Torture massively used in Belarus, according to several NGOs
The Human Rights Council has decided to organize an emergency debate on the situation in Belarus.
Martial Trezzini / Pool via REUTERS
Text by: RFI Follow
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An NGO has collected several testimonies from victims of repression in Belarus.
All mention the arbitrary arrests, humiliations and beatings during their detention.
The NGO Human Right Watch also denounces cases of mistreatment.
The World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) even talks about crimes against humanity.
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From our correspondent in Geneva
,
Jérémie Lanche
The Belarusian human rights NGO Viasna, one of the few to work on the spot, collected testimonies from victims.
Their stories are all more or less similar: an often arbitrary arrest by the police, the search of personal documents, the transfer to detention centers.
Then the first humiliations, like staying naked on your knees on the ground, and the first beatings, sometimes until fainting.
“
Torture is everywhere.
It's not just in Minsk.
We have received testimonies from several cities.
It's a kind of punishment.
A collective and politically motivated punishment after the demonstrations against power.
For example, if the police find photos of the demonstrations in your phone, they mark you with paint of a specific color and you are then beaten more severely than the others,
”emphasizes Valentin Stefanovich, from the NGO Viasna.
#Belarus: Today @omctorg, @fidh_en, @ viasna96 and the Belarus Helsinki Committee formally seized the UN Special Rapporteur to investigate the matter.
Stop torture and impunity now 🔻https: //t.co/jcmIKoJZai pic.twitter.com/wmE3dMcMIV
OMCT (@omctorg) August 24, 2020
Difficult to have reliable figures.
Viasna speaks of hundreds of cases of torture since the protests began in August.
None have given rise to legal proceedings while at least 27 criminal proceedings have been opened by the Belarusian courts against opponents, according to Viasna.
The World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) calls on the UN Human Rights Council to conduct an independent investigation.
The Council also decided to urgently discuss the situation in Belarus, this Friday, September 18 in Geneva.
The NGO Human Right Watch has also documented numerous cases of mistreatment of anti-Lukashenko demonstrators in the days following the presidential election of August 9: beatings, electric shocks, incommunicado in overcrowded and unsanitary premises.
In recent days, security forces have again engaged in mass arrests of demonstrators, often accompanied by violence.
Jonathan Pedneault, researcher at HRW
RFI
► See also: Belarus: tens of thousands of demonstrators in Minsk, 400 arrests
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