Its «blast wave» hit back on those who ordered it
Yevhen Marchuk had already finished addressing the Luhansk residents, who gathered last Saturday at the Lenin Recreation Center to meet the presidential candidate, and begun to answer questions, when some cries rang in the hall aisle and a group of plain-clothed people started to climb on the stage, reports The Day 's Alla ANTIPOVA from Luhansk. The senior-most man, who introduced himself as Lieutenant-Colonel Trofymenko, chief of the Zhovtnevy district police department, requested the audience to urgently vacate the hall. He said an anonymous telephone call had been received by the police duty officer 10 minutes before, saying that a bomb had been planted in the building where Mr. Marchuk was meeting his electorate. If somebody had calculated to cause panic among the audience, he failed to do so. There was no panic. Instead of elbowing their way to the exit, the people stayed behind and challenged the police chief's announcement, whistling and shouting: «Provocation!» All abandoned the meeting only when Mr. Marchuk asked them to do so and assessed the situation as follows:
«That this is a provocation I am one hundred percent sure. But we have to obey because in this case an official person made an official statement. People of various age and health have gathered here. Whoever did this planned to create a stampede, and then put the blame on the candidate for President and cancel his registration for breach of law. As a law-abiding person, I cannot ignore official laws, so I suggest we close our meeting and vacate the hall.»
Expressing their indignation, the audience abandoned the hall but did not haste to go home. As Mr. Marchuk had touched upon the most burning issues in his more-than-an-hour-long address, the audience wanted to continue the conversation outside the building. The police began to lord it over in this center of culture. However, both the ambulance, the fire-engine, and the cocker-spaniel called upon to find the explosive device caused irony, rather than fear and preoccupation, in many people.
(See page Closeup)
Yevhen Marchuk had already finished addressing the Luhansk residents, who gathered last Saturday at the Lenin Recreation Center to meet the presidential candidate, and begun to answer questions, when some cries rang in the hall aisle and a group of plain-clothed people started to climb on the stage, reports The Day 's Alla ANTIPOVA from Luhansk. The senior-most man, who introduced himself as Lieutenant-Colonel Trofymenko, chief of the Zhovtnevy district police department, requested the audience to urgently vacate the hall. He said an anonymous telephone call had been received by the police duty officer 10 minutes before, saying that a bomb had been planted in the building where Mr. Marchuk was meeting his electorate. If somebody had calculated to cause panic among the audience, he failed to do so. There was no panic. Instead of elbowing their way to the exit, the people stayed behind and challenged the police chief's announcement, whistling and shouting: «Provocation!» All abandoned the meeting only when Mr. Marchuk asked them to do so and assessed the situation as follows:
«That this is a provocation I am one hundred percent sure. But we have to obey because in this case an official person made an official statement. People of various age and health have gathered here. Whoever did this planned to create a stampede, and then put the blame on the candidate for President and cancel his registration for breach of law. As a law-abiding person, I cannot ignore official laws, so I suggest we close our meeting and vacate the hall.»
Expressing their indignation, the audience abandoned the hall but did not haste to go home. As Mr. Marchuk had touched upon the most burning issues in his more-than-an-hour-long address, the audience wanted to continue the conversation outside the building. The police began to lord it over in this center of culture. However, both the ambulance, the fire-engine, and the cocker-spaniel called upon to find the explosive device caused irony, rather than fear and preoccupation, in many people.
(See page Closeup)
Newspaper output №:
№31, (1999)Section
Day After Day
