Sub-machine gunners in Belarusian tourist areas :: Charter'97 :: News

Ministry of Sports and Tourism has elaborated a bill providing the division of the territory of Belarus into 27 tourist areas. According to the officials, the innovation is targeted at making the country more attractive for foreign tourists. But while the guests are expected, the first people to appear in the tourist areas were guarders with automatons.

This year the inhabitants of the Narach and Braslauskiye Lakes regions for the first time saw fish guard armed with Kalashnikov automatons. According to the inspectors, this year the guard has been supplied with new automobiles, patrol boats, camouflage with should-straps, guns and automatons. During official meetings, in the state-owned Mass Media the new sub-units are called “environmental OMON”.

In his interview to Radio Liberty, well-known ecologist and publicist Valery Dranchuk comments negatively on the reinforcement of the water and forest guard. He deems the state does not use alternative methods of environmental protection.

“There has always been craving for the nature, for interaction with it. But what does the State do to soften this contact through education, to make people treat the nature with affection and care? It does NOTHING in this concern! I mean some kind of visitors’ centers that must be in our preserves, around our lakes, in the forests - those nature reserves that will always be visited. But the matter being discussed today is nothing more than a step towards the creation of the police state, another cudgel raised over the society.”