Example of Police Behavior

09.09.2003.

On 9 September an activist of the unregistered organization “Young Front” applied to the public association “Human Rights Center “Viasna” and wrote the following statement”

“On 8 September 2003 I was detained by the police at a bus stop near the railway station. When the policemen asked me to show my documents, I answered in Belarusian. “Let’s go to the police station, Belarusian sonny”, -- answered one of them. There they searched my belongings and found the cutaway of “Young Front”. The policemen began to mock at me, took a bottle of glue from my bag and sluiced it on me with the words “It’s hard to live in Belarus!”. When I asked one of them to tell me his surname, he hit me in slats and said “If you know much, you’ll be quiet by the morning!”. Then they led me to their car and threw out of it, kicking with their feet and swearing. The last phrase: “To say it good, we are waiting for some meeting to beat you in the head”. When they talked to one another, I heard the surname of one of them – Siarhey Mlynarchyk, sergeant-major.” The victim intends to appeal against such police actions to the prosecutor’s office.