"Liberty Live" Broadcast, January 25, 12:00

Today morning a garland with a writing "To soldiers victims of native militarism from Stalin till Grachov" was laid on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin wall. Katia Metelitsa tells about that action.

The memorial of unknown Soldier at the Kremlin wall is the official place, where garlands are laid to on official occasions: on a visit of a leader of foreign country, on the anniversary of a Great tragedy. Hardly the todays action is not the first action here that could be called an action of protest.

"Today there is neither any memorial date, nor any anniversary. Today is simply a day. Today they are simply killing people. They are killing now, at the moment."

Three days ago activists of Transnational Radical party Nikolai Khramov, whose voice you have just listened to, and Antonio Stango have returned from Chechnia, where they have witnessed bombardments of living blocks of Grozny, and have seen an old women, who has lost her hand, and a 8 year old boy Misha Yepifantsev, who has lost both legs because of the shell explosion at the pond, where they took water from an ice-hole, approaching to it across a thing ice. They have seen much. Basing on the information gathered by Antonio Stango and Nikolai Khramov, and initiated by the European Union commissar on humane questions Emma Bonino, who is a Secretary of Radical Party, the European Union is considering now the issue of financial help of 5 million ECU, that is about 7 million dollars, for Chechen refugees.

"We grieve over them,"-- [said] Nikolai Khramov --"but we also grieve over those teenagers, who, having just put on military uniform, were sent to Chechnia to kill and to be killed. How many thousands lie now on streets of Grozny? What is their guilt? This war is not necessary to anybody, except those few rascals from both sides, who are commanding to kill and to be killed; except those, who counts the profit of oil pipe lining from Baku to Novorossijsk through "cleaned up" Chechen territory."

"To soldiers victims of native militarism from Stalin till Grachov". That writing was placed at the garland, that participants of todays action lied on the tomb of Unknown Soldier. Militia cordon refused to let them pass to Alexandrovski garden. Only newly married have a right to lay flowers on the Eternal Fire. The writing on the garland is politics. Nevertheless, after long negotiations, militia let the garland pass. However, politics were not only on the garland ribbon, but in leaflets propagated by Radical party, Youth Anti-Militarist Committee, and Committee of Soldiers' Mothers. That was an appeal to refuse military service openly, to strive for whole-Russia referendum on abolition of compulsory military duty system.

Katia Metelitsa, Radio Liberty, Moscow.

Translated into English by A,Prishchenko, 25/01/1995.