Beaten people are leaving Okrestina detention center and with tears on their eyes say about the night tortures they endured.
Protesters were released from Minsk Okrestina detention center and Zhodino jail late at night Aug 13th and early morning Aug 14th. However, many had to go straight to the hospital rather than home. At the same time, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Alexander Barsukov commented “there was no torture”, but he lied. We collected testimonies of people who have spent the past few days there to show the world the real hell that is happening in the detention center. If you have suffered from the hands of “law enforcement” we also share the ways you could get help.
PART 1. WHAT HAPPENED
A large number of people were released from Okrestina detention center last night. Girls and women were sobbing talking about having been threatened with violence and death. They had to listen to the detained men being brutalized all night long. The men didn’t need to say anything — their bodies spoke for them.
The men say about being laid out on the floor naked to be stepped on and urinated on. Many say that those scoffing them were convinced that the detained are trained criminals who have been paid to protest. To demonstrate the hell the detained had to endure, here are some of their testimonies:
They made us yell “WE love the riot police”
TUT.by journalists approached a guy who didn’t look too brutalized for a commentary. He didn’t give his name and the date of his arrest.
I mentioned that I have a right for a lawyer and they said: “we will make you learn your rights”. <…> People were assigned numbers, had their hair colored and cut with knives and so on. Everything happening there was a non-stop torture. <…> We had 120 people standing in a room of 25 sq meters. They gave us a little water after a while, but we really had just a drop since we had to share. We were only allowed to use a bathroom the next day. We slept on the concrete floor. <…> They were viciously beating people in the police buses, made people sing the national anthem, yell “We love the SWAT Unit”. Some used stun guns threatened the younger women… Total psychological suppression. They gassed people right in the police vehicles.
By the end of the video, journalists approach a group of men and ask them if they were brutalized. The men chuckled, one of them pulls down his pants to reveal a bright purple truncheon mark.
“They insulted me, threatened me with death. Pulled my pants down and said I’d be gang-raped.”
This young woman went through hell after she was detained on August 10th.
“We were standing with our faces to the wall and our hands behind our backs — as if we are animals as if it’s 1941! It wasn’t as bad here at the detention center as it was at the policе dept. I was beaten by 10 riot policemen! With the truncheons! They insulted me, threatened me with death. Pulled my pants down and said they are going gang-rape me, fuck me so hard my own mom won’t recognize me. They said “All of you against Lukashenko are brain-dead animals. You are stupid losers, where do you think you’re going, who do you think you are?” They called me an animal and they treated me like one — I was on my knees on the ground, threatened to be in jail for a decade, called a terrorist. What was it all for?!”
“We are doctors. We were detained by riot police and put on our knees”
Among those released, yesterday were some doctors. Here’s a testimony of one of them:
“We were helping the injured and detained at night on August 11th. We were volunteering to help the wounded in the clashes. In the detention center, 50 people were held in a jail cell for four. Not everyone could take a seat. The toilet was just a hole in the ground that reeked. The window was only just cracked open. We were allowed water for the first time after a full 15 hours in there. There were women that were brutalized there but I personally wasn’t beaten.”
“I spent 10 years of my life in jail but I have never been so emotionally abused”
Dmitry, 40, was released from Okrestina this morning. He doesn’t look like someone who’s been physically tortured but he shared how hard it was with journalists from “Radio Svaboda”.
Dmitri, along with many others, hasn’t been able to claim his personal belongings.
“There were 64 people locked in a cell for 8”
Ivan was detained on August 10th. “We were brought to Okrestina. At first, there were 51 people in a cell for 8 and then they brought 13 more people in. We were there for 72 hours. One of the guards was not too bad but the other one was a psycho, she was always shutting the window. It was 30 degrees in the cell. We had food just twice this whole time — some barley and then some bread. Some guys had to sleep under the beds. Those detained on the 11th were the ones beaten — they were out in the prison yard and attacked once and again.
“Okey, pigs, gonna get to you now”
Yury is a biker. On August 9th, he was detained at night on Kulman street but he was then released on Zybitskaya street. After some time he was detained again by another unit. Together with the other detainees, he was brought to the Partizansky DistrictOpolice dept. Yury says the officers were constantly cursing and saying: couldn’t you just go to sleep? Did you want changes?” and “Okey, pigs, going to get to you now”. “People were made to kneel on the concrete floor, bent over with their elbows and faces down. I remember one policeman in particular: he was degrading people, aiming to hit them at the kidneys and the lower back. Some people started to vomit and he said “You’re going to clean that with your jackets”. <…> After a while the detainees were placed in a cell and were brutally searched in the office: they were hitting people’s legs, ripping off people’s chains, destroying clothes — cutting off belts and shoelaces that couldn’t be removed. They let us share one bottle of water and then use the bathroom.” — says Yury.
PART 2. WHAT TO DO IF YOU WERE BRUTALIZED BY THE “LAW ENFORCEMENT”
Belarusian authorities deny torturing the detainees but you and I both know they did it. Right at this moment lawmakers and The World Organization Against Torture are collecting all evidence of torture, as well as violence or degrading of the protesters. It is your personal stories that prove the criminal behavior of the “law enforcement”. Please share your pictures and testimonies with tortures2020@gmail.com.
What do I have to do?
