“When I came back home after my first visit to Okrestina, I even forgot my phone password, that’s what my condition was”.
History of woman
“I couldn’t dare to write this post for a long time, but I had to.
I wish I could describe it in a literary language, but I can’t. That’s why I’m writing about it like this. How it actually was and what actually happened to the detained people.
I would never believe it if I didn’t hear these stories and see the black legs and backs myself. When I came back home after my first visit to Okrestsina, I even forgot my phone password, that’s what my condition was”.
The first wild story we heard was from a small woman about 60 years old. Her husband and she were taken near the Police Department, where they came to file a missing persons report for their son. He was taken the day before that.
There were 50 people in a five-bed cell. This lady was beaten, stripped and put on the knees, as were many other women there.
She had a breast prosthesis, which was tied with a scarf. And it was torn off her with a force with the words: “Is this a flag?” And after that she was kicked at her neck.
They were bullied by a female prison guard. To make it clear, it was so harsh that after this lady came out, her hands were shaking really badly. Even butter from the sandwich we gave her was falling on the floor.
But she ignored her own condition. She was waiting for the son. He had epilepsy, but for the last 20 years it was in remission. 24 hours at Okrestina provoked a seizure. And it was unclear, whether he went out on his own, or he was taken to the hospital.
By the way, it was impossible to meet the first people released in person because they were taken out in ambulances. There were six cars per hour, 3-4 people in each.
For nearly 24 hours the guards didn’t call an ambulance for the people with broken bones…
One of the released people said that there was a guy with a broken leg in the cell. And when he realized that no one would call the doctor, he started to fix the leg with his own hands to make it more 'comfortable' to stand.
The worst things happened to the detainees, who came on the night of 10/11 August.
They were not just being beaten, they were being destroyed. The detainees who came earlier said that the moans were so intense that night and the next day, so their ears were plugged up.
Men moaned like children, they simply didn’t have any strength to stand it. The guards pulled out their teeth and gave them brooms to sweep them up.
One of the doctors shares that there are dozens of men with rectal injuries and laryngeal ruptures in the hospital now. They were tortured with truncheons, and their reproductive organs were trampled.
One of the girls said that after they were beaten, a cleaning lady from the District Office of Internal Affairs took out a bag full of used condoms.
There is one 16-year-old boy in a hospital now. He has a throat injury, and the guards also tried to gouge his eyes out.
And this is the story of a volunteer, who decided to provide medical assistance to people in the jail. He went with a first-aid kit in a car with the glued crosses on it. He was so sure that no one would touch him. But it was a mistake. His car was smashed and he was pulled out and beaten. The reason was that he wanted to help "the wrong people". His dreadlocks were cut off in the police department.
But you know, he was even lucky that they chipped only his hair. Another boy with the same hairstyle got a piece of the scalp cut off.
There was a guy in their cell, who was identified as "the organizer". The guards crushed his pelvis and broke his spine. And no one knows where he is now.
Another guy was detained for one day right out of his car. He was driving with his brother, when they were shot point-blank. The brother got hit in the artery, so he wasn’t taken. But that guy got his piece of "fun" for both of them. And it was even harder for him to be in the cell, because he didn’t know if his brother had survived.
A lot of people got gunshot wounds. But whether they were from the rubber bullets, or from something else, I personally don’t know.
One beaten guy came to the hospital and said that he felt tolerable. But a CT scan showed that his spine was broken. It was only one vertebra that was broken "fortunately".
There were others who were less fortunate. One boy was brought to the examination in a wheelchair. He could hardly walk himself.
In the prison trucks people were being beaten with such a force that some of them immediately wet themselves. One guy defecated, and was thrown out of the truck because of the stink. Probably he was a lucky one. Because traumatic brain injuries, large space-like hematomas, broken noses - this all is now considered as minor damages.
Yes, you got it right, this is considered as minor injuries now. Yes, that is not so serious compared to the ruptured livers.
Many people don’t even complain about the lack of food and water. They had to breathe and sit in turns. Fifty people were shoved into a cell for five. The condensation from their breath was flowing on the walls.
I don’t know what to call it. And don’t want to believe that it all took place in our Belarus.
I’m afraid to find out what else was happening with people.
I really believe that it will never happen again!”
