Human Rights Activists Visited Yuri Zakharanka’s Mother :: Charter'97 :: News

On May 1 members of the human rights organizations visited Yuri Zakharanka’s mother, Ulyana Zakharanka, who lives in the town of Vasilevichy, Homel region, to congratulate her on the coming Victory day. Volha Zavadskaya, mother of the disappeared ORT cameraman Dzmitry Zavadsky, and Zinaida Hanchar, wife of the disappeared politician Viktar Hanchar, has also visited Mrs. Zakharanka.

The fate of her son is the most important thing for Ulyana Zakharanka. May 7 is to mark the six anniversary from the date when the former Interior Minister, Yuri Zakharanka, was abducted. Yuri Zakharanka was busy with creation of the oppositional union of officers. Several years have passed, but the authorities are not able to answer the question, where are Yuri Zakharanka, Viktar Hanchar, Anatol Krasouski and Dzmitry Zavadsky. Ulyana Zakharanka is still waiting for her son, as before.

“I hope that I would be able to wait until Yuri returns. I always think that he is somewhere, maybe they had been brought together somewhere. I think that he is alive, that he is somewhere. He is not a robber, a killer; he has always been independent, diligent. When I look at his photographs, I start crying. I do not want to cry, but I cannot keep from crying. I say, son, please answer me… If we were some thieves, but we earn money from our hard peasant work, and that is all. I helped him a lot, and I had been working until the age of 72, and only then I stopped working. I had been working all the time, and now I could have had a rest, but I lost my child in times of peace,” told mother of the politician to Radio Svaboda.

Ulyana Zakharanka tells that her brother Vasil Lazoranka during the Second World War was awarded by a medal, and she was taken to Germany for compulsory labour. There she met her future husband, a prisoner of the concentration camp. In 1991 as a member of a delegation, together with Yuri Zakharanka, she visited K?ln, where she worked in the war time. Every year Belarusian authorities send Ulyana Zakharanka congratulations on Victory Day.

However, the most painful thing for Ulyana Zakharanka is indifference of the authorities to the fate of her son Yuri who had disappeared 6 years ago. Yuri Zakharanka’s wife, two daughters and grandson moved to Germany and were granted political asylum there. Now they are trying to reopen the case of Yuri’s abduction in Germany. The collection of money for legal assistance expenses continues. Ulyana Zakharanka counts on help in that.