2023-05-30 12:07:06
Story Regina Lavor published a blog “Voices”. Svoboda reprints this text in its entirety.
“You open the door – four riot police burst into the house”
Regina Lavor graduated from the Belarusian University of Culture in 1995. She worked in the village, then district House of Culture in Ivy. In 2005, she created and headed the handicrafts center. In 2009, she was the creator, and then headed the Museum of National Cultures – the first and only one in Belarus.
Then Regina worked in the communal service. In 2020, she went to protests and was persecuted. On December 4, 2020, a criminal case was opened against Regina for insulting local policemen in a Telegram chat. She received “home chemistry” with many restrictions – she could not go out into her yard after 19:00, she could go outside or go to the store only from 14:00 to 16:00.
The police often checked Regina, she was recorded for various violations. In February 2022, she served 10 days in a detention center, in June 2022 – three more days (for not opening the door of the riot police).
“I was checked both by the precinct and policemen from the police station and the Department of Protection. In May, riot police officers knocked on the door at night. It was dark, I couldn’t see anything, I was alone at home and I was afraid to open the door without knowing who. I called “102” to send a police team to me. But as soon as she called, the riot police left, they went their separate ways. I received a violation and another “day,” Regina recalls.
Then the riot police came to her several more times. Regina thinks “to scare”.
“You open the door, they break into the house with the appearance that they have the right. They start clinging, provoking conversations, they want to catch something. It is psychologically difficult,” the Belarusian says.
She tried to appeal the punishment in court, but in vain.
“The policeman didn’t know who the craftswoman was, so he took offense at me”
Regina recalls that the employees of the Department of Protection were “more or less adequate” during the inspections. Some policemen, according to her, were not very literate and were even offended.
“A policeman came to check me Anton Varabey. He asks me who I work for. I answer that I am a craftswoman. He said again: “So who do you work for?”. I say again that she is a craftswoman. “Do you work on the land or what?” he asked me. So I couldn’t stand it, I asked if he has any education if he doesn’t know who a craftsman is? He was offended, harbored anger and then took revenge on me,” says Regina.
She says that from January 2023, inspections began daily, 5-6 times a day and at night.
“They could come five times even in one evening. The employees of the Department of Protection told me that there was an order to check you twice in the evening. And riot police, and police, and precinct. It turned out that in March I counted 61 inspections, because I took notes of all the inspections and those who conducted them,” says the woman.
She adds that they could come at two or three o’clock in the morning.
“It was terribly cold in the cell, the neighbors were mice and fleas”
In addition to numerous checks, Regina had to report to the police. There, they held “educational” talks with her, showed films.
“They were forced to watch a film about how work affects a convict. Then a movie about some terrorists there. I say let me just sign a piece of paper saying that I looked it over. So they did. They took me to the commission in the district executive committee. Only I did not understand at all why there was so much gathering of bosses, what did they want from me? They tried to explain to me in groups that I cannot commit violations, because I will end up in a colony. They gathered to raise me,” says the Belarusian.
At the beginning of April, Regina was preparing for Easter – she cleaned the house, painted eggs.
“In the evening on Saturday, the policemen came with inspections. The Department of Protection arrived around 11 p.m. Just went to bed – the call again in the middle of the night. Just outside it was raining and a strong thunderstorm. My husband looked – there was a policeman there. I open the door, but the policeman leaves and tells me: “Goodbye!”. I couldn’t run after him, because I don’t have the right to leave the house after 19! It was the same Anton Varabei, who was offended by me for not knowing who the craftsmen are. I was indignant and nervously called 102, that such a situation happened, that I was at home, that I opened the door,” explains Regina.
She says she was very agitated and took sedatives.
“And then that Anton Varabey comes back, it was in the middle of the night, maybe two o’clock, and he demands that I go with him for a medical examination, that maybe I drank alcohol!” – says the Belarusian.
She adds that in the hospital, they found about 0.2 ppm of alcohol in the blood, which could be from sedative drops, and wrote that “alcohol intoxication” was not recorded.
But on Monday, the head of the police department, the head of the ICHU, the precinct and the inspector “attached” to Regina came to her.
