see url:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/14/europe/belarus-torture-allegations-intl-hnk/index.html
see full article and video. It is as well to remember that removing
Belarus from Russian influence and developing closer connections to
Europe is part of US and UK and Western oriented nation state
Strategy...Russia being considered the big enemy. Cheap oil supply from
Russia, compared with expensive shale oil from the USA is also involved
Not that I support the State of Belarus or Russia...or any other nation
state for that matter...Good luck to the folks of Belarus if they can
get peaceful change to their government...:-) They need it...
Quote<<<
Thousands arrested as protesters call Belarusian election rigged 02:46
Minsk, Belarus (CNN)Several people who were detained for participating
in mass protests in Belarus this week allege that the country's security
forces beat, tortured and humiliated them while in government custody.
The protesters are among the thousands of people who were arrested in
the sometimes violent unrest that has rocked the former Soviet republic
since its presidential election on Sunday. Exit polls showed that
Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for 26 years, received 80%
of the vote, but opposition groups claim the election was marred by
fraud to keep Lukashenko in power.
Lukashenko's government had already been accused of responding to the
protests with disproportionate force and violence, but the accusations
of mistreating people behind bars has prompted renewed public outrage
toward the government.
A woman named Olesya told CNN that she was arrested Sunday while walking
down the street alongside her boyfriend in the capital, Minsk.
She said she was forced to strip naked alongside other women before
being searched at a detention center. Olesya, who declined to give her
last name for safety reasons, said she was then put in a small cell with
17 other women. All of them were given one water bottle and no food and
forced to sleep on the floor or a small table.
The guards periodically cut off their access to water to silence them.
They also denied medical assistance to one of the women, who had been
injured by a rubber bullet.
Olesya said she spent around 14 hours inside the facility and was
released after being forced to sign a paper with what she says were
false charges against her. However, her boyfriend is still missing. She
is very worried because men appear to be treated much worse than women,
according to witness accounts.
"They would put four men in a 1.5 meter (5 foot) wide cell, three were
standing but they made the fourth one crawl inside like a dog and stand
on his knees," she Olesya.
Olesya said she keeps coming back to the detention center both to get
information about her partner and help others.
"It was very scary to wait outside, we could hear how they were beaten,
they wailed, they screamed," she said. "They stormed out of there with
crazy eyes and half-conscious ... they just ran in whatever direction
the guards told them to and also told them not to approach us, who could
help them get home, threatening they would put them back into prison."
At the Okrestina detention center in Minsk hundreds have been gathering
the past two days trying to locate their relatives and friends who were
detained during the protests. Some were missing for days, according to
people interviewed by CNN, as the authorities often do not disclose the
location of detainees and forbid passing food, water or medication. As
of Thursday, around 6,700 people have been detained across the country,
according to the Interior Ministry.
>>>End of Quote
