KGB is interested in priest’s activities

On 5 November Siarhei Vashkevich, an aide of a protestant pastor Viachaslau Hancharenka at Novaye Zhyttsio church, received a writ from KGB. According to this document, he was to come to Minsk and Minsk oblast KGB department on at 2 p.m. on 10 November for giving explanations.

At the specified time Siarhei Vashkevich came to the KGB office. There he was asked questions concerning the 4 July explosion and his earlier activities in a charitable organization.

During the ‘conversation’ a KGB officer expressed the wish to take Vashkevich’s fingerprints. However, the latter refused from it as well as from signing the minutes of the ‘conversation’. He thusly explained his refusal: ‘I am a believer. My being a clergyman and my religious convictions and life values are incompatible with participation in unlawful actions.’

At the departure the KGB officer promised not to invite the pries to such ‘measures’ any more.