Gigin: Belarus launched public investigation of crimes against refugees
A public investigation of crimes against refugees on the Polish border has been launched in Belarus – initiated by the Republican Znanie [Knowledge] Belarusian Society, the Belarus Segodnya Publishing House and the Belarusian Union of Journalists. Its results will be compiled in a special publication of the Belarus Publishing House.
The plans were announced yesterday at a press conference held at Minsk’s Press House. The Chairman of the Republican Znanie Belarusian Society and a Candidate of Historical Sciences – Associate Professor Vadim Gigin – said, “Statements have been made more than once about the need for an international criminal investigation of what is happening on the Polish border these days. The facts of crimes against humanity committed by Polish and Lithuanian security forces and those politicians who give orders to them are well known. Meanwhile, state and interstate procedures are a rather lengthy process, although everything is obvious here: we observe a violation of international norms – such as the Refugee Convention and the Rome Statute. We see how people are being kicked out of the territory of the European Union on a national, racial and religious basis. This crisis on the Polish and Lithuanian sides is absolutely man-made.”
With this in view, an idea arose to record evidence of the crimes committed by Polish security forces against refugees. Mr. Gigin explained the need for such work, “A crime that has not been evaluated, a crime that has not been recorded and recognised, unfortunately, tends to repeat itself. We can see this well on the example of the Polish side. It is necessary to understand the reasons that led to the commission of these crimes and – at least without anger or bias – to collect evidence and facts of what is happening.”
According to Mr. Gigin, this is important also because there is a huge flow of lies and misinformation. On global scales, there have been many examples of humanitarian crises. Meanwhile, this is the first time such a thing is happening on the Belarusian borders.
“Just recently we witnessed a mass execution against refugees. That was an act of state terror. We have a video confirmation: Polish border guards persuaded refugees over the fence to go to the checkpoint. They gathered them there intentionally. Water cannons had been previously taken there and people were demonstratively subjected to this execution with the use of special means and water cannons. It was a reaction, we can assume it politically, to Ms. Merkel’s telephone conversation with Aleksandr Lukashenko. It was a reaction to an attempt to resolve this crisis. It was an act of intimidation against refugees so that they would leave this border and stop creating problems for Polish border guards. Meanwhile, Polish politicians are quite effectively – from a political point of view – using this crisis in their domestic political arena to consolidate their own electorate,” Mr. Gigin said.
