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From: TT
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Photo: AP / TT
Thousands of people mourned a dead protester in Minsk at his funeral. The image shows another collection in memory of the man, in the center of Minsk last week.
Several thousand people came to the Belarusian capital, Minsk, to honor the memory of the protester Roman Bondarenko, who after being arrested by the police.
Many red and white flowers have been laid on his grave and people chanted the last words he wrote: “I am leaving.”
Some 5,000 people gathered in Minsk before Bondarenko’s funeral, according to Reuters and AFP. People raised their arms in the air in silence and the collection also raised flowers in the red and white colors of the opposition.
The funeral took place in a church on the outskirts of the city and when the coffin was removed, applause erupted among those gathered. The crowd spread more than 500 meters from the church door.
“I’m leaving,” was what the 31-year-old wrote to his family on November 12, before intervening against a group of men who took down the opposition flags in his residential area, were beaten and kidnapped and finally died of brain damage.
Beaten up and kidnapped
The arrest was one of many thousands that have taken place since protests against President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime began, following the highly questionable presidential elections in August. The testimonies of violence and torture have been extensive.
A film clip recorded in connection with Bondarenko’s arrest shows how men in plain clothes and masks abuse him. Witnesses say he was conscious when he was taken away on a bus.
Regime law enforcement agencies have often used plain clothes, masks and unmarked uniforms when suppressing protests, but authorities deny they are responsible for the 31-year-old’s subsequent death.
They claim that Bondarenko suffered brain damage in a drunken street fight, but leaked documents from the hospital where he died showed that he had no alcohol on his body. An anesthetist in the emergency room has been arrested by the police on suspicion of leaking the documents, which is formally classified as “spreading false information.” A journalist from the independent news site Tut.by who participated in the disclosure of this is also in the custody of the KGB.
Ice hockey leader involved?
Independent media report that one of the men who joined Bondarenko had strong similarities to the president of the Belarusian Ice Hockey Federation, Dmitry Baskov, who was close to Lukashenko. In a leaked recorded phone call, a person said to be Baskov is heard talking about these events, reports the Russian news agency Interfax.
The EU has condemned the killings and on Thursday imposed more sanctions on the regime for its crackdown on the protests.
Around 16,000 arrests have been made in connection with the protests in Belarus in recent months. About 700 people are in custody awaiting sentencing from the strictly controlled judiciary.
Lukashenko will tell
Lukashenko says that next week he will “tell the whole story” about Bondarenko’s death, reports the state news agency Belta. He claims that the man’s relatives are asking the public to let them cry in peace.
Furthermore, Lukashenko announces that Russia, who is currently his closest confidante, has granted Belarus a deferral of a $ 1 billion loan to be repaid this year.
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