Bullying and Beating of Detained Belarusians

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

For four days of protests in Belarus, more than seven thousand people were detained, at least one was killed. Most of the detainees are held in two isolation wards - in the temporary detention center on Akrestsin Street and in the city of Zhodino, Minsk region. For several days we did not know what was going on inside. The release of the detainees began tonight. We talked with the Belarusians who have finally returned home.

Maxim, 25 years old, individual entrepreneur, programmer

At about three in the morning on August 12, we drove through Minsk. Four beads appeared, they caught up with us at a traffic light, they transmitted something over the radio, they blocked our road. One in the front, three in the back, the guys flew out of them. They immediately smashed the windshield, smashed the side windows with truncheons, beat on the hood.

We did not resist, we were thrown face down on the asphalt. There were phrases, I quote: “Can't live peacefully in Belarus? Didn't you sit at home? " I have heard this more than once - apparently, some ideologist writes these phrases to them. If we tried to answer something, they yelled at us: "***** (face - ed.) On the floor, do not raise your head."

They brought me to the police department, threw me out of the car, and beat me with truncheons again. They held me for four hours - they checked their phones, interrogated them. Then they began to pack us into paddy wagons, packed tightly, in packs they took us to the Central Inspection Center on Akrestsin Street.

There was such a corridor at the entrance - if someone stumbled, they beat them with truncheons on the head, on the back, on the butt. They put me on our knees, so we stood for about four hours. If someone could not stand it, they immediately ran up, beat them on the ass with truncheons and in other places. We weren't hit hard yet, and two of our comrades have purple buttocks from literally blows.

Then they began to bring us into the building in groups and unload us into one room with an area of 60 square meters. No ceiling, clear sky, walls with barbed wire, concrete floor. It was very cold, it was impossible to sleep, the wind was blowing. They said, "Here's a toilet for you," put a ten-liter canister for almost a hundred people. In the morning they again brought me out into the street and again put me on my knees, for about four hours with my face on the ground.

They told everyone to squat while sitting to undress completely, taking off absolutely all their clothes. Then they said: "We sit down on our knees, hands back, we leave our clothes behind us." They examined her, felt her, there was a body search

Then the worst began. They were transferred to the same cell, but already about 30 square meters. And all of us, 93 people, were unloaded there. Twenty people were able to sit tightly on the floor, the rest just stood and changed. We took turns sleeping for an hour. They kept us like that for a day. The toilet is a drainage hatch in the very corner. The urine smelled terribly.

When they brought us in, the ambulance examined us, but the police did not allow us to take anyone away. One man apparently had a concussion, he lay for a day and a half without getting up, he was just shaking. We tried to warm him up. They tried to call an ambulance for him six times, finally she arrived, but they did not let him pick him up. Someone from the cell shouted, obviously to help: "He's a diabetic!" The doctors asked, "Do you have diabetes?" He did not understand, answered "no" honestly. The doctors asked him several times, and then he realized that he needed to play along. So he was literally saved.

In three days, they once threw five loaves of white and the same amount of black at 90 people.

The second day they practically did not give water at all - it depends on the shift. It is impossible without water - I ate a handful of black bread in three days and a piece of white bread. There was a washstand with a pungent smell of chlorine, we tried to drink, but it started to cut our throats. The cells were similar to those into which the Jews were herded. And there were jokes from the militiamen: "You will be indignant, we will start gas for you now."

They scoffed if the guy was plump or of a non-standard appearance - they cut off his hair, dyed his back and neck with paint. If someone had a bandage - a sign that a person could provide medical care, they would paint a cross on their naked bodies with paint.

I still have bumps on my forehead. When they put you on your knees with your hands behind your back, you have to keep your body weight either with your abs, or after a couple of minutes you just stand on your head as a fulcrum.

Alexander, 30 years old, programmer

I was detained when I was trying to find a taxi to get home - on the night of August 11-12, when the Internet was not working. They grabbed me, pushed me into a paddy wagon - they kicked me in the butt. In the paddy wagon in the aisle, people were already piled up.

They were brought immediately to the detention center on Akrestsin Street, to the stadium - they put someone on their knees, someone “on their brows” (with their head on the ground). They periodically beat me with truncheons. We were on our knees for about six hours. Something I didn't like - they started hitting my ass. If you say "It's hard for me" - they beat. My whole ass is blue now.

The riot policemen liked to make fun of them, cheer: “Why aren't you shouting“Long live Belarus”now?”. Those who did not particularly like it were given a mark - they painted on the back with “3%” paint. It was an honor for them to hit one on the back with a truncheon. There was a guy with dreadlocks, they pulled them out for him, asked why he was so hairy.

