Last week Artsiom Svirshchyk turned down the KGB’s “cooperation proposal”; today he is being sent to the army.
In the morning people in uniform took the 23-year-old activist of Tell the Truth civil campaign to a military recruiting office in Minsk. He managed to inform his companions of his being abducted and said that the officers were waiting for a car to drive him to a military base.
Activist Mikhas Pashkevich told Belsat TV that last week the State Security Committee (KGB) made an attempt to recruit Artsiom: “In the military recruiting office a stranger in plain clothes promised that Artsiom would not be conscripted in case he agreed to lay information to the KGB, but Artsiom refused”. Mr Svirshchyk was not a supporter of the idea of forcible conscription; he campaigned for alternative military service.
At the moment officers are seeking ways to place Mr Svirshchyk to the Armed Forces of Belarus behind hand; they have not shown him any documents stating that they are for official use only.
“The situation bears much resemblance to the plot of smashing Viva Belarus,” Mr Pashkevich stressed.
(UPD) It has become known that Artsiom has been released with a view of saving an eclat: while his staying in the recruiting office journalists repeatedly phoned the officials. But tomorrow he is to appear again.
Belsat
