Protesters in Moscow Roughed Up, 6 Arrested

MOSCOW â€”  Men described as plainclothes police agents punched and kicked a group of demonstrators on a busy Moscow street Thursday, and the police charged six of the protesters with “hooliganismâ€� and fined them.

Several Western newsmen were roughed up during the incident.

Gennady I. Gerasimov, chief spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, attributed the attack to “home-grown vigilantes.� He said that if there was any violence, it was between the protesters and a group of young thugs.

But foreign correspondents who witnessed the incident noted that the men who attacked the demonstrators were all in their 30s and 40s, were dressed in business suits and appeared to be police agents. They were supported by snowplows that were driven along the street to help disperse the protesters and, later, by uniformed police.

Expresses Regret

Gerasimov expressed regret to Martin Walker, a British correspondent for the Guardian newspaper, who complained that he had been kicked and punched.

A West German correspondent said the police confiscated his film and detained him for nearly an hour after the demonstration. He was advised to make a written complaint to the Foreign Ministry’s press department.

It was the fourth straight day that demonstrators, many of them Jewish, had turned out to call for the release of Josef Begun, a Jewish activist serving a seven-year sentence in Chistopol prison for “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda,� a term frequently used to describe the activities of political dissidents.

Family Members Detained

Begun’s wife, Inna, and his son, Boris, were both detained by the police Thursday, along with several of their supporters. According to a witness, the son was punched and slapped by two men.

Monday’s demonstration took place on the Arbat, a pedestrian mall that is a Moscow showplace, and it went on peacefully for more than an hour. On Tuesday, the demonstrators were at the Arbat again, but their placards were torn away and they were herded into side streets by men in plainclothes, believed to be police agents.

On Wednesday, the demonstrators were attacked and roughed up, and Thursday’s demonstration, which drew about 20 people, had barely got under way when the men in plainclothes moved in.

The six demonstrators who were arrested were fined 50 rubles each (about $75).

One of the demonstrators said that at least seven people were detained by the police on their way to the Arbat and that two others were confined to their apartments to prevent their participation.

Several Newsmen Assaulted

Walker, the Guardian correspondent, said during the Foreign Ministry press conference that several Western newsmen were assaulted as they looked on.

“I myself was kicked, punched in the kidneys and pushed around,� he said. He asked Gerasimov if the treatment of the demonstrators was an example of the openness being advocated by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

“That’s a loaded question,� Gerasimov replied. “I regret that physical injury was done to you. I am sure this wasn’t done to you by the authorities.�

In response to another question, Gerasimov said that participants in the demonstration intended to provoke the authorities.

“Home-grown vigilantes want to make their point with their fists,� he said. “The authorities did not touch the demonstrators.�

Tass, the official Soviet news agency, later issued a lengthy report on the Arbat demonstration, terming it a “show� orchestrated by Western journalists with an anti-Soviet bias.

“The Western anti-Sovieteers least of all cared for the fate of the Begun family,� a Tass commentary said. “Their main purpose was to have Josef Begun kept in prison and to use the situation to fan anti-Soviet sentiments.