Then they finally took us into the corridor to "register", forced to strip naked. When the search was finished, they were not allowed to dress back.

We went out into the patio naked. One guy had a string in his pants - he was not allowed to take them. So he was left without pants

Until the evening, there were 126 people in the courtyard. Water was not given - not to beg. The guard said to this: "I can just piss on you." Several times, they simply threw 5-6 liters of water from the balcony at all. The twenty-liter bucket - the toilet - was filled to the brim with urine, it began to flow, spread down the stairs. Towards evening it became cold - people huddled in a large lump, sat shivering.

Then they put us in a single cell - 12 people. They said that this is still a VIP condition. There were men with me, the average age was 27-30, but there were also 60-year-olds, most of them took the "grabbers" for nothing. On the second day, four loaves of black with mold, one and a half loaves of white, tea and porridge were brought.

At night, the screams were terrible. They beat those who were detained for building barricades and actively participating in protests - they were not kept with us, but separately. They shouted in such a way that they could be heard everywhere. Riot police are not even animals, but policemen. I also saw the detained girls through the food dispensing window - they were driven past us in only shorts, almost completely naked, supposedly into the shower.

At one in the morning on August 14, they came to our cell and warned that the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was coming. We were lined up along the wall, he did not see how we slept, huddled together on the floor. He came - pushed a speech, said, they say, it's your choice, the girl filmed all this on camera.

He promised that they would be released when the situation returned to normal in the city, they wouldn’t give things back right away - there was confusion. As a result, I was kept until the evening. I got home with the help of volunteers - there were a lot of them at the isolation ward, everyone was ready to help. I filmed the beatings at the emergency room. The back is covered with bruises, the butt is blue.

Artem, 22 years old, logistician

On the evening of August 11, I went with a girl to the store - Almi, on the Kamennaya Gorka metro station. At some point, a checker exploded near the main entrance. Everyone started to panic, people started to run into the store to hide. But it didn’t help: the riot police ran inside, began to prowl like dogs. They attacked me with truncheons, the girl stood and looked at all this, one foot put on my head.

They put me next to everyone - all the clothes in their blood. They brought me to the paddy wagon - on my knees. They ran around the area, looking to fill the paddy wagon. When there were enough people, we began to lie on top of each other - like in Tetris - riot police sat on us. The last person who came to us was so ********* that he crap.

He says: "***, guys, I don't want to go, I'm crap." The riot policeman says: “Did you want changes? So sniff it. " For every word we received a pepper in the face

One of them developed epilepsy, and even after that the paddy wagon was not stopped. One man began to say that he had a covid. The reaction was: "You are a creature!" - and he was beaten. The men with me were adults, 35-38 years old. They said, "What are you doing?" - flies into their faces with two feet. I saw how a man with a white bandage on his arm, with long hair, was taken by the hair - "Oh, you are an animal" - and beaten.

They brought us to Akrestsin Street. A column of riot police lined up, through which we had to run. I see a boy, 24 years old, he has such evil eyes - like a dog for meat, he beat everyone the hardest. They made me shout “I love riot police”, but those who shouted were also beaten. They even beat those who shouted that he was for Lukashenka.

Already in the isolation ward, we were all interrogated in a circle - name, date of birth, where you work. They hit me for the fact that my arms and legs began to drop. They brought me into a courtyard where people have been sitting for a long time. There can fit 10 people, we were pushed there - 80 people. We took turns to sleep. During this time, they were not allowed to go to the toilet, people began to write in a corner.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, in the heat, they began to separate the floors. I was pushed into a cell with 5 beds - 26 people, among us were the homeless. Someone was riding a bicycle - they pulled him off him, started beating him, they wrote in the protocol - he took part in the disorder. The guy works in a coffee shop - came out of there, beaten so that the asshole is all blue. I remember these words of a riot policeman when they were driving us: "Let's go faster, they won't pay us anything for one car."

We were not fed all this time, they did not even try. They threw one loaf of bread - I was asleep, roughly speaking, fucked it up. Gradually, some were taken to court, but I was not. On August 12, I heard that the ambulance often entered the territory, I saw how people were carried out on a stretcher.

On August 13 in the evening, it seems, the head of the police department entered the cell, he beat me at first, and said: “Well, guys, they are letting you out! I hope we won't meet again. First *********, and now wishes us luck. They forced me to sign a document: if they are detained again - 8 years of criminal offense. If they didn't sign, they took them back.

