Terms of investigation of disappearance of Yury Zakharanka extended again
5- 8.10.2009, 14:23
The investigation of disappearance of former interior minister of Belarus Yury Zakharanka has been extended till December 24.
BelaPAN learnt this from human rights activist Aleh Vouchak.
According to him, his family received an appropriate letter from the prosecutor’s office of Minsk, but it doesn’t say what investigative activities are carried out in this case.
Besides, Vouchak said that Zakharanka’s family received an e-mail in response to their request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus. “I remind that his relatives addressed the Belarusian MFA with regard to several statements of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who said traces of a killer of Zakharanka should be searched in Germany. The MFA answered it doesn’t deal with investigation of criminal crimes, so the request of the family would be transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Germany. So, the German police will investigate the disappearance of Zakharanka and examination of Lukashenka’s words,” Vouchak said.
Vouchak also reminded that a session of the UN working group on enforced disappearances would be held in October. Activists of the Belarusian authorities in searching Yury Zakharanka and other disappeared Belarusian oppositionists will be analyzed at the session. Human rights activists have already expressed their opinion in this respect. In particular, Aleh Vouchak thinks that the Belarusian authorities “simulate the investigation”.
We remind that vice speaker of the 13th Supreme Soviet of Belarus, the chairman of the Election Commission Viktar Hanchar and his friend, businessman and public leader Anatol Krasouski, a former Interior Ministry head Yury Zakharanka who joined the opposition, as well as a camera operator of the Russian ORT TV channel Zmitser Zavadski went missing in 1999-2000 in Belarus.
The world community constantly states the necessity to shed light on the fate of Belarusian oppositionists. The demands to establish the truth about their disappearances is contained in the resolutions of the UN Commission on Human Rights, of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the OSCE.
A number of high-ranking officials in Belarus, in particular minister of internal affaires Uladzimir Navumau, head of the president’s administration Viktar Sheiman, former minister of internal affaires Yury Sivakou, and former commander of special task squad Dzmitry Paulichenka are banned from entry into the EU countries and the US, because they are suspected of involvement in kidnapping of the oppositionists.
