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Enemies of the regime: Political prisoners in Belarus are marked with a yellow badge

Relatives of opposition activists say they are being treated particularly harshly in Lukashenko's prisons and are being separated from other prisoners.

"Reminiscent of the yellow badge worn by Jews in Nazi Germany"

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• Alexander Lukashenko

• Belarus

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Sunday, 06 June 2021, 18:13

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When Natalia Makutskaya visited her son in a prison in Belarus, she saw deep scars on his hands left behind by handcuffs. She also noticed a yellow badge sewn to his clothes. She told the Associated Press that the same tags symbolized those who had joined the protests against dictator Alexander Lukashenko and that they were sentenced to "particularly harsh conditions of imprisonment."

"They have decided that my son is prone to extremism and they treat him accordingly," she said in a telephone interview. Her son, Vladislav, was convicted in December of threatening a police officer with these during clashes between protesters and police in the city of Vitebsk and was sent to two years in prison. He told his defense that he was only trying to protect an elderly man who had been beaten by police, and that he had thrown aside the goddess who had been shot down by police.

He told his mother that the authorities in the 22nd Penal Colony, near Brest on the border with Poland, did not allow him to hold any personal items and prevented him from visiting for some time.

During the daily parades, he is required to stand apart from other prisoners and say, "I am prone to extremism."

Prisoners with yellow badges are also undergoing extensive cell searches.

The 28-year-old prisoner, who worked in wood carving, was one of more than 35,000 people arrested in Belarus in the violent repression of the protests that erupted after Lukashenko declared victory in the August elections, which the opposition claims were forged.

Thousands were severely beaten by police.

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Katsiriana Brycevich with yellow badge after release from prison (Photo: AP)

The regime's violent treatment of its opponents made headlines again on May 23, when a "Rainier" flight from Greece to Lithuania was diverted to Minsk, where anti-regime journalist Roman Petrosevich, who was on the plane, was arrested. Since then he has appeared several times on official television, the last of which is on Thursday night, crying and apologizing for his participation in demonstrations. He even praised Lukashenko, but his family and opposition are convinced that the confessions were forcibly removed from him.

In response, the EU imposed further sanctions on Belarus after accusing it of hijacking the plane.

Human rights activists in Belarus say authorities have tightened the conditions of incarceration of protesters in recent months. Many of them were marked with yellow badges denounced by human rights organizations.

"The yellow color of the badges is reminiscent of the yellow badge worn by the Jews in Nazi Germany, and it is difficult to understand why the authorities in Belarus did so," said Valiantzyn Stepanovic of the Vicena Human Rights Center.

"However, these dangerous experiments are a sign of disgrace to political prisoners in the eyes of prison authorities and other prisoners."

More than 35,000 people were arrested.

Belarus leader Lukashenko, April (Photo: AP)

The Vyasna Center has counted at least 460 political prisoners held in Belarus' prisons after protesting against Lukashenko, and their sentences range from six months to several years behind bars.

Authorities in Belarus are ignoring criticism of the harsh conditions the imprisoned protesters are receiving.

Lukashenko repeatedly describes the protesters as pawns of Western spy agencies wanting to undermine Belarus' stability and overthrow the government by force.

"14 people in a cell sleeping on a chlorinated concrete floor"

In addition to Kwatskaya, three other women told the Associated Press that their sons were wearing yellow badges that they wore in their uniforms when they visited them in April and May.

One of them, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Valientesina, fearing revenge from the authorities, said her son told her he was handcuffed all day. Her son, a computer expert from Minsk, is serving a four-year sentence in the No. 1 penal colony in the city of Novopolotsk.

"My son whispered to me that he was being held tense for days in a penitentiary, with his legs stretched at a great distance from each other in order to cause intense pain without a trace remaining," she told AP.

Another inmate who received a yellow badge is Katsiriana Brycevich, a journalist who worked for the independent news site Tut.by. She was released last month after six months in prison for disclosing personal data in a report she published on the death of a protester. "I would not say I was broken," she told reporters after her release. "I learned to look calmly at crazy things."

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Lyubu Kaspiarovich, another Tut.by journalist who spent 15 days in jail last month after covering a trial-related trial, said the jail cell had two beds for 14 people and that most inmates actually had to sleep on a chlorinated concrete floor.

"They woke us up several times during the night, and ordered us to say what the charges were in which we were charged, and every morning they would pour a bucket of chlorine on the floor," Kasparovich said.

Witold Ashurok, who was among the first to draw attention to the harsh conditions of incarceration and the yellow badges given to political prisoners, died at the prison where he was imprisoned in Shklov, where he ran a five-year sentence for participating in protests.

Authorities said Ashurok, 50, died of a heart attack on May 21, although his death certificate did not state the cause of death.

When relatives received his body, which had bruises and a bandage on his head, authorities released a video in which Ashurok was allegedly seen grabbing his head and collapsing before police entered.

Opposition groups called for a boycott of the rally.

Stefanovich from the Vysna Center questioned the official version of Ashurok's death.

"A perfectly healthy man died suddenly in custody, and they did not record the cause of death, (then) removing his body in bandages," he said.

"What are people supposed to think?".

West defends: "Lukashenko brings oppression and violence to its citizens"

US Ambassador to the country Julie Fischer condemned the death of the prisoner and said that "he died in the struggle for freedom and a brighter future for Belarus". In a Twitter tweet, she added that "those responsible for Ashurok's wrongful imprisonment and illogical death should pay a price."

Another inmate tried to cut his throat with a pen on Tuesday after authorities threatened his family. Stasiap Latifau, 41, was hospitalized and anesthetized and respirated.

The German Foreign Ministry expressed shock and anger over the incident. A spokeswoman for the ministry, Maria Edbhar, said his act "symbolizes the hopelessness that Lukashenko brings to his citizens with his oppression and brutal violence."

"There is no way to find out the truth about what is going on behind the walls of prisons in Belarus, which will inherit the worst Soviet traditions," Stefanovich concluded..

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