br23 blog - minsk, belarus

On March 23 Viachaslau Siuchyk (a prominent opposition activist) received a phone call on his mobile. A girl said she’s a representative of the U.S.Embassy in Belarus, and she told him that Ambassador George Krol wants to meet him. Siuchyk was a bit surprised that he couldn’t see the number on his mobile phone (it said “undisclosed number”).

Viachaslau Siuchyk, being a popular opposition leader, was on October square at that moment together with other peaceful protesters. He said he can’t leave the square because he’ll be immediately arrested.

The girl said the U.S. Embassy will send a car to fetch him into safety. Indeed, some time later a car with yellow (diplomatic) licence plates arrived on October square. At first, policemen forbid them to park there, but for some reason after talking with the driver they allowed the car to park.

One of the activists from the camp approached the car. The driver in the car said that he’s from the U.S. Embassy and that he came to pick up Viachaslau Siuchyk.

Protesters formed a live corridor of people, holding each other’s hands, and Siuchyk walked safely from the camp toward the car.

The car drove away with mister Siuchyk, only to stop hundreds meters down the road, next to a minivan with dark shaded glasses, full of people in black masks.

The people from the “U.S. embassy car” opened the door, violently threw Siuchyk into this minivan which immediately sped away.

Inside the car people in masks told to Viachaslau Siuchyk several times “we are going to kill you!” “We’ll kill you and throw your body into a dump,” said one of the people in a mask.

Siuchyk remained silent throughout. Seeing no reaction from him, they started beating him up. Opposition politician was brutally beaten.

He was eventually (he doesn’t know how much later, because he lost consciousness) brought to a police station somewhere, and policemen at the station seeing his condition, called an ambulance.

At this moment he’s in a hospital, in pretty bad condition. Doctors say he has a serious head concussion. There are policemen guarding his hospital room day and night.

His mother had a minor heart attack when she learned the news.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 27th, 2006 at 7:14 pm and is filed under Belarusian politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.