Police harassment during solidarity action of Priama akcia-Bratislava (IWA/AIT Slovakia) in support of arrested Serbian anarchosyndicalists
08/09/2009
On Monday, September 7th 2009, Priama akcia-Bratislava (IWA-AIT) organised a solidarity action in front of Serbian embassy in Bratislava.
Around 10 people gathered to meet with the ambassador and express their discontent with actions of Serbian authorities. The ambassador was not at the embassy. We told an employee of the embassy that we want him to make official record of the protest and to inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belgrade. We were told to put our protest letters in the mailbox and that they would deal with them. The whole conversation was conducted via the intercom at the embassy gate...
After the conversation with the voice from inside the embassy, one of the two to four "undercover" cops who was close to the protesters all the time (by the way, one cop or embassy employee filmed or took pictures of us via his cell phone:)) showed us his “diplomatic police” ID and asked people to identify themselves. We refused and after a short exchange about police competences we left without identifying ourselves. The cop said, however, that in that case he’d call the police.
Police harassment
We went down the street and after some 150 metres we saw a police car going our way. We didn't want to be harassed again, so we turned to a city park (forest) and split into two groups. Within several seconds one of the groups of four people was approached by some 5-7 cops, who wanted to control our IDs. In the forest. The ID control took around 10-15 minutes and of course it was a targeted control as police didn't control other passers-by. The original reason that the police came up with was "searching for a wanted or missing person". In the end the policeman said that people's ID information would be stored in some sort of a police system, so in case something happens around, the people could be asked to witness. Never mind the "wanted or missing person"... Let's hope nothing happens in the forest today.
The solidarity starts just now
Despite this crazy police harassment, the protest letters were delivered to the embassy. The solidarity campaign is just at the beginning and won't cease until people imprisoned in Serbia are freed and the charges dropped.
An attack on anarchosyndicalists is an attack on every struggling worker.
Solidarity to arrested comrades in Serbia!
Priama akcia - Bratislava
IWA/AIT Slovakia