Military enlistment office says Andrei Bandarenka is not “draft evader”

“You draft age expired 11 years ago.”

Andrei Bandarenka, who was restricted to travel abroad, received this reply from the military enlistment office.

The director of Platform organization was put on the list of travel banned due to “draft evasion”.

As Platform's website reports, Andrei Bandarenka applied to the military enlistment office asking to explain the reasons for the travel ban. Commissioner Paddubny from the military enlistment office of the town of Kirau (the Mahilou region) said:

“You service age expired 11 years ago, so the given reasons for the travel ban are baseless. We have not sent any summonses to draft you for army or the military reserve training. We could not have drafted you. We have not sent any requests demanding to impose a travel ban on you. It is either a mistake or blatant stupidity. Apply to the body, which issued you a notice, for explanations.”

It remains unclear who requested to include the Platform director in the list of travel banned. The actions by representatives of state bodies contain a number of violations of the current legislation, in particular article 427 (forgery by an official) carrying punishment of up to two years in prison, article 426 (abuse of authority) carrying punishment from 3 to 10 years in prison with or without confiscation of property and article 424 (misuse of authority).

The incident also violates article 30 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, according to which citizens of the Republic of Belarus shall have the right to move freely and choose their place of residence within the Republic of Belarus, to leave it and to return thereto without hindrance.

“Such examples as mine demonstrate that certain officials and officers of the law-enforcement bodies place themselves above the law and do not feel they may be punished. It is one more message to the international community showing it is no use to talk to Lukashenka by means of law. The country, where one person granted himself the right to decide what is right and what is wrong, the country where the Constitution is violated and the law is flouted, where people can be executed or deprived of the right to travel on a decision of just one person, rolled back to the times of Stalin's communism. You can try to deal with such people, but they understand only the language of force,” Andrei Bandarenka says. “I am against the sanctions that could affect ordinary Belarusians, but those feeding and defending the regime must meet political and economic consequences.”