“Liberalisation” with a black eye

After beating by riot policemen, an activist of the United Civil party Alyaksandr Stsepanenka has bruises on his face.

As informed by the website of the party ucpb.org, Stsepanenka and other UCP activists Aleh Korban and Aleh Tarasevich, were lying on the floor in the bus of riot policemen. Riot policemen trampled their heads several times.

Stsepanenka says that the stay in the police department of Tsentralny district can be equalled to torture: “For three hours we were made to stand with our hands clasped behind the back our faces to the wall. Those who turned around were beaten”.

No charges were filed against the detained however, as to stand at the square with portraits is not a crime even under Lukashenka’s laws. They were held there for 3 hours, and finally, without filing any reports or taking any explanations. The detained were just fingerprinted, and those who were detained for the first time were pictured.

The leader of the Social Democratic party Mikalai Statkevich was brutally clubbed during the detention. Riot policemen tried to detain Mikola Dzemidzenka, a Young Front activist, once again after he was released.

“Riot policemen were acting in an unashamed way,” told by the former rector of the Belarusian State University Anatol Paulau, a leader of Minsk branch of the UCP. “They demonstrated assuredness of their impunity, they said openly that they do not care about the law. They act with total lawlessness, and have a carte blanche. But there were police officers from the police department itself there – majors, captains. They had been studying somewhere, passed exams in law sciences, but they didn’t stop those gorillas! Meanwhile, there were young girls standing next to the wall too, and riot policemen used foul language all the time”.

“Many thanks, IMF!”

The former rector of the Belarusian State University Anatol Paulau, a leader of Minsk branch of the UCP, who returned from the police department of Tsentralny district of Minsk, expressed his immense gratitude to the International Monetary Fund for financing our “blackshirts”.

Paulau was held in the police department for 3 hours. He was fingerprinted and released (like the rest of the detained). Mikhail Chyhir, former Prime Minister, drove him home in his car.

“I had a first-hand experience of our “liberalization” and “democratization” today,” Anatol Paulau said. “The Europeans who are speaking about that, should have been ordered by Belarusian policemen to stand next to the wall for three hours with their legs wide spread, and then they might realize how our “democratization” looks like”