At the exit we were met by volunteers, given cigarettes, coffee, brought to the house. At half past five in the morning I was already at home. I returned to the store where I was detained, but they told me in a half-whisper that I would not achieve anything - most likely, the video recordings of the detention had already been seized.

You know, my friend served in the riot police. Until that time, I defended him - in the sense that this is work. He said that he did not touch women, did not touch grandfathers. I once picked him up from work myself, when his own *********.

When I left, I posted on Instagram Story: "********, but not broken." He answered me: "Apparently, they gave a little." Everything was cut short. I pray now that no one will be taken away. I will continue to go out - and I will not be silent.

Vadim, 30 years old, finisher

I was detained on August 10 at about 1 am in the area of the Malinovka metro station. I wanted to go to the store, and when I was walking back, a yellow MAZ, a civilian, stopped by the road. From there ran out little, I apologize for the expression, bastards, they just tied it up and took to the bus. They are all in masks, not a single face, some eyes just sparkle. On the bus, they did not beat me very hard - well, they pressed my head to the floor with my foot - and in the Moscow police department they were already very severely beaten. They said that I was building some kind of barricades.

When they were detained, there was not a word at all, nothing. They just put me on my knees and told me to cross my legs with my face on the floor. For five hours I lay like that on the floor.

They didn't say anything, they just beat for every word. You just say "You can change your leg", he first hits, and then says "Change."

They beat people in the kidneys with a truncheon, and kicked people on the head. They beat me on the kidneys, beat me on the hands, beat me on the legs.

In the area, probably at eight o'clock in the morning, we were all raised, taken to the assembly hall and seated in armchairs. They called their names, someone was released with a subpoena, and the rest were shown things, asked if yours. Then they took their hands behind their backs - they twisted them very hard - they took them out into the street, and while you were running into the paddy wagon along the corridor from the riot police, they beat you with clubs.

They brought me to Zhodino. We had a cell for four people, but there were 12 of us in it. There was even a grandfather with us, 61 years old - he was taken away because he had a piece of bandage in his passport (bandages were a reason to detain doctors - ed.). He says: “I left the house, they stopped me, asked for my documents, I opened my passport - and that's it, they twisted me and started beating me.”

I will not retreat from this. I will go out only in peaceful protests, so that there is no violence. And I want to overthrow this power and those people who mocked us, so that they would receive some kind of punishment, so that they would not get away with it.

Ruslan, 36 years old, neuropathologist

On Monday, at about seven o'clock, my friends and classmates and I met in the area of Pobediteley Avenue, it was a shame to sit at home. I was detained in the yard, where we turned to wait out. The riot policeman ran after me, grabbed me and beat me, of course. On the bus they said “We will ****** (beat you - ed.) For making a revolution with the money of the Czech Republic”. That a rubber bullet had hit me in the thigh, I did not immediately notice. There was some kind of stain on the shorts, I thought: "Where did I get so dirty?" He pulled down his shorts - everything was covered in blood.

In the police department they put me on my knees, my hands behind my back, my legs crossed, my forehead against an iron fence - they stood like that for two hours. From eight in the evening until 9 in the morning we were in this corral, 15 square meters. There were garages nearby, where they store their equipment, those who are cold were allowed to go there, but there, too, the concrete floor is no better.

Most of the protocols were written without our participation: supposedly drunk people walked in a crowd, threw something. We were taken to the detention center in Zhodino in paddy wagons, they beat us with a magic truncheon to speed up. They were assigned to cells: in ours, for 10 people, in the evening there were 30. We slept - some on the floor, some in turn, some in a jack, there was nothing to breathe.

The jailers in Zhodino did not touch us, they were more humane than the riot police. They also deal with criminals who are in prison for life. The next day, I and another doctor were summoned to the office by two colonels. They asked me who I work for, why I went to the rally:

-Are you married?

-Married, I have two daughters. I do not want my girls to walk around the city and be afraid that they will be attacked by black kites.

I was released on the same day - maybe because we doctors, maybe the prisons were unloading - the jailers complained that because of us they didn't come home.

We will not hear the worst stories yet - they are all now in hospitals.

After August 9, people with gunshots were taken to a military hospital on Masherov Avenue. Then - in the City Clinical Hospital No. 6, in the emergency hospital. The sixth hospital announced the collection of blood and medicines with dressings.

The husband of the doctor with whom I work, a resuscitator at the emergency room, said that two men were admitted to the intensive care unit, who, among other things, were “raped” with rubber truncheons in the anus.