If you were brutalized while being apprehended or detained at one of the police departments or a prison cell, please share your story:
- Date, place and the circumstances of your detention
- Location and conditions you were detained in
- Help identify those in charge in case of investigation: their last names, identification numbers, ranks or distinctive features
You can also reach the KYKY editors directly by texting our Telegram chat-bot (@KYKYmediabot), or TUT.by editors by phone # +375 17 394 63 11. We value your privacy but we are foremostly interested in stories by people who are willing to share their real names. At this time you can also ask for help filing a complaint about being unlawfully detained, mistreated, or brutalized by the police, or report any misconduct by the authorities.
You can get psychological help free of charge. Please call one of the following services:
Everyone’s home: mutual support chat. This chat was created by citydog.by. You can share your feelings and emotions, anonymously or not.
Initiative #Solidarity. You can get individual or group therapy free of charge here. To get in touch with the initiative, you’d have to fill out a form.
Psychology of a free human is a group of volunteer psychologists from Russia who offers free online sessions for those who need psychological counseling. To book a session, please text “край” to their telegram @funambulist_ak or their Instagram.
PART 3. WHAT DOES THE MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS HAS TO SAY AND THE HORROR IT CAUSES AMONG THE BELARUSIANS
The “Minister of Internal Affairs” Yury Karayev commented on violent detentions of protesters last night. Karayev apologized to the onlookers who got mixed in with the protesters and got brutalized by mistake. He said: “We are always trying to treat people as humane as we can. I am not a violent person myself and I am not looking to escalate the violence. After all, all of you are our citizens and you all have families and kids”. Karayev is sure that police brutality is a natural reaction to the violence started by the protesters (poor little riot police). He claims that “the police officers are not punishers or satraps, they’re doing their job of protecting the country’s constitutional wholesomeness and its other functions”. Karayev persuasion that the protesters deserved what they got, they shouldn’t have thrown Molotov cocktails at the armed police and riot police units. He also called “to stop escalating and going to the streets”.
Following Karayev’s statement, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Alexander Barsukov also offered a comment while outside of Okrestina Detention Center: “we did not torture anyone”.
Along with other Belarusians, we think that people like Karayev and Barsukov live in a parallel universe. Here is a quote from a rather insightful post from Port Mone band musician Sergey Kravchenko who was at Okrestina last night offering a ride home for two of the released detainees:
“… They started releasing people en masse. Some just ran straight out of the open gate and away, some asked for a smoke before they accepted water and food. An ambulance carried someone to the hospital every twenty minutes. A suited man walked out the gate and said “everyone will be released by the morning”. He turned out to be Karayev’s deputy.
Volunteers are doing their best: there’s enough food and water. Everyone’s going to get a safe ride home judging by the number of people volunteering their services as drivers. The released are not given back personal belongings like phones or keys, by the way.
We were lucky to offer help: there were three guys looking for a ride home. Regular 25-year-olds from Pushkinskaya: “Well we were just in a cafe, they dragged us out, roughed us up and threw in here”. One of them clutched a cup of tea, the other asked for a piece of chocolate, and the third — a cigarette. The way they looked and moved was as if they couldn’t believe they are back to normal from a different world. In the end, we only had to give a ride to two of them — the one with the cigarette had a seizure and had to go into an ambulance.
I didn’t want to ask questions but as we were walking to the car, one of them asked for a phone to call his mom: “yes mom, I was detained. But I’m out now! Of course I didn’t make it to work. No, I don’t have keys or anything. Will find where to spend the night.” The other one started talking on his own.
They were detained on Tuesday after having been arrested at a cafe not too far from Kamennaya Gorka. Some others were detained there as well: a cab driver who was helping an elderly woman leave the cab, a biker driving by, random shoppers — everyone. He said they almost detained a father walking with his baby.
Then they were beaten in the police bus, made to pile on top of each other. Four of them were beating the biker for wearing a biking outfit and a helmet, for “coming prepared”. They were yelling: “You want changes? Here are your changes” and continued the beatings.
They were asked how much they were paid and who the coordinators were. Poor guys who were just on their way to work didn’t have any answers. They were dumbfounded their whole time there. I guess there’s a better word to describe it — dumbfu*ked. They said the girls were beaten most violently. They said there was a guy in their cell who couldn’t bend his back and couldn’t open his eye. The guy was arrested by “Riga” supermarket where he went shopping with his girlfriend. They got stopped by four riot police officers who asked why they were there and started beating the girl. The guy then said to leave her alone and beat him for two instead and it looked like they took it as an invite. He said that those who were beating him had insane eyes and he thought their violence was likely fuelled by psychoactive substances. It was just a blind animal rage.
Upon arriving at the detention center they were beaten again. This time the officers dressed in all black and face masks — to not be identified later — formed a live corridor and hit the detainees walking through with truncheons.
They were beating people and saying “you’re animals, nobodies, pieces of sh*t” and so on. Many were not even registered or asked their name, just beaten again and again day after day.
<…> We dropped the guys off in Dynina-Martsinkevitcha street area. “Can you believe we aren’t going to sleep on the floor tonight, Ilyha,” — one of them said. I don’t know what chance of defending themselves they have: they’re convicted for the protests at Rokassovskago, though they were arrested at Kamennaya Gorka; their judge said: “I do understand everything but I can’t do anything about it, I have to convict you this way or the other” and sentenced them to 10 days in custody. Not sure they’d be able to document their bruises. As they said: “they schedule the court hearing in plenty of time for the bruises to heal.”
That’s the story of two friends who were trying to get to work last Tuesday. There’s many more like it. Evidence suggests the guys among the more lucky ones.
Saying “I’m sorry” from a TV-screen for violence like this is a movie I don’t understand. Maybe some will forgive, I don’t know”.
