Mother of missing General Zakharanka: “My son is kidnapped, we have no Krasouski, Zavadski, Hanchar...”

Today, February 6, Ullyana, mother of kidnapped former minister of internal affaires of Belarus Yury Zakharanka, has her 85th birthday. She gave an interview to “Narodnaya Volya” newspaper ahead of the jubilee.

“I think I am on the way out. I call for emergency ambulance day and night. Hospitals don’t help me any more. My heard is going to stop... I even don’t know if I will be able to survive the night. I feel very bad. On February 7, after my birthday, my older son Valodzya died. My husband died on February 10. These days go together. How should I live through it?” the missing general’s mother said in tears.

“I have no Yura, too. I am constantly crying waiting for him. Try to live for ten years without a rest, without joy... I don’t know how I have managed to hold out...

I’m lucky, I have a telephone at home. When my blood pressure rises, I can call for emergency ambulance. Last week, I thought my heart could jump out of my chest, doctors even couldn’t have checked blood pressure. I thought it was my end. Doctors said my heard was near to burst... They offered to take me to hospital, but I refused, I have just discharged from hospital... I usualy ask them to come and give an injection at home. So they come,” Ms Ullyana says.

The woman is still waiting for her son in spite of everything.

“I can’t understand why it happened to Yura... We didn’t steal anything. We didn’t have a villa, or something like that. Why should he suffer so much?

But I am waiting for him. In spite of everything. I pray for his health, not for the peace of his soul in church. A priest tells me I shouldn’t light a candle for peace, until I have true information my son died. Yura’s wife Volha says if the court has been refusing to recognize him dead for so long, he may be alive,” Ullyana Zakharanka says.

Ullyana Zakharanka can’t visit her relatives in Germany because of poor health.

“My granddaughter phones me from Germany. She says if you die, we will be alone, we have no relatives... But I can’t go to them. I don’t go far from my house, my legs are too weak, I walk in my flat... If I fee la bit better, I can cook and pull weeds...

I have worked all my life. I woke up at 3 in the morning, fed pigs. My boys used to help me. They used to carry bags, dig... They were very kind, handsome, strong – like eagles. Everyone was envy I had such sons. You see, I am alone now. I can’t describe how hard it is... I wish I had died instead of my sons...” she says.

General Zakharanka disappeared two days before he had promised to visit his mother.

“Yura promised to visit me. He was kidnapped two days later. I don’t have him. We have no Krasouski, Zavadski, Hanchar. Lord forbid that anybody to meet what our families have met... It is very difficult... my neighbour is in distress, too: her husband, son and daughter died. We can cry together and then she says, let’s stop crying. But tears are running down...” Ms Ullyana tells.

This May, 10 years will have passed since Yury Zakharanka was kidnapped on his way home. The international community suspects Belarusian high ranking officials in forceful disappearances and kidnapping of opposition leaders and a journalist.