MINSK, 18 May (BelTA) - Ivan Mamaiko, a member of the Standing Commission on National Security of the House of Representatives, commented on the main provisions of the law “On the amendment of laws on ensuring national security in the Republic of Belarus” in an interview with BelTA.
"The document introduces amendments and additions to six laws: ‘On the internal affairs bodies', ‘On internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs', ‘On the state border', ‘On the border service', ‘On state protection' and ‘On the state security'. This law has been adopted to improve the appropriate legislation taking into account enforcement practices, including international ones," Ivan Mamaiko said.
The MP zeroed in on the law "On the internal affairs bodies."it has a number of innovations aimed to improve the structure of the internal affairs bodies. For example, it establishes that the police is a paramilitary body. Accordingly, in its activities it is guided not only by the Labor Code but also by the regulation on performing active duty. Police officers have uniforms, insignia. The internal affairs bodies also have the right to buy and use handguns and other firearms. This is the criterion that defines a paramilitary organization," he said. “
As you know, the structure of the internal affairs bodies is clearly regulated by law. However, it is not static and changes to stay in tune with current realities. With cybercrime on the rise, the criminal police deems it necessary to have a separate unit to deal with these crimes. By the way, the units to combat drug trafficking and human trafficking were set up om a similar way. They, too, used to be part of the criminal police but then went their own way." The law stipulates the possibility of establishing inter-territorial units for citizenship and migration. "Because under the law ‘On internal affairs bodies' citizenship and migration units could operate only under the internal affairs bodies. In large Belarusian cities, there are city and district internal affairs departments and there are citizenship and migration departments at them. Although it would be better to have a single division,” Ivan Mamaiko said.
The law also sets forth the procedure and terms of use of force, special means, and firearms. “It should be stressed that the law does not introduce any additional terms. We have just made the legislation more practical. The amendments apply to the reference norms of the existing laws. For example, a law enforcement officer is allowed to use a service weapon to arrest a person who has committed a serious offence and is trying to flee. In line with the current law, an officer is allowed to do that only if the person who is trying to flee is threatening the officer with a weapon or is using it against him/her. After analyzing the experience of foreign colleagues and the situation in Belarus, we believe that this reference norm is not quite adequate. If a law enforcement officer demands to stop illegal activities in a lawful manner, this demand should be obeyed,” Ivan Mamaiko stressed. “A law enforcement officer is absolved of responsibility for injuries inflicted with physical force, special means, or service weapons, if he acts in line with the legislation. This fact is undeniable. But earlier the laws made it clear that in addition to the legality of the use of a lethal force, the harm caused must be proportionate to the offender's resisting action. How do you determine this proportionality?” he noted.
The Belarusian legislation remains fairly liberal, Ivan Mamaiko added. “The main goal of the proposed amendments is to create the legislation that would be up-to-date, in tune with the current realities. I would like to reiterate that our task is to make these laws more practical and understandable for people who use them in their professional practice,” he said.
