Minsk: Another Student Refuses to Collaborate with KGB

On 16 February Tatsiana Usinovich was summonsed to a dean’s office of the Pedagogical University. There she was met by two persons in mufti, who introduced themselves as KGB workers. One of them even said his surname was Drozd. They talked with the student for 2,5 hours, asking her about a recent travel of the Belarusian youth to Bialystok (Tatsiana facilitate the issue of visas to a number of persons, though she personally didn’t went to Bialystok). The KGB workers paid especial interest to her relations with the Consulate of the Embassy of Poland in Belarus. They tried to convince her that abroad young people undergo ideological brainwashing after which they have a distorted perception of reality. They explained to her that representatives of such unregistered organizations as Young Front and Belarusian Student Association took part in the journey and tried to intimidate her by stating that she had given support to these organizations. During the talk they insistently advised her to inform them about the activities of the organizations and said they would find her a good job for it.

On 23 February they came to the university again. Tatsiana Usinovich categorically refused to cooperate with them and said they could give her official summons in the case they had any questions. However, on 1 March the KGB agents phoned her to say they have written a summons which was at one of the departments of Minsk KGB office. In the office, in presence of the agent who had introduced himself as Drozd, she again refused to give any explanations, which the KGB registered in the minutes. T.Usinovich, in her turn, registered their use of four-letter words by them.