Belarusian Prisoners Assembling Hulls For Russian Missiles?
- 4.10.2024, 14:15
The penal colony №9 in Horki fulfils orders for the Russian army.
One of the former prisoners, who served his sentence in this colony, told about it to the human rights activists from the ‘Legal Initiative’.
Most of the colony's prisoners work at woodworking.
‘Lots of them make boxes for the Russian army's shells - in particular, for GRAD missiles. Nobody even hides this. There is a huge order, and the prisoners are forced to make them,' says the former prisoner.
According to him, the equipment there often breaks down, which has led to fatalities, among other things.
The man says that a secret workshop was made in the colony at the turn of 2023-2024. Political prisoners are not taken to work there, as they are considered unreliable.
‘And no one is allowed to talk about what they do there. Everyone - both civilian employees and prisoners who work there - have signed non-disclosure agreements. And the workshop itself is surrounded by barbed wire. However, we all live together, in the same units. And if there are people you can trust, the prisoners, of course, share information among themselves. After a while, everyone knew what they were doing in the classified workshop,’ says the ex-convict.
According to him, rockets for the Russian army are assembled there, but without any warheads. The frames and some components of these missiles are brought to Horki. The prisoners assemble them, paint them, and then they are sent from the territory of the colony to the place where the missiles are stuffed.
According to the ex-prisoner, it is either a large or a very urgent order, because the prisoners are working in two shifts - from 8:00 am to 1:00 am. Prisoners do not have the right to refuse to work.
‘Considering that in Horki prisoners are practically starved to death, people there are literally surviving. A lot of people are just going crazy. Personally, I have seen people there who cannot stand it mentally. I have also seen those who just look like walking skeletons. They feed you in Horki just to keep you alive, so that you can move your legs and be able to work for the regime. And, as it turned out, not only for Lukashenka's regime,’ the man states.