“They put on handcuffs and fastened them behind, put them in the position of “hands on the hood, legs shoulder width apart,” then they put them in the car and drove away,” Regina recalls.
The police began to “educate” her, they said that she was not a patriot because she opposed the government. Regina was sentenced to 10 days of arrest for the “violation”.
She served her “days” in the same conditions as “political” ones throughout Belarus – without mattresses, bed linen, in the cold, with mice and fleas in her cell. “During searches, they even looked into their ears, ordered them to lift their tongues and show them their mouths. They were forced to undress naked, and under surveillance cameras. There was no food and it was cold, you can’t read, you can’t watch TV,” Regina recounts.
A woman without a permanent place of residence was thrown into the cell next to her.
“I’m still drunk! She said that she was sick and the policemen gave her a glass of cognac. Then she was beaten, and I covered her with my clothes, and I myself did physical exercises to warm up a little,” Regina recalls.
“The head of the ICU said: “You will go in a metal car to the women’s colony”
After 10 days, Regina found out that for “violations” she received another day of arrest. But for some reason they let her go, they said that it would happen later.
“In the conversation, the head of the ICU behaved like a boor and said: “Don’t grunt, soon you will go in a metal car to PK-4”, that is, to the women’s colony. Even before that, I was forced to write an explanation, and I wrote as follows: “The troika of the NKVD ordered Regina Lavor to be shot.” The head of the police department got angry and said to apply this explanation in a personal matter. He told me that there will be a trial on commutation of punishment. And he had such a face… I don’t know how to say it. A person cannot have such a face – without emotions, without life, gray and unpleasant,” says Regina.
Just at that time there was a long May weekend in Belarus, because Radavnitsa. Regina realized that after the holidays there could be a quick trial and the punishment could be replaced by prison. And decided to run away.
“I understood that I had literally 24 hours to escape”
Regina says that the escape was a big shock for her, because she was not going to leave Belarus, did not think about it, did not prepare.
“I turned to the BySol fund. And since then they literally led me by the hand. I left the house with one backpack, where I threw socks, underpants, something else, a piece of bread, and set off,” says the Belarusian.
She adds that due to security issues, she could not contact anyone, not even her relatives, and no one knew where she had gone.
“I couldn’t ask for help from close people so as not to frame them. That’s why I just disappeared in one moment. My loved ones did not know anything about me for a week – where I am, what I am. I had no connection with anyone, I couldn’t say anything to anyone,” says Regina.
She is grateful to the BySol staff who organized her evacuation and the volunteers who helped afterwards in a foreign country. On April 29, Regina was already safe.
“One of the most difficult things for me was to say: ‘I am a citizen of the Republic of Belarus, I am being persecuted in my country for political reasons, I am asking for protection.’ I didn’t go out with a weapon against the government! I left peacefully, for a normal, free life for my children and grandchildren. Now there is only me and my backpack,” says Regina.
“I don’t want to live here, I feel like I’m on a business trip”
Regina says she feels like she’s on a business trip right now.
“So I am sitting here, safe, with one backpack. I don’t want to make a living, buy some things. I dream of returning home,” she says.
And now Regina is still surprised by the behavior of the local policemen.
“We live in a small town, everyone knows everyone, not only them, but also their parents. Some do their “business”, but yes, albeit without insults. Others – and climb, and mock, and insult. And you understand that they will have nothing for it. But there must be a punishment. Some told me: “But at least I didn’t beat you!”. But you went to court and testified against me and you think it’s normal,” Regina thinks.
She adds that every day she thought and thinks about the political prisoners in Belarus who are undergoing repression.
“What happens to me is a small part of what happens to our people in prison. They are mocked, they are persecuted in prisons, their relatives are not given any information,” says the woman.
Lavor decided to quickly return to her favorite work – embroidery. There is already a sewing machine, threads.
“For me, it’s still wasted time if I don’t live in my homeland and work for its benefit and prosperity. But I want to believe that we will all return home,” wished Regina.
She can be helped to get a job in a foreign country through this link.
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