General Yury Zacharanka Was Kidnapped 24 Years Ago

What is known about the disappearance of one of Lukashenka's main opponents?

The former Minister of Internal Affairs of Belarus, General Yury Zacharanka, disappeared without any traces 24 years ago, on May 7, 1999. At that time he was 47 years old.

Yury Zacharanka was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs in July 1994, right after Lukashenka was elected. Lukashenka dismissed Zakharanka in October 1995. And in April 1996, by decree of Lukashenka, the former minister was demoted to the rank of police colonel and fired from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Shortly afterwards, Yury Zacharanka took to the side of the opposition. In February 1998, he chaired the security committee of the shadow government. In the spring of 1999, Yury Zacharanka took an active part in the presidential campaign organized by the opposition. He was a member of the team of former Prime Minister Mikhail Chyhir, travelled around the country, and organized groups for the campaign.

On the evening of May 7, 1999, Zacharanka disappeared on his way home. The case on the fact of his murder was initiated on September 7, 1999, under the “Intentional Homicide” article. The investigation was suspended in 2013.

On December 16, 2019, Deutsche Welle published an interview with Yury Garauski, who called himself a fighter of the Belarusian "death squadron". He spoke about his participation in the kidnapping and murder of opponents of Aliaksandr Lukashenka 20 years ago under the command of Dzmitry Pauliuchenka.

According to Harauski, on May 7, 1999, fighters of an immediate reaction squad of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus kidnapped Zakharanka. By verbal order from Dmitry Pavlichenko, a group of eight people followed Zakharanka for about a week and a half before committing the kidnapping. They knew where Zakharanka parked his car and how many meters he had to walk from the parking to his house. Four fighters of the squad stopped Zakharanka on the way home. He was alone, without guards. They introduced themselves as police officers. Zakharanka offered no resistance. He only asked the kidnappers in the car to give him an easy death. They put a “bag” on Zakharanka's head when in the car so as not to let him see anything.

They took Zakharanka to the training base of the internal troops in the Valoushchyna district near Minsk. He was killed with a special pistol with a silencer, which is used to carry out death sentences in Belarus. In an interview, Harauski claimed that Pauliuchenka personally shot him. He fired two shots in his heart. The body was taken to Minsk after the murder, the car turned towards the Northern Cemetery on the Minsk Ring Road. The commander of the squadron Dzmitry Pauliuchenka brought the body to the crematorium. Harauski does not know what happened to the body then.