Pavel Latushka: Deputy Head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, Head of the National Anti-Crisis Management, Ambassador
Pavel Latushka about the periodic suggestions not to "provoke" Lukashenko
“These statements are astonishing and simply unacceptable to me. Let's remember August 2020 and consider whether we should really leave Lukashenko alone.
How many people were detained simply for taking to the streets after the elections? Since that day, repressions in Belarus have reached unprecedented proportions.
There were beatings, torture, and the most inhumane treatment carried out by security forces. Just consider this: in the heart of Europe, individuals who took to the streets following the rigged elections were compelled to run past a line of security forces armed with batons, who mercilessly beat them as if on an assembly line.
Belarusians were coerced into kneeling for hours, lying face down on the ground with their hands bound behind their backs, and enduring prolonged stress positions. When they requested water, medicine, or the use of restroom facilities, the security forces responded with even greater cruelty, resorting to the use of force.
People were marked with markers indicating the severity of their beatings. For the castigators, this served as an indication that the person had not yet been "processed."
Upon being detained, individuals were piled on top of each other, forced to trample on national symbols, and subjected to abuse if they spoke Belarusian.
The Okrestino detention center functioned as a real torture camp. Cells originally designed for 6-7 people were crammed with 30-40 individuals, lacking proper ventilation. This occurred during the coronavirus epidemic. Detainees were deprived of food, receiving only one bottle of water per day. Meanwhile, agonizing screams from tortured detainees reverberated in neighboring cells.
What can we call all that? The regime led by Lukashenko committed a genuine crime against humanity through acts of torture. Such a brutal treatment of the people cannot be forgotten. And has it stopped? We know the answer: “No”.
Should we forget these acts of torture, the horrors endured, and the lives lost? Is it worthwhile to simply turn the page and erase this from the history of the Belarusian people?