Peaceful Protests and Polish Bullets in Belarus

After about an hour, the riot police suddenly moved against the demonstrators. Until then, they had stuck to launching flash grenades and moving around in a compact formation to occupy more of the square.

But suddenly, the police charged into the crowd, firing their weapons and chasing fleeing demonstrators. Given the tight, enclosed area, it wasn't hard to catch people, and it was all too easy to induce panic and create a dangerous stampede.

I joined others running from the square and managed to find shelter in the apartment of two young women whom I had met outside. We watched the events unfold from a fourth-story window. Muzzle flashes were constant and seemingly everywhere.

After the mass of protesters in the main square had been whittled down, riot policemen started patrolling the adjacent apartment buildings shooting at individual people. I saw them hit a motorcyclist and then capture a young girl, whom they quickly released. We heard the sound of more ambulances arriving.

It was clear that the security services were no longer interested in simply controlling areas designated for protests. The intent now was to beat, injure, and intimidate the demonstrators into submission. The state's behavior had ceased to be merely defensive.

After the crowd was dispersed, the police continued to search the neighborhood, shooting at and detaining individual demonstrators they encountered. They were obviously trying to make an example of people. The point was to threaten the public: You're all sitting ducks - quack at your peril.

If we had been able to go back and look around the square on Monday night, we would have found countless shell casings. By morning, they had been mostly cleared away. But I still found a few, including a number...

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