KGB officers disguise as representatives of Education Department

On 8 October a fourth-year student of the Sakharov University, Inna Panchkouskaya, was called to the Partyzanski District Department of Education in Minsk. The formal reason was to find out why the girl wanted to get a second higher education at the Belarusian State University. However, as it was found out later, the meeting was organized by the KGB, whose officers paid interest to Inna's foreign trips.

Three weeks before this a police officer talked to Inna’s mother. As the girl wasn’t home at the time, the policeman asked the mother to tell her that she was a witness of some fight. In fact, Inna Panchkouskaya didn’t see any fights.

In some time the university’s administration started to pay an unusual attention to the girl. She wanted to acquire a second higher education degree in the Belarusian State University. That is why she addressed the dean’s office and the university’s administration asking to allow her to study in a different institution at the same time as the procedure requires. At first the student’s application was passed from one office to another, but later the university’s vice-provost said that the Department of Education got interested in her that is why she would be called for a talk.

The first thing that seemed suspicious to the girl was that the men who introduced themselves as the Department of Education’s officials didn’t give the address where she was supposed to come, but met her near the entrance of the building. The meeting was held in a huge assembly hall. The two men didn't want to tell who they are, but in the course of the conversation it became clear they were from KGB, not from the Education Department. They asked the student about her trips abroad – whom she traveled with and who paid for that. They started shouting at the girl at the end of the talk, as she refused to answer the majority of the questions which had nothing to do with the initial topic – her entrance in the BSU.

After the “meeting” she filed an appeal to the head of the Partyzanski District Education Department, requiring explanations as to who exactly had a talk with her and on what grounds.

During a private conversation the head of the Department Alena Asadchaya said she didn't know who these men were. “I just got a call from the personnel department of the Ministry of Education and was asked to provide the hall. I don't know who these people are,” answered the official.