskaya
dam and started taking off the lock, we were stopped by the park ranger
and his son, who ran up to the dam. Park ranger seemed very frustrated,
he screamed, and cursed, and threatened us, that he was going to bring
a gun. He stayed on the dam to watch us, while his son drove away to get
the police and park authorities. We decided not to wait for him to get
back and went back to the camp. Not long after we reached the camp, a police
car arrived. The coops and the forest engineer of the national park F.
Filatenko demanded that we put back the lock on the tube, but we refused.
They also told us that we had committed an administrative offence by being
in the forest during the fire dangerous period. Four people (Igor Kuznetsov,
Elina Dragunova, Alexandra Rymar, and Anatoliy Dorovskikh) were taken by
the police for, as they said, their identification, even though all but
one of them had their documents. After being brought to the police station
they were interrogated, but they refused to answer any questions about
the dams and locks. They also refused to sign any documents offered to
them. During the interrogation Anatoliy Dorovskikh was beaten by the policeman.
A stroke in the ear broke his tympanis membrane, and he had to have a surgery
to recover. Now Anatoliy is at one of the city hospitals. Three activists
were set free after a report was drawn up, but Anatoliy was forced to remain
at the station as, as the cops said, he struggled with them when being
arrested. Though, there are a lot of witnesses, that he didn`t. Policemen
promised to keep him at the station all night and to bring him to the court
tomorrow morning. Immediately, we informed mass media about what had happened,
and after numerous calls from the journalists Anatoliy was freed. Though,
he had to come back next morning for the trial. There was no trial on the
next day, Anatoliy was allowed simply to go away, and the policeman on
duty at the station told the journalists, who called there, that police
had nothing to do with us, and all what happened was just our conflict
with the firemen.
Press-service of "DUPLO"
Committee on rescuing of Samarskaya Luka,
ph. (8462)
30-13-61
e-mail: duplork@mail.ru
& faber@ssu.samara.ru