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KGB Targets the OppositionHumiliating treatment of Franak Vyachorka in the military unit has aggravated: he is being forced to speak Russian and constantly searched.Recently officers of the military unit where Franak Vyachorka is now serving have threatened him with criminal prosecution for at least six times over the past few weeks. The reasons for that included possessing a mobile phone, insubordination and malingering, writing a blog. According to the website charter97.org he is also being harassed for speaking Belarusian in service. Vintsuk Vyachorka, Franak’s father and deputy chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front Party, says his son has been subjected to “deliberate psychological terror” by creating unbearable serving conditions. The father thinks that by doing this the officers are executing their orders “The military psychologist of the unit, Senior Lieutenant Dzyanis Kazak, who is at the same time the investigating officer, started to demand that Franak repeat commands, and answer them, in Russian,” said Vintsuk Vyachorka. “Both Kazak and Ensign Piskun, and other ensigns, started to use all sorts of insulting comments, like ‘speak in a normal language,’ or ‘speak in a normal way.’ This naturally is an insult to one’s national dignity and a direct violation of the constitutional rights of my son, and of any Belarusian,” said Franak’s father. .Franak Vyachorka is ordered to answer in Russian. Senior lieutenant Kazak and deputy commander of the military unit Uladzimir Ihnatsik threaten the young activist with criminal prosecution for insubordination. Vintsuk Vyachorka told of an unprecedented episode that took place in his son’s military unit. On July 21 the commanding officers of the unit ordered a few dozens of soldiers to line up and to sing a Russian song, while Franak Vyachorka was ordered to stand at a distance of 20 meters alone and sing a song in Belarusian “I cannot call that anything but apartheid,” the father said. “It is humiliation, a demonstration that only my son alone who is speaking Belarusian, emphasizing his ‘inferiority.’ Such things must be punished, in my opinion. I am surprised that the Belarusian Defense Ministry tolerates such humiliation of Belarusians and the Belarusian language in our army.” The father further said his son’s state of health has recently deteriorated. Before he was drafted into the army, the doctors confirmed the diagnosis of a second degree of arterial hypertension.He was diagnosed with this condition at the age of 15. Despite this fact, the commanding officers of the military unit think that Franak is malingering. In connection with this, a lieutenant colonel of the KGB counter intelligence service visited the military unit. He interviewed the unit’s soldiers, asking whether Franak Vyachorka was simulating his high blood pressure. A search of Franak’s bed-side table was recorded on a video camera. A copy of newspaper Narodnaya Volya and a few bags of instant coffee bags were found. They were confiscated as “forbidden” items. A year ago, the medical board of the military enlistment office of the Savetski district of Minsk found Franak Vyachorka unfit for military service because of his poor health. A regional medical board challenged the decision. After a check up in a military hospital, he received a deferment until March 2009. However, on January 16, the military enlistment office of the Savetski district of Minsk found Franak Vyachorka fit for military service. The court of this district upheld the decision of the military enlistment office. The decision was reached behind the closed doors, without Franak’s and his lawyer’s presence. This was one of the early cases of forcible enlistments into the Belarusian military. Currently, Franak Vyachorka is serving in the air defense military unit 48694 in Mazyr (Homel region) This article appeared in Belarusian Review, Vol. 21, No. 3 --------------------------------------------- Copyright 2009 Belarusian Review All rights reserved. belarusianreview@hotmailcom .
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