A-Infos (en) [alter-ee] Armed political police attack an informal anarchist get-together in Belarus

Several people were charged with illegal usage of forest resources and distribution of 
extremist materials after political police with support of task forces attacked an 
informal anarchist encounter. Around 20 participants were at the camping site at that 
point. ---- On Saturday 30 June special task force of police attacked the camp shooting 
into the air. After a few minutes all the activists were forced on the ground by a crowd 
of people armed with machine guns and shotguns. ---- They were accompanied by chiefs in 
plain clothes but wearing masks. When anarchists started asking about the reasons for this 
circus one of the cops said that they had a report that somebody was illegally cutting 
trees in the area and shooting in the forest. Other cops were answering, "you are not 
stupid, you understand yourself why you are here".

Tents were searched for illegal materials. Merchandise from several
groups was confiscated under the pretext of distribution of extremist
materials. All activists were put on their knees and filmed by the cops.
Some of the anarchists were beaten up several times for asking questions
or refusing to do what cops wanted. The cops were trying to push at
least one person to give false testimonies and when the person didn't
agree, he was also beaten up. During 7 hours people couldn't eat or
drink, going to the toilet was the whole endeavor. During the whole
period of raid it was raining and people had to stay on wet ground, the
most impudent were put under the rain as a punishment.

In the end the police left the forest without any detentions giving
everyone a subpoena to an interrogation about extremist materials that
were seized. It is expected that repressions will continue and those
repressed will need money for the lawyers. A lot of "extremist"
materials were confiscated and will never be returned which is a huge
financial damage to those organizing local distros.

Those willing to support the Belarusian anarchists can donate to
Anarchist Black Cross Belarus - donation options
https://abc-belarus.org/?page_id=8661&lang=en

It is not the first time Belarusian political police with support of the
special task forces go to the forest to take care of illegal gatherings.
In 2016 cops raided a punk concert in the woods, confiscated all the
equipment and detained dozens of people.

https://abc-belarus.org/?p=11689&lang=en

----------------------------------------------

belarus, pramen.io: Anarchist informal encounter attacked by political police


Several people were charged with illegal usage of forest resources and distribution of 
extremist materials after GUBOPiK (Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and 
Corruption, - a branch of Ministry of Internal Affairs, which executes the functions of 
political police in Belarus) supported by special task forces attacked an informal 
anarchist meeting. According to the ABC-Belarus reports, there were around 20 participants 
at the camping site. Below you can read the first-person evidence of one of the 
participants of the camp.

"JUST ANOTHER THREAT SHOW

The journalists must be tired of writing about the anarchists being arrested, beaten up, 
etc. So I'm really sorry, dear colleagues, for this having happened again, yesterday, 30 
June, when 17 young men and women of anarchist views met for an informal meeting on the 
outskirts of Krupki (Minsk district, Belarus), looking forward for interesting discussion 
and camping in a nice company of comrades.

Having found a beautiful glade in the forest, we pitched our tents, organized an 
improvised kitchen, put up the canopy, and began our activities.

About 3 p.m., when we were preparing to the next discussion, we suddenly heard the 
sub-machine gun burst, and people in masks in body armor and with a variety of weapons 
arrived, shouting "Everybody down!!!", - they made everyone lie on the ground. - The 
police operatives - also masked - came after them.. They started filming us, asking for 
our names and reasons why we were here, in which quantity, whom had we come with.

The most ridiculous were the policeman's attempts to prove that they had come... because 
of the illegal felling of trees!

‘Who was engaged in logging? Whose saws and axes are these? Do you know how old are these 
trees?!' - That was said about two dry pine trees that we used as banks.

Time to time they were beating those who disobeyed the orders or just was looking to the 
sides whilst lying down. Not everyone of them showed their documents. One man from the 
environmental inspection, and another one who was wearing the mask, showed their identity 
cards of the members of SOBR (Rapid Deployment Special Force - the special unit of Ministy 
of Internal Affairs). The policemen in masks refused to show any documents, but I'm sure 
it were the operatives of GUBOPiK (Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and 
Corruption, - a branch of Ministry of Internal Affairs, which executes the functions of 
political police in Belarus).

