Aleh Vouchak: “Police actions towards young activists are pure crime”

Beating up young activists of political organisations by policemen is an almost indispensible part of their detention during street rallies and even in their own flats.

Andrei Mouchan, an activist of “European Belarus” campaign, was beaten up by policemen for a white-red-white flag, and was hospitalized with numerous injuries.

A number of activists of the Young Front were many times beaten in their own flats and during street rallies. In Kalinkavichy police beat up a young man in a city park during May 1 celebration.

A 17-year-old Alyaksandr Rudzenya from Kalinkavichy was beaten up in broad daylight in front of the eyes of many people, while he was taking a walk in the city park with his friends. The incident has become widely known only because his friends posted on the web the footage of his being eaten up y policemen. Radio Svaboda was told by the mother of the young man, Axana Rudzenya, how it all happened:

“My son went to the holiday, met with his friends and his girlfriend and they were walking around the park. An incident with another guy had taken place there, the guy was detained by policemen, and then my son as well. They detained him in such a way that he lost consciousness and was almost suffocated in his own blood. Policemen did not let anyone come near him, the bottle of water was knocked from hands, and an ambulance was called in by people only after the fourth attempt. The ambulance arrived, he was rubbed with ammonia liquid, and only then he regained consciousness. He was screaming with pain, saying he had pain all over. Many people were filming that, almost the entire city. And now policemen are searching for those who had uploaded the video on the web. They summon children and say a file could be kept on them as delinquents. Children are confused, as they had not been doing anything illegal, and they face such a treatment.”

Beating up young activists of political organisations by policemen is an almost indispensible part of their detention during street rallies and even in their own flats. In this way members of the Young Front Zmitser Kramyanetsky and Mikhail Muski were eaten while they tried to place leaflets in support of a political prisoner Zmitser Dashkevich in a metro carriage. Other cases are described by an activist of the Young Front Kasya Halitskaya:

“When our guys – Pavel Syarhei, Uladzimir Yaromenak, Mikalai Dzemidzenka, Zmitser Kramyanetski and Raman Vasilevich – were arrested in the flat, they were beaten. Policemen opened the flat with their own keys, burst in, made everyone lie face down on the floor, and after that the guys were sentenced to several days of detention. Another situation with an underage Raman Pratasevich is known. He was beaten while he attempted to hang a white-red-white flag. And we see that recently such practice is used very often. I think that in this way our society is tested for solidarity. For instance, whether it is safe to open a criminal case against the Young Front, or not.

A lawyer and human rights activist Aleh Vouchak states that actions of policemen against young activists have elements of crime, and not only higher authorities should react to that, but the united opposition as well:

“I am simply shocked, as such impudent and cynical behaviour of riot policemen, policemen and other force structures did not take place earlier anyway. It shows that the authorities have lost their nerve. It is possible that social of people is going to deteriorate, so their aim is to suppress any movement of young people, as the persecution of primarily active young people is taking place. It is natural that we should resist that. We cannot take stones or arms and go beating heads in to those policemen. We can act by legal means: register injury signs, file complaints to the prosecutor’s office. As it is a purely criminal act: it is not actions of policemen, it is crime. And it is a vivid sign in the run-up to the ice hockey championship, in what kind of country it will be held. It is possible that the current actions of policemen are connected with the position of the new Interior Affairs minister. It would be also important and right for representatives of democratic parties and movements to express their position and send an appropriate letter to the prosecutor’s office.”

In recent years violence of law-enforcing structures against citizens is not uncommon. A mass beating and detention of people has taken place in the town of Krupki, when special services men stormed a town discotheque with young people. A house of a pastor was stormed in Zaharadny lane in Minsk, while a group of believers, Protestants, had a meeting and a prayer service there. A fact of injury of one of Minsk universities’ student Maya Abromchyk, whose leg was broken by a riot policeman on Independence Square in Minsk after the presidential election on December 19, 2010, has become widely known. Earlier riot policemen had beaten up Svyatlana Zavadskaya, the wife of Dzmitry Zavadski, a disappeared cameraman. Officers of special services had not ever been brought to justice.