THE INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAN SOLIDARITY

BASHKORTOSTAN

    On April 5, around 6 p.m., Aleksei Rybalko was attacked in the street by people in police uniform, who without any warning and explanations grabbed him from behind, broke his arm and pushed him into the car, the assaultants continued to beat him badly. As the result of this blow he temporarily lost vision and orientation. Obviously, the attackers did this so that Aleksei could not identify them afterwards. Once in the car, three thugs began methodically beating their victim with clubs, trying to hit him in the head. They beat Aleksei Rybalko until he lost consciousness and then threw him out of the car in front of an apartment building.
    There he was very quickly «found again» by a police patrol. The policemen (I. R. Yusupov, I. Z. Shaikhinurov and R. N. Bayev), at first, tried to hand Aleksei over to the sobering-up station. When its personnel refused to admit him, they told Aleksei to go home, even though his eyes were injured and swollen, he could hardly see anything and his right hand was broken after he tried to protect himself from beating. Only when he mentioned his deputy status and requested medical help the police officers agreed to transport him to the hospital. However the physicians of Hospital № 22 (traumatologists Muslimov and Suleimanov and neurosurgeons Islamov and Saubanov) refused to provide Aleksei with medical attention, prescribed another doctor, and sent him home. Only after Rybalko's wife had seen the condition of her husband and refused to receive him in such condition and called medical emergency, he was taken again to the same hospital where the first medical aid was given to him and the X-ray of his head and hand were made. However the phisicians refused to give Rybalko the medical evidence about his injuries and the X-ray pictures. When two days later Rybalko's wife came to the hospital looking for the evidence of her husband treatment in the admittance records and the X-ray. She was denied access to the evidence.

«Proletarskaya Gazeta», № 7

STOP THE CLASS TERROR AGAINST RUSSIAN WORKERS

DENMARK

    We, workers and trade union officials of various countries of Europe - Belgium, Denmark, France, Norway, Germany - who participated in the VI International Congress of trade unionists in Odense (Denmark) express our most energetic protest against the class terror carried out against the working class of Russia which is fighting for its legitimate labor rights. We express our protest against the criminal assault against Aleksei Ribalko, one of the leaders of the workers' movement of Bashkortostan. This warning act of terror will be condemned by the workers of all countries. We express our solidarity with the Russian workers and the leaders of the Russian workers' movement, such as Aleksei Ribalko.

VI International Congress of Trade Unionists Odense (Denmark),
June 11, 2000