The Special Representative of Belarus to the OSCE Andrei Dapkyunas called on to investigate the actions of the police at the protests in a number of European countries. BelTA informs about it.
According to him, Minsk was concerned about tough methods of dispersing protesters in Great Britain, the Netherlands and Poland. Dapkyunas stressed that he had doubts about the legality of the actions of law enforcement agencies. The representative of Belarus listed cases “to which we must not close our eyes if we seriously claim objectivity and equal approach within the OSCE.”
In particular, he pointed out that in London unarmed women were “wringing their hands”, in The Hague water cannons, batons, dogs were used against peaceful demonstrators, and one woman was even beaten, and in Poland tear gas was used against women. p>
“With our speech, we are by no means trying to divert attention from urgent problems in our country. We are systematically working on them,” Dapkiunas emphasized.
Since August, protests against the current leadership of the country, as well as against violence from the security forces, have continued in Belarus. President of the Republic Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly stated that the riot police acted correctly, and denied numerous reports of torture of prisoners in police stations and isolation wards. According to him, the security forces detained the marginalized and drunken “urks” who were injured while trying to attack the policemen.
On September 1, the UN stated that hundreds of cases of torture and ill-treatment of people were recorded in Belarus only on the first day of protests on August 9, while brutal crackdowns with the use of special equipment continued until August 12. Violent crackdowns resumed in September, witnesses record cases in video recordings of riot police spraying gas directly in the face of elderly people and roughly dragging women by the hair during arrests. Eyewitnesses also reported to Lente.ru about the abuse of unarmed and prisoners and the infliction of serious injuries on people. The victims of beatings were not only men, but also women and teenagers.