Belarus' security forces accompanied German police as observers during an anti-nuclear demonstration in Germany in 2010.

As the press secretary for Germany interior ministry told German Bild am Sonttag, the German police forces participated in training of Belarusian police not until 2011 as reported previously, but until spring, 2012. The representative of German customs police responsible for the training was staying in Belarus until this time, RFE\RL says.

Earlier, German mass media informed that law enforcement agencies of Germany had trained Belarusian police officers between 2008 and 2011. In particular, around 100 Belarusian law enforcement agencies employees were reported to participate in trainings in Germany.

Belarusians witnessed the dissolution of anti-nuclear demonstrations in Germany where batons, water cannons and tear gas was used. Furthermore, German police officers trained around 400 Belarusian customs officers, police administration representatives and criminalists in Belarus.

Bundestag now is requiring the explanations from the Interior Ministry, speaker for Social-Democrats fraction Michael Hartmann said.

According to Mr. Hartmann, Bundestag had been unaware of cooperation between German and Belarusian police all this time.

The first to alarm about such cooperation was German leftists led by Gregor Gysi. This year, he addressed the Federal Government asking to find out if the cooperation between German and Belarusian was somehow linked to the police brutality on December 19, 2010.

nn.by