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Inhabitants Of Berastavitsa On Military Exercises: They Threaten Us With Fines and Puncture Our Cars’ Tires

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Inhabitants Of Berastavitsa On Military Exercises: They Threaten Us With Fines and Puncture Our Cars’ Tires

The inhabitants were warned about the military exercises only the day they actually started. Now the military men have set up the checkpoints and intimidate the inhabitants with fines for breaking the curfew.

The military men patrol the streets, it is prohibited to walk without documents in the evenings, and there are CPs, which thoroughly inspect every automobile, at the entrance to the district center. This is not some “hot spot” panorama, but Belarus in peacetime. Radio Svaboda correspondent has visited the town of Vialikaya Berastavitsa, which has been hosting military exercises on practicing the anti-guerrilla war tactics since Monday.

On June 13-16, Berastavitsa hosts regular head-quarter exercises of the territorial defense forces of Hrodna region, under the leadership of Deputy Chairman of the General HQ Of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus, Major General Siarhei Dudko. This has been informed by the local newspaper Berastavitskaya Hazeta. The source claims that “the main purpose of the exercises is increasing the level of readiness and ability of the command strength and the territorial defense forces to fulfill the missions in the conditions of the rapidly changing environment”. The local newspaper also notes that the plans, alongside with other things, include working on the issue of “armed gangs liquidation”, in the framework of practical trainings. The journalists have tried to find out what hides behind the unemotional wordings, and how the Belarusians feel like during the curfew.

“You can read the law later”

We notice the turn to Berastavitsa on the road several kilometers away from the border with Poland. The concrete check-points with firing ports, fortified with sand sacks, are easily seen from the distance. At the level lifting gate, policemen are talking to a group of military men. A policeman in an armored vest stops us and orders to come out of the car for a security check, and to show our passports. To our request to show the document which prescribes the order of entering a check-point inside the country for the citizens of Belarus, the policeman reacts in the following way:

“The police can demand that you show your ID regardless of the check-points existence. The town hosts military exercises now. You can read the detailed legislative base later in the papers.”

The police officer had no resolution on hands; he didn’t show his own ID either. The policeman checked the trunk, opened the hood and the cabin, wrote down personal information and allowed us to continue our journey only after completing this whole procedure. There were quite many people in the square at daytime. However, most of them refused to talk to the journalists.

“Yes, they say something about the exercises, but this has nothing to do with us, we know nothing,” – the local old ladies say quietly and a little timidly. At last we meet he man who tells us about the curfew:

“It is better to stay at home at 10 p.m. – they say there might be fines. I don’t know why they do such a thing. Maybe, there is a need for this? Anyway, we surely should not be afraid of the war, while there is Russia protecting us… don’t take pictures, please, or they might put me in jail.”

The curfew remains not the only prohibition to the population. There is a sign on each store’s door in Berastavitsa: alcoholic beverages to be sold from 8 till 24 on June 13-15. In the actual fact, it has become almost impossible to purchase any alcoholic drink – private stores refuse to sell even beer, referring to “being under martial law”. As for state-owned shops, the shop assistant agrees to sell alcohol, having looked around first.

Scenario for diversionists

There is a Lenin monument standing near the district executive committee of Berastavitsa, and a girl sitting on a bench beside it. She also knows about the curfew and even received a corresponding instruction at her workplace.

“We have been told to close our windows tightly as someone may walk along the street and throw a bag in it, and this might happen unexpectedly so we should always be alerted.”

This looks like a possible scenario of the conditional “armed gangs”, foreseen by the commanders.

A waitress in the only restaurant in Berastavitsa, who is also the wife of the police department officer, tells the following:

“The people have received no centralized information about the exercises until the last moment. I knew as my husband is connected with the force structures, other employees of our café just heard some rumours. There have been rumours they might mine the building, for example.”

True, the detailed information about the military exercises appeared on the website of the Berastavitskaya Hazeta only the day they actually started. There was not a word about the new regulations for the town dwellers though.

“Just stay where you are told”

“My attitude is negative!” a woman at the store is outraged. She recalls:

“In the morning, we were driving through this check-point, they stopped our car, ordered to get out. I decided to turn off the road in order not to interfere with the traffic movement, and the policeman shouted at me “Don’t think, just stay where you are told!” My friend was driving next, so they unfolded a barbed tape in front of his car and punctured the tires…”

Another Berastavitsa inhabitant, a middle-aged man, adds:

“It seems that the army has too much money to waste. Whom should we defend against, who attacks us, what guerrillas? I think they are doing this to prevent the Ukrainian scenario from happening here. They are defending against their own people. As the people are discontent. I worked at the bread factory, earned over Br 3 million a couple of years ago, and this year they paid me Br 1 800 000, and then laid off. The website of the job centre seems stuffed with advertisements, but they say they need no one when you come to obtain employment. There were rumors in Berastavitsa that the executive committee gathered all the directors of the enterprises and ordered to hire no one.”

The man hides his face when he sees a camera, refusing to be in the picture.

“Everything is proceeding according to the plan”

The officer on duty does not let us in the Berastavitsa police department, asking to come back when the senior executives return from the check-points. We come back in some 40 minutes, he writes down our passport data once again and asks to wait until he speaks to the bosses. Twenty minutes later he clarifies:

“Unfortunately, there will be no comments. The head-quarters exercises are proceeding according to the plans, everything is normal. I can add nothing.”

Thus, we didn’t manage to obtain an official comment.

In the evening, people in the streets start hurrying home, others, on the contrary, come out “to see the curfew”. Some say that, apart from the law-enforcement officers, vigilantes also patrol the town, and they have a right to check IDs or take a passer-by to the police department.

When we leave the town, they stop our car once again, to write down our surnames. We bid farewell to Berastavitsa, with its check-points, patrols and the “tactics of the anti-guerrilla war”.

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