MINSK, 17 August (BelTA) – The Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs will investigate all cases of violence and abuse of power by the police after the situation in the country stabilizes, Belarus' Minister of Internal Affairs Yuri Karayev said as he attended a rally in Nezavisimosti Square in Minsk on 16 August, BelTA has learned.
“This is very bad, I am against it. Such things should not happen. We will investigate all the cases. Not now, but when things calm down here,” Yuri Karayev said.
The minister stressed that he will not take any action now to avoid demoralizing the police for the benefit of foreign puppeteers. At the same time he pointed out that all the detained people are getting the help they need. “They are held in good conditions. I said earlier that I apologize to the injured and take responsibility for this,” Yuri Karayev added.
Yuri Karayev also mentioned the attacks on law enforcement officers, for example, several road police inspectors were hit by cars. “They [the drivers] talk with each other, saying: ‘Wow, look how many police officers we have hit. So cool that we broke them down'. I can tell you that I would like to prosecute them in a just way, in court, but I do not know if I can keep the personnel in check and what will happen to the next person who rams a police officer. This is an attempted murder. Those thousand beaten people have relatives, and I regret what happened to them. But they were beaten while these people [law enforcement officers] were maimed,” the minister remarked.
According to him, law enforcement officers and members of their families are receiving threats. People who send them will be punished, the minister stressed. “Calling children and wives of my staff, primarily, riot police officers, threatening them is an outrage. And if we find these people's children and wives, then what? We cannot do this, we do not have the right to to this, and these days I am trying to calm law enforcement officers down: we are a disciplined unit and we do not take revenge on anyone, we want to ensure peace,” Yuri Karayev said.