If talking about me personally, I was beaten two times: when I tried to run away from the 
SOBR guys, and when the guys from GUBOPiK took me aside "to talk a bit". Nevertheless, 
they hit me not very painfully, probably having had received the order not to be too 
cruel. That "special operation" lasted seven hours, six of which I spent in handcuffs, 
mostly lying on the ground face down, under the rain. I was taken aside for two 
"conversations", the main sense of which was: ‘For what a f**k have you returned, get out 
to you Europe or we'll find a way to deal with you'. Surprisingly, they mentioned my 
articles, swearing. One of the GUBOPiK operatives also said, anyway: ‘We can find you 
abroad too', and added that I was ‘slander my motherland for money'.

For a most of time we were lying face down on the ground, waiting for arrival of various 
services and officials or for being called for inspection of our tents. The rain and the 
cold were the main problems. Some of us were made to knees, somebody was made lay down on 
the wet grass. Not mentioning such "small points" as constant insults, threats, kicks and 
stepping on lying people. One of our comrades was discovered to be having the stickers of 
the anarchist group ‘Pramen' (‘The Ray') - they took him aside and tried to make a video 
with him telling about that stickers. He refused, and they began to beat him. As soon as 
we noticed it and raised a cry, they stopped.

Then our things were inspected. The inspectors arrived with witnesses who were the guys 
from local Open-type penal colony (i.e. people totally dependent from the cops). At the 
end we counted and came to a conclusion that during the day our camp in the forest was 
visited by at least 40 cops.

Finally they drafted protocols onto 2 people from our group (about "The distribution of 
the extremist materials" and "Illegal vegetation removal"), and confiscated the anarchist 
brochures and stickers.

From the very beginning we were sure that we were facing minor detention, as it usually 
happens after the riot police assaults anarchist events, being morally prepared to that. 
But, to our surprised, the SOBR and GUBOPiK left around 21.00. Then the inspectors left us 
too, having handed us documents ordering us to appear in the court the 6th July. Finally, 
at about 10 p.m., we were left alone in our destroyed camp in the forest.

Here are the top cops quotes:

"Fucking burnouts and drug addicts!"

"Is this your tent? And what if we find the woman stuff there, ha-ha?"

‘Dziadok will f**k away to his Europe, and you all will puff for him!'

(To the young comrade): ‘It is Dziadok who invited you here? What did he promise to you?'

"Just tell us who were cutting the trees, and we'll free you!"

(The investigator, on the phone): "How can I ask for their documents, they are all masked 
and with machine-guns!"

There were positive sides of the situation also. Noone of us gave a written explanation to 
the police, despite they demanded it. Neither anyone has told them anything beside their 
identity information. ‘What were you doing here?' - ‘Relaxing'. - ‘Whom do you know here?' 
- ‘Nobody'. In spite of the threats and beatings, everyone's behavior was decent.

Now my condition is not good enough to draw large-scale conclusions. I'll just tell one 
thing: Ok, we were left beaten and humiliated; well, the police managed to have got 
informed about our closed meeting and to disrupt it. But they couldn't do anything with 
our solidarity, with our belief in our ideas. We have already survived a lot of things, 
we'll survive it too. Without any pathos: that hounds haven't achieved anything.

After a bit of sleep and treatment, I'll continue sharing my thoughts."

Source: http://fb.com/happymikola (with few explanatory notes and additions).

Allegedly, the one who have leaded the SOBR and orchestrated the beating, interrogations 
and humiliations of the activists was Michail Bedunkevich - the chief of the 3-rd bureau 
of the GUBOPiK ("An anti-extremist bureau"). Previously he was involved in threatening 
anarchists and antifa, and falsificating criminal cases against them.

During the crackdown, a lot of "extremist" materials were confiscated and will never be 
returned which is a huge financial damage to those organizing local distros. Those willing 
to support the Belarusian anarchists can donate to Anarchist Black Cross Belarus.

It is not the first time Belarusian political police with support of the special task 
forces attack anarchist events in Belarus.

- June, 2017. Riot police attacks the visitors the punk-concert in Baranovichi. 3 ppl got 
5 days in prison.
- August, 2017. Riot police attacks the lecture of Russian antifascist Alexey Sutuga in 
Baranovichi. 15 ppl arrested.
- October, 2017. Riot police attacks the lecture of Russian anarchist Pyotr Ryabov. 20 ppl 
arrested.
- October, 2017. Riot police attacks the antifascist concert in Minsk. Around 50 ppl arrested.

https://pramen.io/en/2018/07/anarchist-informal-encounter-attacked-by-political-police/
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