12 pickets in memory of Zakharenka banned in Brest

Activists of the United Civic Party (UCP) in Brest have been banned from staging 12 small demonstrations in the city on May 7.

They had planned it to mark the 14th anniversary of the disappearance of former Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka.

The objective of the demonstrations was to draw public attention the disappearance of Mr. Zakharanka and three other opponents of Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

According to the Brest City Executive Committee, applications for permission to stage 11 of the 12 demonstrations were rejected on the grounds that Lakamatyw Stadium and Internationalist Soldiers Park are the only two venues in Brest designated for "mass events."

UCP activists were not allowed to demonstrate in Internationalist Soldiers Park because they had failed to conclude a contract that would ensure the presence of an ambulance and police at the venue of the demonstration and a cleanup at the site after the event.

Mr. Zakharanka, former central election commission head Viktar Hanchar, businessman Anatol Krasowski and journalist Dzmitry Zavadski went missing in 1999 and 2000. They are widely believed to have been abducted and murdered by a government-run death squad.

In a videotaped statement sent to the press in June 2001, a member of the Prosecutor General’s Office’s team that was in charge of the case and a former prosecutorial investigator insisted that acting on orders from Viktar Sheyman, state secretary of the Security Council, Interior Minister Yury Sivakow formed a death squad to eliminate political opponents.