Latvia actively joined crimes of Poland and Lithuania on Belarusian border

Earlier this week, the Belarusian border guards found another dead foreigner on the border with Latvia which was located a few metres from the barrier installed on the Latvian territory – as reported by the State Border Committee of Belarus in its Telegram channel

According to the border department, based on the nature of the traces left at the scene, the dead body was most likely moved from the adjacent territory through the fence. Moreover, a section of wire was removed from the border fence that could have been used to move the dead body of a refugee. In order to establish all the circumstances of the incident, an investigative-operational team worked on the spot.

This is far from the first case of atrocities by security forces of neighbouring states on our borders this winter. The other day, Latvian security forces ousted a group of foreigners, one of whom subsequently died. On December 19th, the State Border Guard of Latvia informed that an Afghan citizen died as a result of hypothermia in the Latvian territory. Moreover, on the night of December 12th-13th, not far from the border with Latvia, a Belarusian border patrol found a refugee whose brother also died on the Latvian side.

 

All these facts continue to be recorded by the White Book – an Internet project, launched in November 2021 and created as a result of a broad public investigation of crimes against refugees by the neighbouring states’ security forces. This investigation was initiated by the Republican Znanie Belarusian Society, the Belarusian Union of Journalists and the Belarus Segodnya Publishing House. As a result, the book – Crimes of Poland and Lithuania against Refugees: Facts and Evidence – was published, quickly prepared by journalists of the SB. Belarus Segodnya newspaper and published by the Belarus Publishing House. It seems that this book needs to be reprinted, since there are more and more new facts, and the title no longer fully corresponds to reality, as the actions of Latvia no longer correspond to the norms of civilised society and humanity in general.

As reported by BelTA news agency with reference to the official representative of the Investigative Committee Sergei Kabakovich, the Investigative Committee is establishing the circumstances of the death of two refugees on the border with Latvia.

“Despite the declared humanism on the part of the collective West, people in uniform, who are on the borders of neighbouring states, continue to treat the lives and health of refugees with an extremely cynical and derogatory attitude. The exhausted, lifeless bodies of two migrants were discovered in the Verkhnedvinsk District within 24 hours, just 18 hours apart, in the border zone,” said the Investigative Committee’s spokesman.

Investigative and operational groups immediately arrived at the scene of the incident. Investigators and specialists of the Vitebsk Region Directorate of the State Forensic Examination Committee of Belarus conducted inspections and recorded the trace pattern. It is reported that the dead did not even have personal belongings and documents with them. It is planned to appoint expert studies on other confiscated subjects and objects. The preliminary cause of men’s death is hypothermia. For the establishment of the exact cause of death, forensic expert investigations have been appointed.

The investigation studies several versions of what happened. Analysing the traces at the scene of the incidents and taking into account the explanations of eyewitnesses, it is possible to say that in these cases there is an exclusively forceful option of expelling refugees from the territory of the neighbouring state, Sergei Kabakovich underlined. All the circumstances of the incident will be carefully established by the Investigative Committee during the proceedings. The Investigative Committee underlined that this is not the first case when foreign security forces do not leave even the slightest chance for refugees to survive: taking away personal belongings, food, documents and mobile communication devices.