The world should not ignore systematic torture in Belarus

GREEN MEANS humiliation, which may involve sexual abuse or the threat of rape. It is reserved for young men sporting dreadlocks, long hair or piercings. Yellow paint, when daubed on those who ask too many questions or argue with riot police, spells a beating. Those who try to run away or resist arrest are sprayed with red paint and subjected to torture so severe that it could leave them disabled for life.

Colour-coding prisoners is standard practice in Belarus, a European country that has been ruled by Alexander Lukashenko for the past 26 years. What is new is that since August, when Mr Lukashenko declared himself president again after another fraudulent election, his goons have used colour codes to systematise the brutalisation of thousands of peaceful protesters, according to Nash Dom, a Belarusian NGO.

The colour codes testify to the scale both of state terror and of the national resistance movement. Over the past four months more than 30,000 people have been detained, and some 4,000 have alleged they have been tortured. Some have been stripped naked, shot with rubber bullets from close range, sodomised with truncheons or driven through a corridor of thugs for more beatings. Victims are paraded and humiliated on state television. Terrified into submission, some are forced to apologise on air for imaginary crimes....