"It was a real fight for survival," Shechko said after returning to Kyiv, her voice trembling. "We ended up in the hands of the butchers who kill and terrify the Belarusian people."Shechko, 24, said that at one point the activists were made to sit still on a bus for several hours, prevented from speaking or moving."If we moved our heads or hands, they beat us, it was very painful," Shechko said.The activists were finally left half-naked in a freezing forest, where they eventually found help from area residents and contacted the Ukrainian embassy.Activist Inna Shevchenko's hair >>>

A group of women from a Ukrainian topless-protest group on Wednesday recounted their ordeal in Belarus, where they claimed they were kidnapped, beaten and abused by local security officials. Oksana Shechko told the Associated Press that she and two fellow activists with Femen were interrogated on a bus for 12 hours, made to undress in the woods in freezing temperatures, punched in the head and back, threatened with death and rape, smeared with paint and had some of their hair cut off. Shechko charged that the Belarusian authorities were punishing them for a protest in Minsk on Monday in >>>

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Print E-mail By MARIA DANILOVA The Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine — A group of women from a Ukrainian topless-protest group on Wednesday recounted their ordeal in neighboring Belarus, where they claimed they were kidnapped, beaten and abused by local security officials. Aleksandra Nemchinova ,left, and Inna Shevchenko,center, Oksana Shachko ,right, activists of the Women's Movement 'FEMEN' speak to media in Kyiv,Ukraine,Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011. The Ukrainian organization of topless women activists says three of its members were abducted by security officers >>>

A Ukrainian women's activist group has accused Belarusian police of kidnapping and physically abusing them after they held a public protest against President Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Minsk. RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reported that three members of the Femen group, held a press conference in Kyiv on December 21 to talk about their ordeal, which they said involved their abduction from Minsk by members of Belarus's KGB to a distant forest, where they were stripped, doused with oil, and physically threatened. Activist Inna Shevchenko pledged that her group won't stop because of >>>

The leader of the Young Front registered in the Czech Republic recalls some stories resembling the FEMEN incident. Nasta Palazhanka: I think it was ordinary revenge of the “brave” security services directed at the girls who had managed to conduct a successful action that attracted attention, who demonstrated their will and interests – it was like a slap in their face. That is why they took revenge on the girls as they had not managed to react in time. They did it on the sly. I am not surprised. - Some activists of the European Belarus, Young Front and you went though it… - It has >>>

Three FEMEN activists have just had the experience of a lifetime while protesting in Belarus. The protest revolved around the one year anniversary of the 2010 Belarus Presidential Election, one which was internationally recognized as incredibly fraudulent. Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner, and this subsequently led to mass protests and hundreds of arrests. Since there are still large numbers of incarcerated protesters, three FEMEN activists, Inna Shevchenko, Oksana Sasko and Alexandra Nemchinova, traveled to Belarus's capital, Minsk, and staged a protest mocking Alexander >>>

Members of the Ukrainian feminist group remove their clothes to make a point in Kyiv A Ukrainian women's group which specialises in topless protests says three of its activists were kidnapped and abused in Belarus. Three members of Femen were seized on Monday after a topless protest in the Belarusian capital Minsk before being abandoned in a forest, they said. They had been protesting on the first anniversary of President Alexander Lukashenko's disputed re-election. Belarusian security services declined to comment on Femen's allegations. The group says three women were blindfolded, taken >>>

Today in Belarus's capital Minsk, an Australian Journalist, Kitti Green, was detained by Balarus officials for filming/participating in a FEMEN protest near the KGB headquarters. The protest itself is quite extraordinary. FEMEN activists dressed themselves as Balrus's oligarch, Alexander Lukashenko. They even managed to find a girl who was willing to shave her head in a fashion similar to Lukashenko's, and one whose resemblance to Lukashenko is quite uncanny (see right). The protest is held today in remembrance of last years mass protests in Minsk regarding the disputed re-election of Lukashenko. >>>

December 19 2011 at 01:46pm Comment on this story REUTERS An activist from FEMEN, a Ukrainian protest group against discrimination on women, holds up a sign in front of a police officer in Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City. >>>