These are indications, according to videos seen by CNN and witness statements, of a possible prison camp for political dissidents, recently built about an hour’s drive from the Belarusian capital Minsk, near the settlement of Novokolosovo. It sits on the site of a Soviet-era missile storage facility, which spans over 200 acres. It is not clear to what extent the site has been renovated.
Franak Viacorka, senior adviser to Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, viewed the footage and told CNN: “It is no surprise that [President Alexander Lukashenko] try to build something like an ordinary prison camp, because a new wave of protest will arise anyway. It can be triggered by its statements, it can be triggered by the economic situation. But it will come. He understands that, and he also wants to be more prepared than last year in 2020. “
In October, a group of former security activists, ByPol, released a recording they allegedly made of Deputy Home Secretary Mikalay Karpyankou, in which he said prison camps “resettled “Were to be built for” protesters to reform them. In the recording, Karpyankou offered to build a camp out of an existing penitentiary in the town of Ivatsevichy.
The Belarusian government called the tapes at the time of their release “fake” news. The government did not respond to CNN’s request for comment for this story.
CNN was unable to gain access to the interior of the facility near Novokolosovo, and there is no indication that the camp still housed prisoners. A Western intelligence official told CNN that the use of the facility as a prison camp was “possible”, although they did not have direct evidence to this effect. Residents of the city of Novokolosovo call the facility “the camp”. One resident, who was recently asked by military guards to leave the area when he approached the site, said: “My friend Sasha, a contractor, told me that they had renovated this place. There are three levels of barbed wire and it is electrified. I was picking mushrooms here when a soldier approached me and told me I couldn’t walk there. ”Two other witnesses also observed military patrols.
Images of the camp are emerging after a week of crackdown on remaining independent media in Belarus and increased international attention to the crisis inside the authoritarian country.
Belarus’ National Olympic Committee said she was removed from the Olympic team due to emotional and psychological issues, which she denies.
CNN has spoken to activists who say they have made the decision to sabotage Belarusian government-run rail lines. They sent CNN a series of videos that show them using an established technique to delay trains without causing damage. CNN does not disclose the location or nature of the tactics and has not been able to independently confirm the effectiveness of the protest actions.
One of the organizers, who said their activities caused trains to slow down to around 20 km / h (12 mph) in some areas, told CNN: “The main objective is to cause economic damage to the regime, because delays cause them to pay huge fines. “
Many of the railways that pass through Belarus carry goods from China to the European Union, which means that frequent delays could have a wider significance across the continent and for international trade, putting the Lukashenko regime hard. in the pocket.
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