Chechen-Belarusian Transit :: Charter'97 :: News

Those, who organize transportation of the Chechen guerillas to the West, believe that the easiest way to get them there is through Belarus.
A week after the terrorist act in the Dubrovka theatrical complex in Moscow, there occurred an incident in the Belarusian border town Brest. A few hundred Chechen nationals – mostly women and children – were put off a train without any explanations provided. By the way, this was done by the Polish rather than Belarusian customs officers. Belarusians let the Chechens cross the border without a hitch, for they need not such people at their side. Anyway, the Chechens were returned back to Brest and they settled down in the expectation hall of the Brest railway station. As they later confessed to the Belarusian TV correspondents, now they would try their best at the Belarusian-Lithuanian border.

The main center of the illegal transit of Chechens in Belarus is Brest and Brest region. A guide, who called himself Aslan, said that it happened so by accident. After the collapse of the Soviet Union it turned out that the largest Chechen diaspora was based there, which later formed infrastructure for the allocation of his incoming countrymen.

- What if someone moves from Chechnya via the North-Western regions of Russia? Is there any specific route via other Belarusian towns?

- As a rule, all transit is provided for by the relatives all along the way. Relatives means not just brothers and sisters, but members of your clan, who can live anywhere. So transit can be organized through any town. However, at the end the majority arrives in Brest anyway.

- Why don’t they travel to Czech Republic via Ukraine or Slovakia?

- It is easier to solve problems in Belarus. Your police are just great. We have no problems with them at all: just pay and go wherever you want with whosoever you want. We also give bribes to almost every road policeman who stops the vehicle. Problems arise only with big riot police patrols – it seems as though they fear one another. However, when they are few, they simply tell us how much they need. We get along with them better than with the road police. Ukrainians want more and pose too many odd questions. Slovakians are really tough – they dread to lose their job. So Belarus remains the most suitable variant for us.

Aslan has been living in Czech Republic for long. Once he bought a residence permit there and feels at ease now. Illegal transit is no business for him. He earns money in different ways. He provides for transit simply because he’s obliged to help out his own. Aslan claims that his brothers usually travel along the following route: Russia-Ukraine-Belarus-Lithuania-Poland-Czech Republic-Germany (Austria) –Belgium (Holland). The trip is organized by the relatives from all over Europe. Refugees are even freed from the filtration camps – relatives simply pay to the officers and drive their friends away in any direction.

After lengthy hesitations and phone conversations Aslan agreed to organize our encounter with two Chechens, who have recently come to the Czech Republic and were in double mind as to whether they should apply for asylum or go further. One of them named himself as Timur and the other – Said. Both traveled to Czech Republic through Belarus. However, they made it over to Czech Republic in different ways. Their relatives bought them out of the filtration camps.

Aslan, Said and Timur only touched upon the Belarusian part of the road. For the time being, the Chechen asylum seekers in Czech Republic have state protection. Practically all of them live in the Interior Ministry’s dormitory. Many of them illegally crossed the Ukrainian-Belarusian or Belarusian-Lithuanian border. Apart from Chechens there are also the Afghani, Vietnamese and Pakistani, who managed to traverse the Belarusian border in long cargo vehicles. There are also Armenian, Georgian and Dagestan nationals, who also illegally infiltrated the West from Belarus. As you can see, the “Belarusian transit” operates all right.