Mass arrests as police
mistake rugby for brawl
Reuters - Monday June 12 2006
Players fall foul of
'counter-terrorism action'
More
than 100 people were detained in the southern Russian city of Rostov-On-Don after
police mistook an innocent game of rugby for a mass brawl.
The Russian news agency RIA said police had received a tip-off about a mass fracas at an empty sports ground on the city's outskirts on Sunday afternoon.
More
than 70 officers arrived to find dozens of cars parked around a grassy field
and around 60 people watching what appeared to be a fight between two criminal
gangs.
The
police broke up proceedings and detained some 100 people before determining
that they were engaged in a bizarre sport instead of brawling.
All
the detainees were released several hours later, but not before being scolded
for not alerting authorities ahead of time.
The
southern Russian region is adjacent to the troubled North Caucasus, where
violence from Chechnya regularly spills into nearby areas.
"Given
the difficult, troubled situation in the region, at a time when
counter-terrorism actions are being actively conducted, citizens are obligated
to inform [authorities] either verbally or in writing of their intentions,"
said a police spokesman.
The
players were quoted as saying such amateur matches were common and were often
held in the neighbouring Volgograd and Stavropol regions of southern Russia.
"The
fact that police took us to be hooligans, this isn't the first time," said
one of the organizers, Alexander, who declined to give his last name for fear
of offending the police.
"Honestly,
it's the first time that we've ever heard that we're supposed to make public
our plans to the local police."