27 May, 2012REPAM president Gennady Fedynich, union branch president Igor Komlik, and Praca-by.info editor Natalia Vereschagina were taken off the train at the Belarus-Luthuanian border on May 25. Customs officers took their money, laptop and modem for 'examination'. Fedynich was already detained in the same circumstances on February 21.
BELARUS: REPAM president Gennady Fedynich, branch president Igor Komlik and Praca-by.info editor Natalia Vereschagina were taken off the train on Belarus-Luthuanian border on May 25. They were returning from Vilnius, where they took part in consultations with Lithuanian unions on the subject of the IMF-ICEM-ITGLWF merger.
Fedynich, Komlik and Vereschagina were subjected to personal search. Customs officers took their money, Vereschagina's laptop and modem for 'examination'. It was stated in the official customs record that the computer and modem had been taken to be examined for 'extremist materials'.
Customs officers admitted in an informal conversation that they acted on the orders 'from above'. Fedynich, Komlik and Vereschagina were released in four hours. They had to get back to Minsk by car.
"This is an outrage," said Fedynich. "Not only did they ruin all our plans, they subjected us to a humiliating personal search and, having found nothing illegal, took our personal money and the computer. What is more, we had to devise a plan of how to get out from the border almost at midnight. This is pure mockery. We understand that they try to scare us, but the only thing I have to say is this -- they will fail."
Belarus authorities promised to return the computer to Vereschagina in a month, if no 'extremist materials' are found.
Fedynich was already detained in the same circumstances on the Belarus border on February 21.
On October 26, 2011, on the eve of the IMF regional conference in Prague, Fedynich was detained in the Minsk airport. Thus he was unable to take part in the conference. On the following day, October 27, the delegates of the conference unanimously voted on a resolution condemning the actions of Belarus authorities against Gennady Fedynich.
In May 2010 there was a search in REPAM's office in Brest (Belarus). The computers and office equipment were seized. They were returned more than a year later, in a non-operating state.