German media: German police worked with Belarusian law enforcers until 2012
- 27.08.2012, 10:45
This spring, in Minsk was a responsible official of German border police.
Press Secretary of the Interior Ministry of Germany said in an interview with Bild am Sonntag (Sunday supplement edition of Bild), that the scam with the preparation of Belarusian security forces by German police did not last until 2011, as previously reported, but until the spring of 2012, reports "Radio Svaboda".
Earlier Bild and other German media reported that German security agencies have been preparing Belarusian personnel between 2008 and 2011. In particular, it was reported that on German territory were trained about a hundred employees of Belarus state institutions. Belarusians were present as observers during dispersal of German anti-nuclear demonstrations, where police used batons, water cannons and tear gas. German police also conducted training of 400 Belarusian border guards, police representatives, and criminalists in Belarus.
The Bundestag waits for explanation about this scam from the administration of German Interior Ministry. This was announced by the speaker of the Social-Democratic parliamentary group, Michael Hartmann. According to him, all this time, the supreme legislative body of the country has not been properly informed of cooperation between German and Belarusian security forces.
It’s worth noting that the first who raised the alarm about the cooperation was German Left, led by party leader Gregor Gysi. Last year, he sent a special request to the federal government, where he paid focus to the events of December 19, 2010 and asked to investigate whether there was a connection between the suppression of mass protests in Minsk and cooperation between special units of German police and Belarussian riot police.
As the website charter97.org previously reported, in July 2012 was fired chief of German police Matthias Seeger. Among other things, he is charged with contacts with Belarusian government.
On August 24 of this year, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said that long-term cooperation with Belarus had then "permissible grounds." According to him, in their actions German police, "as far as possible", always tends to relieve tension and to use non-violent methods.