Head of the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the Interior Ministry of Belarus Mikalai Karpyankou said that law enforcers could “humanely” use weapons, including lethal firearms, against the protesters during unauthorized rallies. Such statement of the Interior Ministry representative was made in an interview with Belarus 1.
Mikalai Karpyankou, a senior police official, believes that the protest actions are attended by radicals. In case the protesters start to actively resist, the police will use lethal weapons.
“We believe in the humanity of the law. We will detain them. Of course, if they actively resist, we will have to use weapons to protect the citizens, to protect the law and order, to protect ordinary people, those children who grow up, so that they do not see this mayhem. We will not let them destroy the country. We will, of course, humanely use weapons against them, including firearms. And we will remove the most dangerous ‘sharp-hoofed’ people from the street,” Karpyankou said.
He specified that firearms would be used against anyone “who would only raise his hand with a shank against a law enforcement officer.
According to Karpyankou, people go out to protest and to earn money. Karpyankou stated that “he had seen all protest masses” at the elections since 2001, but “has never come across “such immoral, cynical persons who participate in this movement”.
Karpyankou was not the first Interior Ministry representative who threatened to use weapons against peaceful demonstrators. Recently, Deputy Interior Minister Henadz Kazakevich also spoke about the possibility of using lethal weapons against Belarusians.
