Shorats Promises To Suspend Construction In Kurapaty For A Week

The official’s meeting with the activists has lasted for an hour and a half.

Today, on his reception day, the “mayor” of Minsk Andrei Shorats has met with the Kurapaty defenders, tut.by reports.

Only four people have been admitted to the mayor’s office upon the preliminary agreement — Co-Chairman of the steering committee for creating the party “Belarusian Christian Democracy” Pavel Seviarynets, Chairman of the BPF Party Aliaksei Yanukevich, member of the civil association “Experts for Kurapaty Defense” Marat Haravy, and resident of the Zialiony Luh micro-district Yury Stsepanishchau. Other activists, together with historians and journalists, have stayed in the lobby of the Minsk city executive committee to wait for the results of the meeting. They have not been admitted.

The activists have come to the city mayor to discuss the construction of a business-center in Mirashnichenka Street, across from Kurapaty. The building is being constructed inside the former protective zone. The object was included into the city plan in 2013, also disturbing the place of burials of the victims of Stalin’s repressions. In 2014, the borders of the protective zone were narrowed and the construction was fully legalized.

Pavel Seviarynets has told that they plan to demand at least suspension of the construction of the business-center in the former protective zone in Mirashnichenki Street, the ideal scenario being reinstating the protective zone around Kurapaty within the borders established back in 2003.

The meeting has lasted for an hour and a half. Apart from mayor of Minsk Andrei Shorats, his deputy Viktar Laptseu and head of the Savetski district administration Yury Trushchanka have been present at the meeting.

“We told that it was necessary to suspend the construction and reinstate the borders of the protective zone, established in 2003,” — Pavel Seviarynets has told about the results of the meeting. —The idea about the memorial has been accepted by the authorities.”

The city board has insisted the construction is legal and “there are no actual bones at the construction site”. Andrei Shorats has promised that the construction will be suspended for at least a week, and the municipal authorities will hold negotiations with the Ministry of Culture and other institutions in this regard during this term.

“They also asked to clean off the camp near the construction site, but we will do it only after they show us the written confirmation of the suspension of the construction,” — the Co-Chairman of the steering committee for creating the party “Belarusian Christian Democracy” has noted.

Important to note, civil activists have held 24/7 duty near the construction site of the business-center in Kurapaty for over a week. The local residents have collected over 1 thousand signatures under the petition against construction of a new building in their neighbourhood. On Monday, the builders stopped the construction works and took away part of the equipment.

Kurapaty is a forest tract in the north-east of Minsk, where the mass graves of those shot in the late 1930s - early 1940s were discovered. The exact number of victims remains unknown, but, according to the official data, it could reach several thousand.