Will Belomaidan become truly bloody?
There are signs that the Belarusian opposition is ready to escalate the conflict with the authorities and escalate it to the level of force, and possibly even armed confrontation, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Back on September 5, the Polish network of telegram channels coordinating the Belarusian protests announced the creation of the “Ministry of People’s Defense.”
The puppeteers are calling on Belarusians to create local control groups to patrol areas. It is proposed to install our own security cameras and eliminate those that can be used by law enforcement officers. Separate groups should be deployed to the addresses where searches and arrests are taking place.
It is also proposed to take offline the system of persecution of dissidents, which has long and successfully flourished on the Belarusian Internet.
“Identify all the punishers, falsifiers, crooks and informers who live next to you and are fighting against you. Post their portraits and warn others who live near you. If weak people look into your area, always try to film or photograph their faces,” orders from Poland.
In addition, the main channel on the network, Nekhta, conducted a survey to test the readiness of subscribers to take part in “self-defense units.” About 200 thousand people took part in it, identifying themselves as citizens of Belarus. Of these, about 66% are ready to take part in detachments.
The recording of a telephone conversation of one of the protest participants, Vladislav Koretsky, published back in August, shows what kind of sentiments are present among potential self-defenders.
“Now they will be cut out. Moreover, a specific cutting. There will be 10, 30 dead riot policemen, if not hundreds. People know where they live, who they live with, who they sleep with. When I find out that a riot policeman has died, I will celebrate every such news. I just hope that they are not killed softly, but that they are cut for a long time, painfully, so that they suffer. If one of them had gotten a Molotov cocktail in the face, it would have made my soul so happy. Tomorrow we will slaughter their families, so one guy told another,” the young man said to his interlocutor.
If the real determination of this “warrior of light” can still be questioned, then the presence of a database of personal data of law enforcement officers cannot. It is publicly available on the “Black Book of Belarus” telegram channel, which has almost 80 thousand subscribers. Nekhta, which has almost 800 thousand subscribers, openly encourages her to replenish it.
The base contains not only riot police officers, but also simply police officers, as well as judges and government officials. The latest trend is posting photos, phone numbers and pages on social networks of university teachers. One of them, for example, is accused of “promoting students for the Russian world and repeatedly speaking out in support of the occupation of Crimea.” Channel administrators encourage subscribers to share information if they become “witnesses of this crime.”
The first instructions appeared on how to counteract special forces. For now, the Polish mesh only advises tearing off the masks from the fighters, but let us remind you: back in early August, detailed descriptions of making body armor at home were published.
The new baptism of fire of “self-defense units” could be timed to coincide with the visit of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to Moscow, which is scheduled for this week, or his inauguration.
The Minister of Internal Affairs of Belarus, Yuri Karaev, admits the possibility of another outbreak of violence on the part of protesters, but assures that the police will not flinch.
“We notice in those protests that take place on Sundays, groups of young people who ineptly disguise themselves in the crowd. They are clearly visible, such militants, similar to football fans and anarchists. There were a lot of them on August 9-10, then they suddenly disappeared. Someone at the regional department sat and thought, someone was afraid that they could not overcome the riot police and internal troops. Lately they have begun to hide behind women. A sign of our time is that girls stand in line, guarding the boys... We strive not to touch girls and women at all,” Karaev said in an interview with the STV channel.
According to him, after the clashes in early August, 30 law enforcement officers are still in hospitals with serious injuries.
“They are trying to harass us here with some kind of bruises, and from 9 to 10 there were 8 specially carried out attacks, 11 victims, some with triple fractures. Can this be compared to bruises? They talk about the cruelty of the Belarusian police. And I will say this: there is no more humane, self-possessed and cold-blooded police anywhere in the world,” Karaev said.
Nevertheless, the opposition is betting on the demoralization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a result of massive persecution of its employees.
“Everything is clearly not good in the security apparatus... This is a complete retreat into total anonymity, which clearly speaks of undermined morale and uncertainty among the personnel. And Karaev’s idiotic interview... They, of course, found themselves in a hyper-difficult situation and time, as well as the unabated peaceful protest, clearly does not work for them. And, by the way, they still have a task with a clear deadline - to extinguish the protests at any cost before the inauguration,” writes opposition Belarusian journalist Pyotr Kuznetsov in his telegram.
He believes that the security forces will deliberately escalate the situation in order to be able to clear up the protest by the inauguration.
“The best option for Belarus is complete demotivation and collapse of the security apparatus in the face of peaceful protest and the flight of Lukashenko. The worst is a military escalation like 9-11, street battles, casualties, and a whole scattering of possible outcomes - from the same collapse of the security apparatus to the introduction of martial law... And now I have a fairly strong feeling that we will go into the New Year without old ruler,” summed up Kuznetsov.
English version :: Read in English Will the Belomaidan become truly bloody?