Andrei Kim: “I was hit several times, and then kicked in the head”

On July 16, on the Day of Solidarity, a youth leader and former political prisoner Andrei Kim was detained and beaten up.

In an interview to the website www.charter97.org he told how detentions were taking place, and how riot policemen were beating up peaceful demonstrators.

“Before the rally on October Square began, I personally saw how people were detained in metro,” Andrei Kim said. “Almost all who was trying to get to the square, were detained. That is why there were little participants in the rally, about a dozen. We have been standing for a few minutes, when a bus arrived, and people in sports trousers ran out of it. They started to cram us into the bus by force, and after that we were taken to the police department of Tsentralny district”.

As said by the former political prisoner, on the way to the police department riot policemen were beating up the detained participants of the rally of solidarity.

“The bus stopped several times. People detained in the metro were placed into the bus. And finally the bus was packed full,” Andrei Kim tells. “Riot policemen started to beat up people. Mikhail Pashkevich (“Young Democrats” leader) was the first one to be beaten, as he was sitting in the front row. I got the treatment from policemen too. They hit me several times, and then a riot policeman kicked me in the head. A clear trace on my cheek-bone is left. Riot policemen were behaving in a provokingly rude manner. They were using obscene language. They obviously had an order not to be too scrupulous in their actions. It wasn’t their initiative, as they do nothing on their own initiative”.

As stated by Andrei Kim, the detained participants of the rally were held in the police department of Tsentralny district for three hours.

“We have spent three hours in the police department, we were not allowed to use mobile phones. Police insulted us,” Andrei Kim said. “Vadzim Zamirouski, a photo journalist of “BelGazeta” was detained with us. They didn’t release him, though he had a journalist’s certificate. Then Artur Finkevich (a leader of “Yong Belarus”, a note by www.charter97.org) was taken out of the office were we were sitting. He was taken to another room. When he returned, it was visible he had been beaten up brutally: there were traces of blows on his face”.

Andrei Kim is sure that Lukashenka’s regime is not going to change. As said by him, the attitude of the authorities to the expression of will of civil society activists is the proof to that.

“On July 16 Mikalai Autukhovich (Vaukavyssk entrepreneur arrested on February 8, 2009, a note by www.charter97.org) announced that he ends his hunger strike. He was on hunger strike for 3 months, and we held his portraits on October Square yesterday. Arrests and beating up demonstrators are a new signal to our civil society not to drop guard. Despite of the statements of the European Union and conclusions of “Amnesty International”, the regime is not going to change. It should spur us to stick together,” Andrei Kim believes.