Students studying abroad are not allowed to leave Belarus

Belarusian activists who had been expelled from Belarusian universities on political reasons and who are studying in foreign universities now, are stopped on the border and told that they are prohibited to leave Belarus.
Names of the students are put on the so-called “black lists”. In this way military enlistment offices are trying to send unwanted oppositionists to the army service.
A young activist of the Belarusian Popular Front party Franak Vyachorka hasn’t been allowed to cross the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. It has happened at the border checkpoint Kamenny Loh. Franak hasn’t been informed about the reason of the ban to leave the territory of Belarus.
“I have been told that leaving Belarus territory is prohibited for me, that I was put on a black list recently. When I asked why I was put down from the bus, a frontier guard answered: “It’s your problem”. I know that it is connected with calling me up to the army, and my name was put on the list by workers of the military enlistment office of Savetski district [of Minsk],” Franak Vyachorka told to Radio Svaboda.
A day before a student of “Kalinouski Square” programme Zmitser Buyanau was put off a train when he crossed the border from Poland to Belarus. They told to the guy that he won’t be allowed to go back, as he had been put on the “black list” as well.
“When I crossed the Belarusian border, frontier guards put me of the train. They seized my passport, examined its pages and told that they won’t allow me to go back. When I asked why, they answered: “Go to police and you’ll learn”. I visited Belarus several times before that, and there hadn’t been any problems. I believe that it is a revenge to Belarusian guys for studying abroad,” Zmitser Buyanau told to Radio Svaboda.
Franak Vyachorka passed a regional medical commission. Doctors have operated his eyes. Franak has been told that now he is to receive a deferral from service for half a year.
Zmitser Buyanau is a student of Gdansk University. The military enlistment office has a certificate from the university and its Belarusian translation. The military enlistment office informed that the young man has a deferral for one year only, and he is to bring such certificates each year.
Franak and Zmitser are registered in the military enlistment office of Savetski district of Minsk. Alyaksandr Ivanouski, who is in charge of the call-up campaign, has told to Radio Svaboda why Franak Vyachorka is blacklisted.
“It is right he was stopped. He hasn’t passed a medical examination. He hasn’t been authorized by the regional commission. The deferral is illegal until it is not authorized. After authorizing it by a regional medical commission we give an official deferral,” the official said.
Mr Ivanouski keeps cases of the students studying abroad in a separate file. But the military enlistment office has questions only to the students who are studying thanks to international projects of assistance to the repressed students.
It should be noted that exacerbation of repressions against oppositional youth is taking place in the country at the same time when some European politicians are stating that the situation with human rights in Belarus is allegedly improving.