Prosecutor general gives runaround to address of missing politicians’ relatives
On 17 August Zinaida Hanchar (wife of oppositional politician and vice-speaker Viktar Hanchar, kidnapped in September 1999), Volha Zavadskaya (mother of kidnapped cameraman of ORT TV channel Dzmitry Zavadski) and Uliana Zakharanka (mother of kidnapped ex-minister of interior Yury Zakharanka) addressed the Prosecutor General’s office with the demand that by 16 September the Prosecutor General Ryhor Vasilevich reported to the public about the results of the investigation into the disappearances.
The office of the prosecutor general answered with a runaround, as usual: the address was forwarded to the prosecutor’s office of Minsk.
On 17 August the relatives of the missing and the lawyers working on the cases of the kidnapped persons held a special press conference dated to the tenth anniversary of the undisclosed ‘disappearances’. On 16 September 1999 former vice-speaker Viktar Hanchar and businessman Anatol Krasouski were kidnapped by unidentified persons. Investigators of the prosecutor’s office found traits of blood at the scene. The forensic experts concluded that it was Hanchar’s blood. The investigation of this case has been several times suspended, despite the statements of some of the investigators about the involvement of some high-rank officials close to Lukashenka in the crime.
During all these years the relatives of the missing opponents of Alexander Lukashenka have been trying to get an objective and all-sided investigation into these crimes. In fact, the authorities have made nothing for publicizing the truth about the kidnappings. The behavior of the authorities can be rather qualified as concealment of the evident truth and awkward covering of the tracks.
