Photo exhibition about EU border guards’ atrocities opened in Minsk

A death machine launched by the EU countries at their borders is running at full speed today, and the Belarusian Telegraph Agency’s photo exhibition at Minsk’s Mikhail Savitsky Gallery – The Border Between Life and Death – clearly demonstrates this. More than a hundred photos feature the horrors of the refugee crisis on the Polish border provoked by the EU authorities.

Anton Bychkovsky, the official representative of the State Border Committee, reminded at the opening ceremony that Belarus, like Western countries, faced a refugee crisis in the autumn of 2021, “However, Belarus’ leadership, border guards, military and civil society did not follow the Western path. While our neighbours were building fences and laying out barbed wire, throwing people out in swamps and forests, the Belarusian side provided all possible assistance to all refugees without exception. We saw and showed to others how foreign security forces, while feeling their own impunity, gradually moved from physical pushing to the practice of brutal beatings of men, pregnant women and disabled people, as well as to their targeted intimidation. Taking advantage of the helplessness and defencelessness of refugees, the neighbouring countries’ military sadistically forced people to pass through fences and barbed wire, sprayed tear gas and threatened with execution.”

The official recalled the egregious cases when foreign border guards forced refugees to carry the bodies of their deceased compatriots, or even simply pushed the corpses onto Belarusian territory. “There were no cases of death on the border with Latvia in previous years, but we have already registered four since early 2023,” he added.

In turn, Aleksandr Sukhodolsky, the official representative of the Investigative Committee of Belarus, said that the neighbouring Western countries, in particular Poland, completely ignore any proposals for co-operation in the investigation of what is happening on the border, “The Western democracy has shown its true face in this situation. Inhumane treatment, cruelty, violence and certain elements of genocide against migrants have demonstrated how democracy works in the West. We can observe how people trying to find shelter or recover with their families simply die near the fence. The Investigative Committee constantly records the facts of armed displacement, acts of cruelty against foreigners by representatives of the Western ‘democratic countries’. There is also absolute indifference to the situation on the part of the world community, which gives rise to impunity and permissiveness.”

“Based on the current situation, we can state now that the authorities of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have completely devalued the lives of people, except for their own. They have given an exclusive right to their mercenaries wearing the uniform: to decide who deserves to live within the borders of the European Union. This is a death machine that is running at maximum speed today,” Mr. Sukhodolsky summed up.

It is noteworthy that representatives of Polish public and human rights organisations have refused to participate in the opening of the Minsk exhibition, fearing criminal prosecution in Poland.