State bodies of Belarus are getting ready to burn documents in case they lose control of the country. At least, this is what the ordinance of the Ministry of Justice, dated February 15, 2023, N. 7 «About amendments to ordinances of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus» published by the National Legal Internet Portal of the Republic of Belarus speaks about.

The Ministry of Justice of Belarus established the procedure for handling documents of state bodies in a case of war or state of emergency. New introduction stipulates that «separate categories of documents» are subject to «extraordinary transfer to the state archive» in case a governmental body is evacuated in case of an emergency. (I wonder, what an «emergency» is?  Don’t say it’s a flood or an invasion by Martians!)

It should be said that Minsk treats the issue seriously. First of all, a unitary group for disposal of documents in case a «threat of seizure of secret cases» has been formed. The state bodies ordered to evacuate should form the following working groups: for selections, liquidation, loading-unloading and transportation of document. (It’s so curious to see how all that bureaucratic rigmarole will be fulfilled in case of a real emergency).

According to the instruction, the following documents are subject to be transferred to the state archive: «documents of the president, the National Assembly, the Council of Ministers, republican government bodies, local executive and administrative bodies, personal files of executives and other employees».

Besides that, the following very atypical innovation for Belarus is noteworthy: the officials are required to create a group in the archives «for liquidation of documents in case a threat of seizure of secret cases arises (if there is a unit for protection of state secrets)».

There is only one conclusion that can be drawn out of that: either Lukashenka is preparing for war and to send the army to Ukraine to support Putin, or the Belarusian regime is very scared that in case of, i.e., uprising, collapse of the country or unexpected change of power for some reason, the archives will get into the hands of independent investigators, and the crimes of the regime will be revealed. And then, they will be investigated by the authorities of the new, democratic and free Belarus.

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