Victims of repressions were commemorated in Gomel region

Activists of the United Civil Party (UCP), Belarusian People’s Front (BPF), Party of Communists Belarusian (PCB), organization committee on the party “Belarusian Christian Democracy” (BCD) and members of human rights and public organizations held an action of commemoration in the places of mass shooting in Gomel and fixed there a memorable stone “To Your Martyrs, Belarus” on October 28, BelaPAN reports.

October 1, the coordinators on the establishment of the BCD party applied to Gomel municipal executive committee for an action but the officials refused to authorize it. The action participants were accompanied by two cars, where unknown people in muftis were filming the manifestation.

More than 50 people took part in the action which was started at the 9th km of the highway Gomel-Chernigov, where a cross commemorating the victims of the political repressions of 1919-1940 was fixed in 1994. As deputy chairperson of the UCP regional organization Uladzimir Katsora remarked in his speech, those who were victimized by inhuman regime of Bolsheviks are buried there. “We must not forget our history so that this never happens again. This is our history, we must remember it,” U.Katsora emphasized.

The activists set a memorable stone and held a commemorating meeting in the tracts Try Stauby and Borki, where mass burial places of shot people have been discovered this year. Coordinator on the establishment of the BCD party Kanstantyn Zhukouski told the participants about the circumstances of the discovery of unknown burial grounds and about the facts proving that the buried people were victimized during the Stalin time repressions.

U.Katsora hopes that in a while complex excavations and independent examination will be held here to find out the truth about the place. Dwellers of the villages Kantakuzauka and Chyrvonaye were shot in the tracts on 28 Ovtober 1937, as the children of the repressed testify referring to the data they got from KGB archives in early 90s.

52nd research unit of the Armed Forces carried out excavations of unknown burial grounds in May-June 2007 in the tracts Try Stauby and Borki. The military men exhumed 70 bodies. According to the official version, it is impossible to identify the bodies because the burial places are too old and there are no exhibits.