Belarusians demand international investigation of disappeared persons’ cases
17- 16.08.2010, 10:16
An action “We Demand International Investigation” is held in Minsk today, on the Solidarity Day.
The action begins near the Academy of Science at 6:00 pm. the Belarusians are called to go there with portraits of abducted and killed vice speaker of the Supreme Council Viktar Hanchar, former interior minister Yury Zakharanka, businessman and public figure Anatol Krasouski and journalist Zmitser Zavadski. In accordance to a resolution of the Supreme Court, this doesn’t violate any laws.
After Russian NTV cannel showed a film “Godbatka”, where the authors directly spoke about possible involvement of Alyaksandr Lukashenka in abduction and killing of Hanchar, Zakharanka, Zavadski, and Krasouski, the Belarusian opposition leaders, human rights activists and famous Belarusians appealed to the UN Security Council asking to carry out an in international investigation of these crimes. They also sent requests a week ago to foreign ministers of the Security Council’s permanent members, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States.
“To date, the human rights community in Belarus, the lawyers for the families and the relatives of the disappeared have exhausted all available local remedies, and have also exhausted regional and international human rights remedies to no avail. Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who remains in power since the time of the disappearances, has not created conditions for a national credible and impartial investigation of these cases and has blocked all international efforts to find the truth about their fates,” the document says.
The authors refer to previous UN resolutions on abductions in Belarus, the report of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, accusing Belarusian officials of their involvement in the crimes. The Belarusians remind a precedent of forming the UN international commission which investigated the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri and other politically motivated killings in Lebanon.
