A Ukrainian feminist group which specialises in topless protests in public says three activists were seized by police in Belarus, forced to strip, threatened with violence, and then abandoned naked in woodland.The Kiev-based group said the three were seized by police in the Belarussian capital Minsk
on Monday after staging a bare-breasted protest on the steps of the KGB state security headquarters, mocking authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko.
"They were blindfolded and driven all night in a bus. They were taken into a wood. Oil was poured on them. They were forced to strip and were threatened with being set on fire," a statement by the group said.
"They were threatened with a knife which was later used to cut their hair," it added.
The women were later abandoned naked in woodlands without their identity papers, the group said, appealing for help in tracing them.
KGB offices in Minsk refused to comment.
But the Ukrainian foreign ministry later said it had information the women had been found about 300 kilometres from Minsk.
A blog posted by Femen in Kiev -
http://femen.livejournal.com/183324.html - showed three half-naked young women openly mocking Mr Lukashenko by wearing false moustaches. One had his face painted on her back while another held a poster calling for political prisoners to be freed.
Other reports said the group's video camera operator, named as an Australian woman called Kitty Green, had also been detained by police after the protest.
Mr Lukashenko tolerates little dissent in the former Soviet republic he has run since 1994, and authorities crack down swiftly on public demonstrations against his rule.
Ukrainian authorities largely tolerate the Femen activists who regularly hold bare-breasted actions in Kiev to highlight what they see as political injustice, social abuse and the exploitation of women.
Ukrainian police usually allow them to protest before detaining them for a short while and then releasing them.In the run-up to the Euro 2012 soccer tournament, which will be co-hosted by Ukraine and which Femen says will lead to prostitution being legalised in Ukraine, the group has become bolder in its action.
Earlier this month Femen attempted to stage a protest in Moscow before the parliamentary election there.
The activists were quickly overpowered by local security guards before they could make their protest.
