Are Belarusian Students to be Tracked Down by Interpol?

18.12.2006.

Draft committees of military enlistment offices are trying to summon students from Homel region who are studying abroad. Earlier those students studied in Belarus, but they were expelled for participating in peaceful protest rallies. That’s why the young people had to continue their studies abroad.

“Policemen phoned us at home and said my son was a criminal,” -- mother of one of the students from Svetlahorsk said. Parents of another guy say that policemen have visited them several times. “They told us that in case our son was not found, they could start searching for him through Interpol”. Policemen promised that students would be “brought from abroad in handcuffs” and “face criminal charges”.

Another drafting season comes to an end now. Military enlistment offices state that there are more persons of the drafting age than needed. Sometimes it happens that young men who want to go to the army are not drafted. At the same time, the leadership of Homel regional military enlistment office claims that expelled students have lost their right for draft deferment. According to the law, even though they started studies again, they are to be drafted, the officers claim.

The military enlistment office denies political implications of the pressure on students’ parents. However, none of those students received a call, as they went abroad before the drafting period started, www.belngo.info reports.