Student Aleh Hrubich not let abroad

08.05.2008. Тэгі: students, KGB, foreign travel restrictions.

Aleh Hrubich, first-year student of the faculty of Belarusian history and cultural anthropology of the European Humanities University came from Vilnius to Minsk on holidays, but didn’t manage to return back. The border guards took him off the train without explaining anything and made him wait for five hours. Then he was taken to Minsk for ‘further discrimination’.

On his return home the student went to the district police department to find why the foreign travel restrictions were applied to him. The police directed him to the citizenship and migration department. There the student received an official document that the Ministry of Defense has introduced him into the list of those who could not leave the country because of evasion from army service.

At Pershamaiski district military enlistment office Hrubich was told that a year ago a criminal case for evasion from army service had been brought against him, but then was stopped as he studied in Poland on Kalinouski program. The certificate confirming that he was a student of the European Humanities University did not solve the issue. After the events of March 2006 Aleh was expelled from the Academy of Arts for political reasons with the official formulation ‘for poor academic progress’. According to the present legislation, a person expelled with such formulation, cannot receive deferment of military service even after entering a university again. Besides, at the military enlistment office he was told that KGB was paying much interest to his person.

On 8 May, before Aleh Hrubich has come to the military enlistment office to get a document for termination of the foreign travel restrictions Aleh received a call from a KGB officer, who appointed a meeting with him. Aleh refused to meet. Then he was met by two KGB officers at the military enlistment office. They spoke politely, warned about possible troubles, proposed cooperation, etc. At the same time, A.Varvashenia, commissar of Pershamaiski district enlistment office, said that the document that was given to Aleh did not guarantee to him the absence of problems on the border, because he could be again introduced in the ‘black list’ by the prosecutor’s office after reopening of the criminal case.

Meanwhile, Aleh Hrubich says that he is not a political activist or a member of underground organization. He is rather interested in culture and history and leads activities in this direction.