Beaten, tortured, humiliated. Hundreds and hundreds of Belarusians. Such brutality of Alexander Lukashenko’s regime had not yet been experienced. Following the presidential election on 9 August, protests against the falsification of results and demand for change in the country began. Militia and OMON violently dispersed the demonstrations and detained the participants.
Afraid to reveal personal details about yourself
Eyewitnesses tell a lot about the detention and experience in Belarusian prisons, but are afraid to give personal details about themselves. Thus, Lilija Malevich agreed to name the name, but not the workplace. On the day of her arrest, she did not even take part in the protests, but simply walked down the street.
“I was detained at the Pushkinskaya metro station. I was walking across the street. It was August 5 at five in the afternoon. A car column passed and signaled. I got closer to the driveway and the house by hand. It was a hundredth of a second. I didn’t even realize I was being caught. 4 people dragged me to the bus.I saw a militia inspector from my station on the bus.I recognized him.He was fully equipped with a helmet.I was hoping he would let me out.I started crying.Please let me go.He said – no, you will go to the district As he said, you were standing on the road and making sure the cars stopped. I was taken to the Minsk Frunze District Police Department. We were numbered. I was sixth. He handcuffed me. There are still traces of them left.
Hands behind back, closed. Lay squat on his knees, face to face on the floor. That’s how we stood for 7-8 hours. Some even 12 hours, “says Lydia.
Alexander, or Aless Pushkin, is a free-thinking artist, a critic of the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko. His posters and art performances always have a political subtext that is unpleasant to power.
“At 22.00 I gathered friends and we started walking from the old church in the city center. I just managed to walk to the hotel” Jubileejaja “Masherov Avenue. There OMON detained me. He filmed me. He looked at all the posters. And then with his face on the floor. I sat in the car for an hour, in the detention van, the people of Omon waited until the car was full, we were 26. We were taken to the Okrestina detention center, it was at 1:00 on the night of August 12. The torture and beatings began, and I have been in prison many times in my life. I have taken part in protests, rallies and detentions since 1988. I have been in Smorgon Prison, Vitebsk Prison, Orsha Prison, Minsk.
I was also imprisoned in Krupsk prison. In five prisons. There was nothing like that anywhere, “says Aleksandrs.
Running through a row of beaters
Alexander was later taken to Okrestina Prison. “26 people run out of the car jack. There are 5 beaters on each side and beat as much as they can. We run through this lineup. Then on the knees, hands behind and so on from 1:30 at night until 7 in the morning. Five and a half hours squat on his knees in the courtyard hall. Well, that was warm, “says Alexander.
Lidija, in turn, was interrogated at the Frunze District Militia Department in Minsk. “When questioned, asked – how much did you pay for membership. I say – no one paid me anything. He says – pretext, asked you – how much did you pay? I repeat – no one paid me. Behind the other says – listen, maita If you don’t tell, we’ll hit you here. I realized I had to shut up. I didn’t know what to do. They: What social networks and news channels are they using? What’s on the phone? The bag was already with them. They tried to unlock the phones and remove the SIM cards.
My phone could not be broken. A militiaman smashed it with a stack. Only fragments remained. They took two of my SIM cards, “Lydia remembers.
She says that she squatted on her knees for 7-8 hours. “Men were beaten wildly. Cruel. They were beaten! Ruthlessly. There was a young woman in an OMON uniform with a black mask. Many say she was probably the main punisher. She beat the boys like that. She showed how virtuoso she can handle a stack. She just They beat him. One guy who was close to me beat him like that. I heard other Omons come and say, ‘Show me how else you know! Someone says,’ You see, he’s already disconnected. Everything. Ready. Only a llama sounded there. ‘ words.
People did not speak the language there. One says – finish him off and pull him away. They picked up the guy, but he could no longer stand. He fell. There was no medical help from the doctor.
At least not in the Frunze district militia department. I don’t know if this guy is alive. The other guy also beat and beat. Take off your pants. Beaten up the torn panties. He fumbled like that … It’s untold. The guy also pulled away. This is what I could see with the corner of my eye. If you even turned your head a little, you came to you and started kicking, so that you would once again take the position in which you were originally put. The militia unit was brutally beaten. There are villains, “said Lydia.
