Dactyloscopic marathon goes on: military enlistment offices carry out mass fingerprinting (Photo)

• 8.05.2009, 10:52

Male adults are called up for “keeping current data of military registration”. However, the officials are not really interested in information from military service record cards.

Radio Svaboda journalist Ihar Karnej came to the military enlistment office of Frunzenski district of Minsk at 10 a.m. according to the summons. In order to get into the building, the journalist had to stand in a long queue. Several hundreds of persons liable for military service were standing near the entrance to the military enlistment office perplexed why so many people were there.

“They could invite some people at 10.00 a.m., others at 10.30 a.m. They could guess that 30-40 persons could be served. Why should everyone be in one heap?” persons liable for military service were indignant.

All the question were forgotten when first visitors started to come out of the military enlistment office. They had hands black with ink. They told some people in mufti were fingerprinting everyone.

There were lots of people inside the building, too. One queue was stretching to the office where people were registered, another to the place where citizens could receive a signature under the fingerprinting page with passport details.

4 young people were carrying out fingerprinting. First fingers were smeared with black ink, and then whole palms; after that the palm and all fingers were pressed to the paper, and then two palms separately.

These people were not talking to the reservists, and not answering questions about the reason of holding the fingerprinting. Only one person, who was making dactyloscopic records, said in a low voice that there are more than 300 undetected crimes in Frunzenski district, and fingerprinting might help to drive them from the dead-lock.

One reservist tried to withdraw from fingerprinting. He was warned that it is not so easy, “a big cause is needed”. Firstly, he was asked to write an explanation of such an extraordinary step. And then he was told that he would have to pass through long visits to other state bodies, which are more serious than the military enlistment office.

Despite of the fact that fingerprinting is made in military enlistment offices, the results are received by police. In august last year after the blast on July 4 in Minsk, Interior Minister Uladzimir Navumau ordered to fingerprint all males aged 17-60 and create fingerprinting databases for the Interior Ministry. According to some reports, in the near future women are to be fingerprinted as well.