Sannikov: “Moscow can assist in objective investigation of disappeared persons’ cases”

Russian Kommersant newspaper writes about address if the Belarusian opposition leaders to the UN Security Council.

According to Kommersant, well-known Belarusian opposition figures sent foreign ministers of permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States) a letter saying about disappearances of people in the country in the late 1990s. The letter means political opponents of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, namely former interior ministry Yury Zakharanka, former deputy prime minister Viktar Hanchar, and ORT cameraman Zmitser Zavadski. The address says that Belarusian human rights activists, lawyers and families of the disappeared persons have used all domestic, as well as regional and international instruments of legal protection to investigate the facts of disappearances. Independent investigations of the high-profile cases conducted by the civil society show that Belarusian top officials were involved in the crimes. In this respect, the members of the UN Security Council are called to from a commission on investigation of disappearances of opposition leaders and public figures in Belarus in 1999-2000.

The letter was signed by former speakers of the Belarusian Parliament Stanislau Shushkevich and Myachyslau Hryb, leader of the European Belarus civil campaign Andrei Sannikov, chairman of Viasna human rights group Ales Byalyatski, head of the Belarusian Popular Front Party Alyaksei Yanukevich and other people. They reminded that in July 2010, new materials regarding disappearances of Belarusian opposition leaders and involvement of high-ranking officials in it appeared the Russian media (here, the authors likely mean NTV documentaries “Godbatka” and “Godbatka 2”).

According to one of the authors Andrei Sannikov, the document appeared as a result of the opposition’s unanimous aspiration to “finish investigation of missing people’s cases”.

Sannikov believes this will lead to lifting the veil of secrecy over the truth, which everyone guesses about, and punishing concrete criminals. He also says that the Belarusian oppositionists are inspired with the fact that Russia holds presidency in the UN Security Council since this month. “We believe that under the current conditions Moscow will assist in objective investigation of the abducted oppositionists’ cases,” Sannikov told Kommersant.