The World - News from Dec. 12, 1988

Soviet police broke up rallies in Moscow and three other cities marking the 40th anniversary of the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, arresting several participants, a Soviet human rights activist said. The activist, Yuri Mityunov, told reporters by telephone from Moscow that demonstrations also took place in Leningrad, Saratov and Sverdlovsk. According to Mityunov, about 300 people gathered in Moscow’s Pushkin Square for the rally, which authorities had banned because they said it would violate the day of mourning declared for victims of the Armenian earthquake.