De oproep tot een nieuw internationaal onderzoek naar de feiten over de ontvoeringen zal gericht worden op de voorzitter van de Europese Commissie, de premier van Zweden en de presidenten van Litouwen en Polen. Politici en zakenmensen uit Wit-Rusland zullen de oproep ondersteunen.
According to the initiative “We Remember” and Zmitser Zavadski’s Foundation, in 1999-2000 about 20 persons were abducted or died under puzzling circumstances in Belarus. Among them are the former vice speaker of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus Viktar Hanchar, the public leader Anatol Krasouski, who were abducted on September 16, 1999 in Minsk. He former Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka went missing on May 7, 1999. The cameraman of ORT TV channel Zmitser Zavadski was abducted on July 7, 2000. The official investigation of these abductions by the law-enforcers of Belarus was fruitless.
The abductions took place in the period from spring 1999 to summer 2000, that is, before the presidential election in Belarus, which took place on September 9, 2001. Then the US State Department depanded thorough investigation of the abductions of Zakharanka, Hanchar, Zavadski and Krasouski. Officers of force structures of Belarus are suspected in the kidnapping.
As representatives of the civil initiative “We remember” and Zavadski’s foundation say, relatives of the missing have adopted a decision to address for help to the chairman of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė and Polish President Lech Kaczynski, as the authorities in Belarus are not taking measures to investigate the abduction of Zakharanka, Hanchar, Zavadski and Krasouski for almost 10 years. “We hope that the European Commission and the authorities of Sweden, Lithuania and Poland would be able to exert pressure on the authorities of Belarus to establish the issue,” stated the representative of the families of the disappeared.
The relatives of the disappeared also count upon any assistance of other countries and organisations in establishing the facts about the fate of their loved ones.
Bron: www.charter97.org