In Belarus water pipe laid across Jewish cemetery (Photo)

Local officials deny the fact that the pipe is placed on human bones in the proper sense of the word.

As TUT.BY was told by a Vaukavysk dweller Uladzislau, human bones “were thrown out” during construction works.

“All dwellers of Vaukavysk know, the public parking zone is situated near the central market in Brestskaya Street. Cars are placed there for sale on weekends. It is a private parking,” tells the citizen of Vaukavysk. “The matter is, they have decided to furnish the parking with water supply, and a ditch was dug a by an excavator… It seems there is nothing wrong in that, it is a good idea… But in order to economize money, the trench for the pipe was dug across the old Jewish cemetery. In a barbarian way human bones were thrown away, the water pipe was placed in the trench, and then the ground was leveled by a bulldozer, without taking pains to get the place in condition”.

These reports have been commented by the acting chief engineer of Vaukavysk public utility services enterprise Valery Mekhanoshyn.

“As far as I know, no bones have been dug out,” the official said. “The contractor organisation has laid the water pipe and it is not routed across the territory of the cemetery. The cemetery is next to the pipe. There was a water pipe there before, but it was old. Five streets and foundry equipment plant had been supplied by water by that pipe. And the grave site starts 10 metres away from the new pipe… This cemetery is not maintained by anyone, it is old. But there were no works at the territory of the cemetery, it is situated at a distance. The grave site is about 20 metres from the parking. I haven’t seen any burial place in the place of ground works, they are situated further”.

However human relics are clearly seen at photographs.

It should be noted that reports about demolition of synagogues and Jewish monuments in Belarus often appear in Belarusian press. Thus, not long ago in Lyuban local authorities destroyed a wooden synagogue despite of protests of local dwellers. Before that the head of the World Association of Belarusian Jewry, Yakau Gutman called upon Alyaksandr Lukashenka (Lukashenko) to stop works on demolition of early XX century synagogue in Lyuban, Minsk region, immediately. However, despite of that the synagogue was destroyed.