People help a man in an explosion in a u-Bahn station in downtown Minsk injured. (Anton Motolko, AFP/Getty Images / April 11, 2011)A powerful blast rocked the Metro Minsk during rush hour evening Monday, 11 passengers killed and 126 others in a busy downtown u-Bahn-Station. Belarus law enforcement the explosion on a platform at the station of Oktyabrskaya said when a train arrived, was an act of terrorism.The explosion destroyed Windows, injured persons within the train and the platform of the station, where close to the presidential headquarters was in the center of Belarusian capital.
"I just entered to bring the station to our daughter of my mother in-law's when I felt a growing smell of burning and saw many people rush out, some of them screaming," Ivan Kaplún, an engineer of the proximity to the station live, said in a telephone interview.
Kaplún said he helped a wounded woman perform over on body and pools of blood.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, often described as the last European dictator, blast placed flowers at the site and hurried to his Office for an emergency meeting, after which he announced that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had offered to send a team of researchers.
"I must admit that we have seriously challenged," said Lukashenko speech conferred on televised late Monday. "An adequate response is required and this answer must be found."
Lukashenko expressed also a desire the support of the public to help "Find this freaks."
The attack was celebrated the first in Minsk since July 3, 2008, when dozens of people in a public park have been violated, as independence day. The perpetrators were not found, even though every adult man the country ordered fingerprints Lukashenko.
Lukashenko was re-elected in December last year, to win about 80% of the vote in a controversial election. European Union observers refused to accept the results and Lukashenko's inauguration in January was ignored by the most Western diplomats.
The tainted vote led to an election night protest that was crushed brutally by the police, dozens of demonstrators, including arrested several presidential candidates.
Lukashenko accused in the West of funding the opposition. "We today could have caught in another country," Lukashenko said at a press conference at the end of December, blaming the opposition for trying to storm Government Headquarters, encouraged by Western support and financing.
"If they me of the West not I tell absolutely trust them probably they tried lull us... but we are now seeing their real face."
Human rights activists warn before serious political consequences in the aftermath of Monday's blast. "Something tells me that the authorities take down you the situation and the opposition can on with renewed force,", said Valentin Stefanovich, Deputy Head of the Vyasna, a Center for human rights.
About 30 activists of the opposition, including ex-presidential candidate Nikolai Statkevich and Andrei Sannikov, are still in custody and may face up to 15 years in prison on the election night protests.
Svetlana Kalinkina, editor-in-Chief of the newspaper the independent Narodnaya Volya said "who is behind this inhuman and mysterious Act of barbarism to do nothing which has opposition," in an interview with the times. "But I'm sure that law enforcement is the search for culprits in the opposition, as they always do."
Sergei.loiko@LATimes.com
没有评论:
发表评论