News on the topic: forced disappearance
06.02.2009 Uliana ZAKHARANKA: ‘I think that I’m living my last days…’
On 6 January Uliana Zakharanka, mother of the ex-minister of interior Yury Zakharanka, missing since 1997, turned 85 years old. Narodnaya Volia took an interview with her.
14.01.2009 Zinaida Hanchar: ‘Change of investigators of the case of disappearance of my husband gives no results, as no concrete work is done’
Zinaida Hanchar, wife of the kidnapped vice-speaker of the Supreme Soviet of the 13th Convocation Viktar Hanchar, has received a letter from Minsk city prosecutor’s office with the information that the investigation of the case was extended to 24 March 2009 and will be lead by a new investigator – Yu.Varauka. Of course, Mrs. Hanchar wanted to have a meeting with the news investigator. On 12 January she phoned to him with such a proposal. The investigator answered that there were no reasons for a meeting. He said that in the case she wanted to meet with him, she needed to submit an official petition with grounding of the reasons and then the prosecutor’s office would decided whether there was any need for the meeting.
04.11.2008 Court turns down suit of Brest oppositionists
Leninski district court of Brest considered the complaints of Brest opposition activists Zhana Abramava and Vital Symonik. Abramava and Symonik appealed against the ban of their picket by Brest city executive committee. They intended to hold the action on 7 May near the Belarus cinema in Savetskaya Street and dedicate it to the anniversary of disappearance of the ex-minister of interior Yury Zakharanka. Bear in mind that a number of high state officials are suspected in relation to this crime. The official ground for the executive committee’s refusal was that the only authorized place for mass actions in Brest was the Locomotive stadium.
11.09.2008 Head of observation mission of OSCE/ODIHR has friendly meeting with minister Navumau
On 10 September the Interior Minister of Belarus Uladzimir Navumau met with the head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, Geert-Hinrich Ahrens.
04.09.2008 Brest: pickets in memory of missing politicians are banned
On 3 September the court of Leninski district of Brest dismissed the complaint of Andrei Sharenda and Vital Symonik against a prohibition to hold a picket on 7 July, dedicated to the 8th anniversary of Dzmitry Zavadski’s abduction.
03.09.2008 International Federation for Human Rights to demand the Belarusian government to investigate political disappearances
‘Opinion of people should come first in democratic countries. If election is undemocratic, people have the right to protest in the streets,’ Secretary General of the International Federation of Human Rights Luis Guillermo Perez told in an interview to the Charter’97 press center.
02.09.2008 Brest: Raman Kisliak asks permission for picket dedicated to disappearance of Hanchar and Krasouski
The human rights activist Raman Kisliak has addressed Brest city executive committee to obtain permission for holding a picked dedicated to an anniversary of the disappearance of Viktar Hanchar and Anatol Krasouski. He intends to hold the picket on 16 September.
28.05.2008 Sviatlana Zavadskaya sues Mikhail Tsitsiankou
Sviatlana Zavadskaya, widow of the forcibly kidnapped ORT TV cameraman, appealed to court against the decision of Mikhail Titsenkou, deputy head of the Minsk city executive committee, on banning a picket, dedicated to the anniversary of disappearing of Yury Zakharanka, the former minister of the internal affairs.
08.05.2008 Young Democrats collect signatures for installment of memorial shield to Zakharanka
Yury Zakharanka, former minister of internal affairs, was kidnapped 7 May 1999. The Young Democrats marked this mournful date by collecting signatures for installment of a memorial shield to Yury Zakharanka on the wall of the house in Zhukouski Street, 9, where he used to live.
08.05.2008 Action of United Civil Party in place of Zakharanka’s kidnap
8 May in Mahiliouskaya Street in Minsk, in the place where the ex-minister of internal affairs Yury Zakharanka had been kidnapped nine years ago, activists of the United Civil Party including its chairman Anatol Liabedzka have carried out an action in his memory.
07.05.2008 Minsk authorities ban picket in memory of Yury Zakharanka
Sviatlana Zavadskaya, widow of kidnapped ORT TV channel operator Zmitser Zavadski, received a refusal from the deputy head of Minsk city executive committee to her application on holding a picket in Minsk on 7 May, dedicated to the 9th anniversary of disappearance of General Yury Zakharanka.
16.01.2008 Miklashevich Proposes to Humanize Legislation
On January 16th Belarusian Prosecutor General Piotr Miklashevich answered the questions of journalists about the celebrated criminal cases and the work of the Prosecutor’s General Office in 2007.
28.11.2007 Address of Relatives of Abducted Politicians and a Journalist to Prosecutor General
One of the 12th recommendations of the EU to Belarus is “holding due independent investigation or revision of the cases of citizens’ disappearance”. On October 30 relatives of the oppositionists abducted in Belarus, Zinaida Hanchar, Iryna Krasouskaya, Svyatlana Zavadskaya, Volha Zavadskaya, and their legal representatives Harry Pahanyajla and Aleh Vouchak have handed over to the prosecutor general of Belarus a document, based on public investigation of these high-profile cases.
02.11.2007 Relatives of Missing People Direct ‘Bill of Indictment’ to Prosecutor’s Office
This document has been prepared by the lawyers and the relatives of the missing opposition activists and consists of more than 20 pages.
15.10.2007 European March: No Detentions
The march and rally ended without detentions of activists
