22 june 2004: MISA Followers Surrounded the Parliament with a Chain of Human Beings
The Movement for Spiritual Integration in the Absolute (MISA), the yogic organization led by Gregorian Bivolaru, decided yesterday to protest in a different way than at the former demonstrations. There were much more of them than at other demonstrations (probably around two thousand). The MISA followers, among which there were members of foreign organizations as well, summoned before 11 o’clock at the Parliament Palace with the intention to surround the huge building with a chain of human beings holding hands. “Armed” with Romanian flags, with flags of the foreign countries whose citizens had come to make common cause (for example: USA, Great Britain, Israel), with banners that urged at tolerance and nondiscrimination, the well-disciplined yogis aligned silently around the Parliament enclosure and in spite of the heat after one hour succeeded to achieve their end of surrounding the building. At 13 o’clock they left the Parliament to continue their protest along the well-known route Piata Universitatii – Piata Revolutiei – Calea Victoriei.
The protest demonstration of yesterday came after a series of other similar demonstrations that the yogis of Bivolaru have done lately due to the searches done by policemen and prosecutors in tens of houses of MISA members under the suspicion of drug dealing, porn distribution and prostitution without having found any evidence to convict any MISA member.
The yogis protested repeatedly against the abuses and discrimination they have been subject to while at the same time considering that the MISA leader, Gregorian Bivolaru, who is charged with sexual relations with a minor girl, is the victim of a frame-up.
