Protester Killed in 'neo-nazi' Attack on Eco-camp

One eco-activist was killed and five others were seriously injured at the weekend when a gang of young men shouting nationalist slogans attacked an environmentalists' protest camp near to a Siberian nuclear processing plant.

About 15 young men in masks armed with baseball bats and iron bars swooped on the unsuspecting protesters as they slept in their tents near the Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical Plant at 5am on Saturday. Police said yesterday they had detained eight members of the gang who repeatedly beat protesters, attempted to burn their tents and stole some possessions before disappearing into the night.

Ilya Borodaenko, 21, one of three protesters who had been keeping vigil by an open fire at the forest camp, died from head wounds in hospital. Three others were still in intensive care last night with head injuries and broken bones. The interior ministry in Moscow said there had been a "pogrom" but that there was no evidence that the detained suspects were members of an extremist group. However, several of the camp protesters, who numbered 21, claimed it was a neo-Nazi attack.

"They were well prepared, wearing masks," Andrei Kravchenko told the NTV station as he surveyed the aftermath. "They shouted nationalist slogans, I don't know why - this is an environmental camp," he said. Ultra nationalist vigilantes have recently attacked several gypsy camps, beating inhabitants.

The Angarsk camp, about 2,600 miles east of Moscow near Lake Baikal, may have been targeted because some of the protesters had links to Anti-Fa, the movement which has tried to combat Russia's skinheads. "The attackers shouted 'Anti-Fa, Ha, Ha!' so one can conclude they were Nazis," Marina Popova, a victim, told the television news program Vesti.

Rosatom, Russia's nuclear power agency, has denied protesters' claims that the Angarsk plant will be used to process spent nuclear fuel from abroad.