“You understand that you are in the complete power of a brutal sadist”: Belarusians talked about torture in places of imprisonment

The torture in Belarusian places of imprisonment before August protests was not known, and those evidence that now reach, even amaze those who know well about the torture in Russian colonies. We talked about what is happening in Belarus, with people encountered directly, and human rights activists.

Olga Karach. Director of the International Center for Civil Initiatives "Our House"

We make a list of victims of repression. We have created an investigative group headed by Colonel Oleg Alkaev. He was the chief of prison in Zhodino, was the head of the shooting team. Now he is collecting all crimes of the Lukashenko regime - especially from August 9. This applies to torture of rape, abductions of people, murders. Now all these data will go to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, to the structure of the UN - the office of the Supreme Commissioner for Human Rights.

It was all: rape, murder, torture, bringing to suicide. This was all in Belarusian prisons for several years. Now the Belarusian society has paid attention to this. It makes sense to squeeze to at least stop it. And the chances, I think, are very large.

The number of rape in the insulators is quite large.

This topic in Belarus is quite taboo. This is especially true for men.

We know for sure that after detention in prisons, they raped not only women, but also men. They raped not only men and women in prisons, but also their children. They were caught in the streets. It is also about adolescents - boys, girls. I want to emphasize that they were not raped in the usual way, but with clubs with police, or bottles, or some kind of sticks.

There are ruptures of the cervix, there are ruptures of the rectum, a number of adolescents even became disabled.

Another question is that they are in a rather difficult psychological state is very difficult to work on these cases. There are great risks that any careless movement - and the victim of violence will make suicide.

I want to emphasize that those gangs of security forces who operate on the streets are not random people. This is not just some police officer who was given an order. For example, if you give a baton into your hands and give an order to rape a child, you will not do anything. You just do not know how to organize these professional torture. And the security forces trained, for many years, in Belarusian citizens in prisons. In Belarusian prisons, the situation with torture is much worse than even in Russia. All these people are psychopaths. They are mentally not very healthy. They enjoy these torture. They were very specific.

Now the victims of violence are in very poor condition. Up to the point that they do not recognize their relatives. They are afraid of any person nearby. There are also families who do not make contact. About 10 thousand citizens were tortured. The collection of information about this is only going on. This is difficult because the authorities began to notice traces. People who were sitting in Knight do not give passports and documents that they were sitting there. When trying to get these documents, they again begin to threaten them with rape and criminal cases. The security forces begin to come home, begin to call relatives.

Doctors are also afraid. They write in their conclusions that a person fell from a chair or something else.

The policeman, who beat me and threatened me with rape, did this by order of Oleg Gaidukevich (deputy of the House of Representatives-MBH Media), chairman of the Zhirinovsky party in Belarus (liberal-democratic party of Belarus). This happened in 2011. I was detained as a suspect in a terrorist attack. In Belarus, there may be a death penalty for this. Then I felt what it was to be in the hands of a psychopath. Due to international resonance, everything went not so hard.

When you see the crazy brutal eyes of a person who sees your pain and fear and is even more excited - this is very scary.

You understand that you are in the complete power of a brutal sadist.

Human rights activist Andrei Strizhak

The most terrible things were happening on August 9-11, when an escalation of violence took place, both on the streets and in places of imprisonment-primarily in the insulator on the street of the Square Street. Additional forces were introduced there. All the people with whom we talked emphasized the difference between Knetino and Zhodino - this is another insulator in the next city. Now, the specially created psychological assistance service by BY_HELP is working with the victims of rape. People who have experience who have experience in the combat zone, in particular with victims of the violence of war in the Donbass, work.

The testimony of the victims will be presented in the International Criminal Court in the Hague. If a sufficient number of these evidence accumulates, the court may bring this issue to the UN Security Council (five permanent members have the right veto there, including Russia - “MBH Media”). But besides the Belarusians themselves, no one can resolve this situation.

As a rule, people who are difficult to identify were engaged in rape. They were masked. They turned to each other not by name and not even by nicknames, but “hey, you” and so on.

In the BY_HELP database is about 700 applications for torture and beatings. Also, a separate base at the human rights center "Spring". Some people are just leaving the hospital. We take them out for treatment abroad.

Sergey Podalinsky, football player

We were detained by our wife on the night of August 9 to 10. We returned home when there were no longer any riots. There was an elderly woman with us on a bicycle. We approached OMON employees to ask how to safely go to the right place. But along the way we met another large group of riot police, which detained us. In the car, they put me on the floor and began to ask questions: “Something is not happy with you?” I said that we went out for honest elections. But in response, they hit me with a club. Then they switched to my neighbor.

I played my last season for the Dynamo team, it belongs to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Because of this, one of the riot police said that he would personally get me out of the bus-so that they would not beat. We were brought to Knetino. I was the only way out of a car carrier with my head raised - on this my concessions ended.

These are not people, but cattle. They knelt all people along the fence. Muzzle in the ground or fence. We stood like that for two hours. Then they began to kick and then knelt again. Those who asked for the toilet beat and said: "Go for themselves." When they began to transfer us to the camera, they forced us to undress to the underpants. “They got up with cancer,” they shouted. It was needed for a search. 21 people were stuffed into the camera. It was crowded, sat and stood in turn. On the second day, we were offered to sign the protocols in order to be released. We agreed, but instead of liberation, these dogs flew again, beat and took us another camera, where there were 17 people - and that we became 40. We were like sprats. The windows did not open. At the request to ventilate the camera, the door was opened and the water was splashed on people. Then they forced to wipe the floor with their own clothes. There is a minute of stay - a week.

One guy there was forced to remove his T -shirt and wipe his own blood from the floor.