"I had to take down my pants and stand in my underwear in the middle of the hall." Survivor stories

The Human Rights Center "Viasna” and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) launched a campaign to document cases of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of protesters on August 9-13. Some testimonies of people who survived torture and violence will be published on our website as evidence of crimes committed by security forces.

On October 11, Volha was returning home at night and passed by the Riga shopping center in Minsk. Now she goes to the health clinic for dressing almost daily – that night she was wounded by a rubber bullet. The woman is 36 years old and works as a sales assistant. She shared her story with "Viasna" anonymously.

Volha recollects that that night she heard shooting and "was afraid to go anywhere". So she waited until it was quiet to continue her journey home. She notes that at the time of her detention (around 12.40 am) there were no people around:

"Nothing was going on, no chains of solidarity or protests. Suddenly they ran up to me, lowered my head, put me on a parapet, and then loaded me into a minibus. I can hardly call it detention, it was rather kidnapping.”

Volha notes that at that moment she was reeling from a shock and maybe that's why she couldn't immediately understand that she had been hit by a rubber bullet – "something just hit her leg". She also couldn't identify those who detained her. But in the minibus where she was put, Volha saw people wearing black clothes, body armor, and black balaclavas.

"They started shouting at me at once demanding that I give them the phone and tell the password. They did it very loudly and rudely. I gave the phone and said that I had no password, that they could have a look. They ordered me to put my head down and started examining my phone. They did not find anything there and returned it. And then they loaded three or four more men in the van shouting: 'On your knees, face down!' They were pressed down forcefully. Then they took us to the Saviecki police department."

Volha guessed so because she drove by the facility every day on the way to work.

"When I was taken out of the minibus, inexplicit attacks began immediately: 'Oh, here is a pretty one. Go to the wall, move! You have white and red sneakers. Why are you walking around at night?' They shouted humiliating things. They treated us as if we were some kind of garbage. If they did not like the way a person was standing, they could hit them on the inside of their leg so that a person almost did the splits. The attitude was terrible."

In the police department, the officers were either wearing balaclavas or black masks. Just one employee was without a mask and out of uniform.

"He behaved in a very lecherous manner as if he was the chief of the department," says Volha.

Saviecki district police department of Minsk

Volha's leg started to hurt. Policemen also noticed it:

"The man in civvies said very rudely, 'Show me your leg.' I couldn't roll up my pants, so I said, 'There are a lot of men here, maybe you should invite a policewoman.' He said, 'I don't care, come on, take them off.' I had to take down my pants and stand in my underwear just in the middle of the assembly hall. The other detainees were filmed on one side and interviewed on the other side, and there were a lot of officers around, but they were in comfort with it. They looked at my leg and quietly brought me to a chair. In about 20 minutes, they took me to the hall, the medics were already waiting there. They said they were going to take me to hospital. The officer in civvies said, 'No need to drive her, she will come back here anyway.'"

Doctors did take Volha to the hospital. The ambulance was convoyed by the police.

The medical certificate issued in the emergency traumatology room states: "Contusion, subcutaneous hematoma of soft tissues of the left ham." Volha had a plaster bandage applied. At some point, a doctor approached her and said that the convoy had left.

"I didn't have my things with me. The phone, the keys to the apartment – everything remained in the police station. I remembered the phone number of my boss. The doctor called her, and she picked me up. We went to the police department to get my things. It was on the morning of October 12. I had plaster bandage and could not walk properly. My boss went to the police department. They did not open the door at first, but then someone's lawyer came in and the door opened. The employee brought an A4 sheet and asked me to write a receipt that I had received all my belongings and had no complaints about them. All my things were in place."

The victim's leg injured by a rubber bullet

As of October 29, Volha comes for dressing almost every day. The plaster bandage on her leg has already been removed, but the hematoma has not cleared up yet. Doctors told Volha that the aftereffect for ligaments and muscles would manifest itself for up to two months.

"I might have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth. The bullet didn't penetrate, I was hit over the hamstring artery, it wasn't affected. If it was, I might have not survived in the ambulance..."

With the assistance of "Viasna", Volha wrote a petition to the Investigation Committee. The examination seems to have already started – on October 26, she met with the investigator at the scene of the incident near the Riga shopping center for investigative procedures.

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