To Save A Person

Other participant, the fiftieth one, of the Square-2010 is arrested in Belarus.

It seemed that the case of riots on December 19, 2010 is already completed for the security services, prosecutors and judges: 49 people have taken criminal charges and are released - some by decree of pardon, others because of expiration of sentence. After the release of political prisoners the West lifted most of sanctions on the Belarusian regime. But recently there has been arrested the fiftieth participant of the demonstration that ended up with arrests and repressions, criminal cases under article "organization of mass disorders" and a long-term nightmare. So, the nightmare continues.

Uladzimir Kondrus (a resident of Rudensk village, Pukhavichy district, Minsk region) was arrested, as it turned out, on 14 June. But human rights activists were able to find it out only in August: his parents scared into by the KGB stated that they had signed "papers of non-disclosure" and now refuse to talk to anyone. Lawyer Vadzim Mushynski has the similar reason not to talk to journalists: he has signed the same document. And the investigation is silent: as if there are no arrests in Belarus anymore. However, the investigative committee confirmed: yes, he is arrested for participation in riots in 2010.

Now it is known that the prisoner of remand prison №1 of Minsk is taken to a prison medical unit: after the arrest he went on a hunger strike and now he is seriously ill.

The story of his arrest resembles a bad detective. Five and a half years passed. But at the end of this March after photographic report of a rally on Freedom Day (25 March) Nasha Niva published another material. Enlarged photo of one rally participant, and the next one pictures the same participant but during the demonstration on December 29, 2010. It is clear that this is the same person. The December picture shows him standing in front of a broken window of the government house and holding a rain-water box. Journalists compared the pictures and wrote: take a close eye on this person, he used to be a provocateur, he broke glass and provoke others.

Six weeks later - June 14 - Uladzimir Kondrus was arrested. He was finally identified. He has been on the hunger strike from the very beginning.

A convicted member of the Square 2010 and former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich, who was imprisoned for four years and eight months, spoke unfavourably of journalists of Nasha Niva accusing them of whistle-blowing. He wrote on Facebook: "As I understand it, the arrest happened due to opposition media, which identified the photo made five years ago, where he hits already broken window of the government house with a rain-water box... I encourage informers not to hide but to apologize. I also recommend them to provide his family with financial assistance. If you have no money, then you'd better ask for it in the police, you're entitled to."

Those who turned out to be an informer explain: he is not a member of any party and behaves like a typical "nark". After the arrest, they went to Rudensk and found out that 38-year-old Uladzimir is economist, unsociable person without close friends. But he visited almost all protest actions in Minsk. Alone. In December 2011he was arrested and sentenced together with other activists in the administrative case. And now he is starving in the remand prison. And now the situation is even worse than five years ago. Then the world was fighting for our release. The West used sanctions and negotiations, and other means to release us. But now on the background of events in Ukraine there is peace and silence in Belarus, and no one in the West wants to recognize the presence of new political prisoners.

Iryna Khalip, Novaya Gazeta