Zhenya, 23 years old, shop clerk

Late in the evening from 10 to 11 August, I was returning with a friend from the store. Near the Pushkinskaya metro station, a minibus without numbers simply came out of nowhere, no one explained anything, they broke it, threw it on the asphalt, and then loaded it into a paddy wagon. Inside, they kicked me on the head and said, "What, do you want a change?" They handcuffed me and took me to the Frunzenskiy district police department. They took me to the gym, it is in the police department itself, there were already a lot of people lying on the floor, then they put me on my stomach, my hands were behind my back, handcuffed. We lay like that until morning. We lay in silence, but riot police still came up and beat us. The girls were beaten with particular cruelty, and the elderly too. Some just fainted.

For the next six hours, we were on our knees, head to the floor, to the toilet or to drink - it was impossible. They said: who wants to go to the toilet - go by yourself.

Then came, as I understand it, the head of the police department, there was a policeman with him with a truncheon, he started shouting: "Who is the best president in the world?" Everyone was silent - they went to beat us

After some time, they were taken to Zhodino - they changed the handcuffs to ties. During these days I met a lot of people who were taken in lawlessness: a journalist from Poland had his nose broken, there were black eyes under his eyes, an eighteen-year-old guy had his legs the color of space, dark purple, he was just driving with a friend around the city in a car, a man who He walked stupidly from fishing - he had a fishing rod and a caught fish, beat him up - he lay there until morning. They broke my rib. All legs and back are blue from clubs.

Pavel, 50 years old, civil engineer

I was detained on August 10 in Victory Park near the toilet. I walked out of natural necessity. Three young men, aged 20 to 25, were sitting on a bench nearby - and no one else was there. We were later charged with taking part in the march and meeting.

They detained us rather rudely - they twisted our arms and legs, kicked us on the backs and threw us into the paddy wagon. They didn’t show any documents, they shouted: “Do you need changes? Do you need a revolution? You were hired here for $ 200, we will arrange for you, you bastards."

There were probably twenty people in the paddy wagon. Almost everyone was taken away just like that. A man was sitting next to me, he had everything in blood - his knees were cut, elbows were cut, an eyebrow was cut. There was one guy - he then picked up his jersey, he had his whole back like a British flag.

We were unloaded in the Zavodskoy area near the MAZ fence. There is a car platform - here we were thrown into the ground on the curb next to it. You can't raise your head, they don't give you water. Then only when the OMON officers were replaced by ordinary cops, they gave water. They do not allow to go to the toilet. They say: "Go for yourself, what's the problem." Then they periodically let it in, but you understand, here is the situation - how it was all done: “Do you want to go to the toilet? Go by yourself. Be patient, you weren’t able to walk, morons, decided to play the revolution? Sit down."

Then they put them on their knees, then on their feet, and so - I can lie, there was no clock - but according to my calculations, from 6:30 to 12 approximately they stood

There was one girl with us, she was brought in at 8 pm. She, too, was thrown to the ground with us, handcuffed, and when she was indignant at the behavior of the OMON officer, he bluntly kicked her in the kidneys.

We all shouted, "What are you doing, damn it." Then he began to extinguish us for fun.

When we were loaded into a paddy wagon, the usual police drove us at first. In the Uruchya region, we were loaded into a paddy wagon driven by riot police. They put everyone on all fours so that we would stand one after another, whoever raises their heads - beat them with a truncheon or kick. This is how we drove to Zhodino.

I have valves in my heart, prostheses. I say: "Guys, for the second day I have not taken blood thinners, I have to drink them every day." They say: “Yes, I don’t care, I didn’t want to go somewhere, I don’t care to engage in revolutions.” As a result, I just fell out of the paddy wagon, because my legs were paralyzed.

The locals [in Zhodino] themselves were shocked. They behaved within the bounds of the law - I very much ask that this be noted, so that there are no provocations. They talked among themselves and wondered why they brought us so harshly. They said: “Guys, they only bring, damn it, dangerous violent criminals. Are they there, morons, why they carry people like that?"

I can tell you without naming names - the authorities have done a huge stupidity. All united. I am a communist, there was “Narodnaya Gromada” sitting next to it, football fans, guys who used to be in “Russian National Unity” - and they all came together. With us sat computer scientists, just workers. The level of education is different for everyone - some have three higher education degrees, some have one vocational school, but all have one idea.

In principle, I am not a poor person. My wife and I are highly qualified specialists - for understanding, we participated in the construction of a mining and processing plant in the Perm Territory, Volgograd Region. I am now trying to obtain Russian citizenship. And I will try to sell all the real estate that I have here, we take the whole family from here and leave.