State Border Committee: Watch official document on Charter'97

Under new rules, even company cars have to pass the border through the red channel.

The new border crossing rules that took force on June 4 excite Belarusians, Vecherny Brest writes. In spite of official statements on TV on June 6 that no changes or restrictions were made, people who cross the border saw a completely different picture.

Aliaksandr was returning from Poland to Brest through Damachova-Slawatycze checkpoint on Thursday evening. He said the situation on the border was mad. He has to visit Poland on business twice a week. He drove a company car and had a business trip certificate, so he chose the green channel. Border guards however said he should use the red channel this time.

“We were returning from a business trip,” Aliaksandr says. “There were two people in the car. We only had hand luggage. We chose the green channel as usual, but a border guard checked our documents, returned our passports and gave the control ticket to customs officers. A customs officer said he couldn't search the vehicle in the green channel and ordered to move to the red one. The reason was that we cross the border more then once per 8 days.”

Many people, including those who had only items for personal use and some businessmen returning from business trips, were ordered to cross the border through the red channel. Angry people demanded to call top officials from the State Border Committee.

“Border guards threatened to call the riot police. I called an officer on duty in the State Border Committee and asked why they ordered people to go through the red channel. He, a representative of the authorities, answered: Go to the website Charter'97 and read the document. No one has the document. It wasn't adopted officially. Border guards had a printed copy from the internet! I asked to give me the book of complaints, but they said it was in the border group in Brest and I must go there to leave my complaint.”

People argued for about an hour refusing to go to the red channel, where it was a queue for 5-6 hours. The businessman thinks the border guards contacted their bosses in Brest and they allowed to pass through the green channel “as an exception”.

According to Aliaksandr, he heard from businessmen on the border that they would refuse to go through the red channel in they didn't have goods to declare.