Despite beatings, arrests and abuse, women lead the revolt in Belarus
‘Crouch down!” a female prison guard shouted to Tamara Shpakova, forcing her to strip for a cavity search after she was picked up by police outside a supermarket in the Belarusian capital Minsk in August. “I said ‘I can’t, my leg is broken’,” the 35-year-old engineer told The Daily Telegraph. For 24 hours, Ms Shpakova, a tall woman with bright blue hair, was in custody, passing out from the pain of a broken kneecap, lying on a pile of men bludgeoned by truncheons in a police van, trying to get some rest on the cement floor of her prison cell.
Belarus, one of the sleepiest former Soviet republics where crossing the street at a red light is unheard of and demonstrators clean up after a rally, descended into chaos last month after Alexander Lukashenko, the president, unleashed thousands of riot police officers on to his own citizens who cast doubt on his landslide victory at the polls, extending his 26-year-long rule.
The impromptu rally on election night, Aug 9, when Mr Lukashenko was announced to have won 80 per cent of the vote, was dispersed with staggering brutality. For several nights, riot police were on a rampage across Minsk and other towns, hunting down protesters and even pedestrians in the street, firing rubber bullets, throwing stun grenades and detaining thousands who were later subjected to torture and humiliation reminiscent of the Nazi occupation of Belarus during the Second World War. Faced with police violence that mainly targeted men, Belarusian women have in recent weeks emerged as a driving force behind the opposition movement. Many have confronted riot police, taking off their masks in a defiant attempt to shame them and reveal their identities. Mr Lukashenko will meet his key backer Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, today in their first face-toface contact since the unrest began. Before the trip, he denied reports of torture at the hands of his security forces, claiming that “some girls got their butts smeared in blue paint” to imitate bruises. Yet hundreds are still reeling from violence and grappling with debilitating injuries.
Ms Shpakova was discharged from hospital on Tuesday and every chore is a challenge: the young woman who enjoyed dancing and fencing can now only hobble around on crutches, her right leg in a knee brace. Two male friends come over to help her down the stairs from her fifth-floor apartment for a doctor’s appointment.
An engineer at an IT company, Ms Shpakova was outraged by brazen vote-rigging at the polls and Mr Lukashenko’s declared triumph so she joined a friend for the election night protest and was able to get home safe. Two days later, when Minsk was swarming with riot police, Ms Shpakova went to see friends about half an hour walk away. With no way to get a taxi, the friends walked her home. When a few police vans drove by, they turned back to the local supermarket, fearing trouble.
A moment later, a blue, unmarked minivan pulled up and a horde of black-clad riot police charged. “There were no protesters, no flags, no placards. Police were grabbing everyone they saw,” Ms Shpakova said.
She and her friend Nadezhda, whose husband managed to escape, were lying face down on the asphalt, getting bludgeoned with truncheons and kicked. At one point, Ms Shpakova felt a searing pain – this is when her kneecap got broken. Officers dragged her into the van by her hair.
Inside the van, women huddled together on long benches along the wall, with men lying on the floor on top of each other – “piles and piles of bodies”, the IT engineer describes – bludgeoned and kicked by police.
One officer was jumping on the men, roaring with laughter. A few moments later, the detained women were told to sing the Belarusian national anthem to drown out the screams. “We, Belarusians, are peaceful people,” the anthem goes.
Ms Shpakova and hundreds of others arrived at the jail. In the corridor, dozens were told to stand with their faces against the wall. “I started passing out from pain – I was standing on one foot. Then someone came up to me and said: ‘Do you think you can go around with blue hair like that in any other country?’ He smashed my head against the wall.”
Guards were shouting to them to stand still. “I said: ‘I can’t stand. You can kill me right now but I can’t stand: my leg is broken, I need medical help’,” Ms Shpakova said. She was allowed to sit, but had to crawl to the examination room where female guards asked women to get undressed and examined their mouths and genitals.
The four by five metre section of the exercise yard was packed with 29 women. Ms Shpakova took off her trainers and sat down on them so she would not have to sit on the floor.
The night was pierced by screams of men being savagely beaten.
The following day, Ms Shpakova was brought before a judge and his secretary who held trial in the dimly lit corridor by the cells.
“I hope you die, scum,” a prison doctor told her as she passed by.
She insisted that she was not demonstrating and told the court that she was denied medical help. She was charged with taking part in an illegal assembly, but she has not received the court ruling or even her case file. Shortly afterwards, Ms Shpakova was in an ambulance with five others including a man with a broken spine.
At hospital, Ms Shpakova, who prides herself on being confident and composed, broke down: “I was sobbing, all my body was shaking.”
Belarusian volunteers who work with victims of police torture and beatings have documented more than 450 cases like Ms Shpakova’s after about 2,000 people were arrested.
The UN, which said last month that four people died in Belarus after sustaining injuries during the protests, last week called for an investigation.
Rights group Viasna has been providing legal and psychological help for the victims. At a secret location, Yevgenia Pankova, a clinical therapist, was getting ready to moderate an interview with one of the victims.
“I had no idea anything like this would be possible in our country. This is a collective trauma,” Ms Pankova said. “Their injuries begin to heal, but what happened to their mental well-being didn’t go away.”
Ms Pankova experienced a burnout after sitting in on a dozen interviews in the space of three days.
Belarusian authorities still deny that hundreds of civilians were beaten and tortured by riot police and interior ministry troops. Oleg Pashkevich, the co-ordinator of Viasna’s public outreach office, says he is not aware of a single criminal inquiry launched into the reports of torture and beatings.
Ms Shpakova said she is even more convinced now that she wants to fight on. She said: “All the pain from that broken kneecap was worth all the joy, warmth and tenderness that I saw not only from friends and family but also from strangers.”
At least 100,000 Belarusian protesters took to the streets of Minsk yesterday in one of the biggest demonstrations yet. Police said they had detained about 250 people.
‘All the pain from that broken kneecap was worth all the warmth and tenderness I saw not only from friends and family but also from strangers’