Vesti Dnja (Estonia) 17 May, 2007

A kid was beaten up by the "Detskiy mir"

Witnesses and victims of the people dispersal during the Bronze night will yet for a long time speak of it with tears in their eyes.

Our newspaper published dedicated phone numbers and over two dozens eyewitnesses and victims from Tallinn called in to tell about the crowd dispersal skills of the special force law enforcement agencies. Many stories a so much alike, as if they were copied from one another. The difference is only in the name of the streets and the color of the uniform of the law enforcement agencies. It is for this reason that we won’t publish them all, just the most striking of them.

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SERGEY CAME to the thick of the event, as he explained, by the call of conscience. He says that he came downtown to put flowers on Tynismyagi and leave for home afterwards. “I bought the flowers by the movie theater “Syprus” and at once approached the police line to ask the people around if I will be allowed inside or not. People said they didn’t know if one could pass here and proposed to ask the policemen, who were standing behind the barrier. So I did”, - shared our reader. Not without humor he told us that he was wandering the streets for quite some time until he understood that it was all in vain and he should be heading home. But before doing that, he approached the policemen and told them everything he thought about them at that moment.

“Personally, I bear no malice and understand why I was taken to the D-terminal. I called you only to find out about the guy who was almost killed in front of my eyes in the hangar”, - specified Sergey. By his words, everything happened all of a sudden.

The reader explained, that in the hangar, where he stood, there were about 10-15 policemen on guard. Common men, calmly fulfilling the order and not too eager to show-off as heroes-defenders of the independence. Sergey even thinks he was lucky. Nobody beat him, and they even took him out to the toilet as soon as he asked. Almost all of them acted decently, but for some three of them, who couldn’t just stand there and scratched their hands, feet and sticks over the detained. During his stay in the hangar, Sergey saw the “ambulance” to carry away three victims. However he couldn’t say what happened to them afterwards, but he did say about one other victim. A young man, about 25, by Sergey’s words, stood quietly and didn’t touch or say anything to anyone. All of a sudden he was attacked by three policemen. Two held him, while the third made several hits in his neck and back. The man lost his senses. They threw him on the ground and stepped away. It turned out that he had a girlfriend. “I thought she had something to do with medicine. She did some specific movements, listened to something and started to scream that he was dying, that he needed “amrulance” urgently. Can’t say anything bad here, the medics came in about five minutes, they put him on stretcher and carried away”, - stated Sergey.

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ANOTHER OUR READER assures that he got his share of the loot by pure casualty. “People in black uniform advanced in a chain formation and used their sticks to bring down everyone”, - states Alexander. He received hits in the head, arms and legs and ended up in the D-terminal too. In the morning he was taken from there to Lasnamyae police station and demanded for him to sign a confession of participation in pogroms. He was released under a written cognizance not to leave. As Alexander’s mother told us, she called him in the morning of the 28th of April. He was to visit her, but the son said he couldn’t even walk. “The legs were beaten off and the hands were swell after the plastic strainers. Then I didn’t think I’d need doctors, but my mother insisted and we went first to the traumatology center, where the signs of beating were registered, and then I had to take the sick-leave, for there began heavy headaches”, - told us Alexander. On Tuesday the family came to the Information center for human rights, where there will be prepared documents for a legal claim to be submitted to the public prosecutor office.

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YET ANOTHER of our readers, crying, told us of having witnessed a 12 years old boy. “I was in the bus. By the “Detsliy mir” store the vehicle had stopped. Lines of policemen passed by, and one of those husky guys grabbed a boy. I couldn’t take watching this any more and started to scream. Everyone who saw him forcefully strike the boy’s head against the concrete and started to pinion his arms, started to scream”, - states the reader.

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ANOTHER WOMAN witnessed dispersal of a group of teenagers who screamed “Russia! Russia!” “The police went after them, but they scattered. Near this place there were a boy and a girl standing. Very young ones. They didn’t scream anything. The approaching police brought them down and dragged the young girl with her naked stomach by the asphalt (you know, how these youngsters dress these days!). I cried: “What are you doing?”, but the people around and the journalists said: “Be silent, or they’ll beat you up too. They won’t care that you’re over 80.””, - told us the elderly woman, who could not hold her tears.

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SO FAR the official information about the amount of casualties in the days of disorder and after because of traumas in the hospitals, and how many will remain invalids, is still unavailable. We may only hope to know the truth some day. About those who robbed the shops, and those who waved their sticks wearing the law enforcement uniform.

One thing is clear, that part of the officers acted against the law, beating up children and elderly people, breaking also the internal police rules, which forbid hit people in the head and beat up three to one those that show no resistance. We also hope to make the planned interviews (those that were appointed, but suddenly cancelled in the day of the meeting) with all the heads of the law enforcement agencies, in order to receive any information about the operation performed and how should people live after it.