Around 2,000 people marched Sunday in Belarus to protest government plans to build a nuclear power station in one of the countries worst-affected by the Chernobyl disaster in neighbouring Ukraine.
Demonstrators, including young anarchists and militant ecologists, carried banners proclaiming "There is an alternative," and "No nuclear reactor in Belarus".
The marchers were also protesting against construction of a chemical products factory in the suburbs of Minsk.
The demonstration in the capital came as Ukraine marked the 23rd anniversary of the worst nuclear accident in history.
The Chernobyl disaster occurred in the early hours of April 26, 1986 when a reactor exploded, contaminating the Soviet states of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus with the fallout also spreading to other parts of Europe.
Over 25,000 people known as "liquidators" — most of them Ukrainians, Russians and Belarussians — died getting the accident under control and constructing a concrete shield over the wreckage, according to Ukrainian official figures.
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