Belarusian diggers get caught and released

120116 Martin Digery.mp3

"We were sitting at home eating toffees, which my friend had bought. Then we climbed into the collector in Uruchcha district. We walked there for a while, and climbed down. Then we heard voices from the above: "Get up here now, otherwise we will shoot without warnings!" Then we saw the people with machine-guns, the so-called "mask-show". They pushed us into the car and delivered to the police department", - digger Alex has told to Euroradio.

However, the youngsters were detained not because of digging. The real reason was ...they had toffees!

"It turned out that some lady had called the police as someone had robbed her and stolen her bag not far from the place where we were. She had money and toffees in her bag. The police found the same kind of toffees on us and wanted to accuse us of robbery. However, they clarified everything a little bit later."

The diggers from Moscow who were detained in Minsk on January 1 have told to Euroradio that they were going only to take a walk in Minsk. However, they confessed that they had two snap hooks for rock climbing and headlights with them, and met with ... Minsk diggers!

"We met with the local people, had a talk and left. It seems like everything was okay".

Euroradio: And these local people - were they diggers?

"Yes, we think so. We did not touch the metro topic, just spoke about some common life issues".

Minsk diggers say that their Moscow colleagues could have revealed themselves due to their own carelessness.

"All the fuss was because they kicked up a row at the central station. Then the police found special equipment on them. Minsk diggers to accept guests. But there is a non-formal rule - not to show off too much. Like, I dag into a house in the opposite of the KGB office", - Alex recalls the last year's incident.

Let us remind you, roofers from Russia posted the photos of the forbidden objects in Minsk in Livejournal, thus making these objects unavailable for Belarusian roofers and diggers, Alex complains. After their visit the access to the tower in the opposite of the KGB office was closed - they hanged a lock on the other doors.

Euroradio has checked and found out that there is also a lock on the first doors - a more reliable one.

A collector in Nyamiga is one of the most interesting objects for diggers - it takes more than 40 minutes to walk it all through. However, it is almost impossible to get into Minsk metro, says Alex.

"It is easier to get into a metro station which is still under construction than to the working one. You can find a good guard who will show you the place himself. Once we were standing near the closed mine of the "Spartyunaya" metro station. We pushed the doors - closed. We had to leave. An alarm worked there, so the police arrived, and took us to the police department".

Vitsebsk digger Zaza says that the Moscow diggers could have revealed themselves, but he also does not exclude that their Belarusian colleagues could rat them out.

"There are different objects. Sometimes there are guards with whom you can negotiate. Recently, we went to the neglected airport "Zhurzhy". We asked the guard whether we could walk there as one of us served at that airport. The guard let us in".

Zaza never had any problems with the police because of digging.

As for Alyaksej from Minsk, he used to dig two years ago. Then there were problems with the police. However, everything was solved on the spot.

"There were problems but we solved them right there in the street during several minutes literally", - Alyaksej says. However, he cannot say why they arrested the Moscow diggers.

Let us remind you, a group of 13 Russians were detained in Minsk on January 1. The Belarusian police declared them diggers from Moscow who allegedly wanted to walk round the capital's underground communications. The last guests were allowed to leave Minsk on January 12. They are prohibited to enter the territory of Belarus for five years to come.

Entering strategic object is considered as petty hooliganism, the police say. There might be even an administrative detention for that. However, if an object is not guarded, no responsibility is prescribed in this case.

Diggers are people who non-officially investigate artificial underground constructions.

Photo: ru.wikipedia.org, raskalov-vit.livejournal.com