Huge humiliation and pain
Alexander was beaten on the back, buttocks, chest, arms, ankles and feet. “Enormous humiliation and pain. You realize that it was done especially for the younger generation, who never once sat in prison no longer raised their heads. To be afraid to take to the streets again. And it was achieved. These young people walked just bent down, did not look into my eyes and said – “Alexander, do not look out the box! Don’t look at the militia! Then they will hit us again! ” They were severely beaten and intimidated. So that after the release, they would never go to protest again, “explains Alexander.
The detainees said they would flee to Kiev, the Baltic states and Poland. Everyone has been intimidated and humiliated.
“If you had heard them scream when they were beaten! At first a person endures. The first five blows endure. Then there is such pain! They moaned and shouted. There is also shame. All men. Shame in front of each other to reveal how terribly hurt “They were sitting. They were afraid to even get to know us and say hello.
Lily was also taken to the Okrestina isolator. “Around plskt.11 the boys were led, beaten. The women were told to get up, holding each other, to run. We were taken as far as I could to the yard where the prisoners were walking. Concrete floor and walls. Instead of a roof – a fence. A hole in the floor and video camera above it.We were turned on there.We counted – we were 60 women.We asked for water.Not give.Within 4 hours we started knocking.We are on the islands.We sleep on the concrete floor, on top of each other.We tried to warm each other.When we knocked again and asked to drink , sounded:
“Hell, close your mouth! Or let’s throw a grenade and blow you all up,” Lydia says.
126 people in the cell
Alexander remembers that throughout the day of August 12, starting at 7 o’clock in the morning, 126 people stood tightly, leaning against each other. The detainees stood on a concrete floor because they could not sit down. While people were standing in the chamber from 7 am to 9 pm.
“All the young guys. The fighters who would go to the barricades, so to speak. They were all beaten up. The camera was in the open air. Only the walls and upstairs, overhead, the barbed wire was drawn. sleep a little while standing, because the floor was covered with urine, everyone was peeing there, so we couldn’t sit down, we leaned and stood against each other, out of 126 people, only I spoke Belarusian, I was only 55 years old, the other members of the camera were born in 1986, 1990, 1991, 1996.
All beaten, with bruises, cut dreadlocks, “Alexander points out.
In inhumane conditions for almost 3 days
Okrestina’s isolator was overflowing. According to Lily, 35 women were imprisoned in the cell for 4 prisoners. She was imprisoned for almost 3 days in inhumane conditions.
The lily was released on the night of August 13-14. “I was not taken to court. I did not have a court. There were about 20 people who had not yet been convicted. Then around 10 o’clock I was ordered to stand and go to the 3rd or 4th floor. then in the second room, there was a man in a mask in the first room, he was not an Omani, probably a militiaman, we had to stand in the mirror, name and surname, write it down, and then we went to the second room, where I was sitting in two civilian clothes. , one was a colonel. As if from the Committee of Inquiry. I can’t say for sure. He greeted him with a smile. “What’s your name?” He asks – “Did this abomination beat you?” I say – “no me, but others were beaten. The guys were beaten very hard. “He says,” these abominations will be punished …. ”
Aha, we “believe”. Where then was he the previous 3 days when those horrors happened? He says, “We set you free.”
Alexander remembers – the detainees were told that Alexander Barsukov had arrived. “He called, forced me to sign a paper that I would no longer go to rallies and released me. I was released. I was released on August 14. I went to Minsk. I read the news on the Internet, I saw women with white flowers. In the evening I went to Independence Square. I saw that We gathered lawyers and the Commission of Inquiry to initiate a criminal case and record the beatings. The investigators did not want to do that. I stood for 30 minutes and asked the investigator to come. He questioned me for 4 hours and asked me 40 questions – what is phone number, what social networks do I use, what messengers do I use, what did I do at the rally? “
Alexander thinks the questions were worded in such a way as to make him guilty.
“I said – I went with the posters after the regime got bloody. After the death of a peaceful demonstrator. Neither your Oman nor your soldier. A peaceful demonstrator was killed. I said – if you are an investigator villain, you can do it. “If you see traces of blows and asked questions, then write everything down accurately. He wrote and gave it to me to read. I read, corrected and signed on the computer. Only then did he give a referral to a forensic medical examination,” says Alexander.
–
