“In Belarus assassinations have become a technology to be improved,” former political prisoner Aliaksandr Atroshchankau said in Hot Commentary.
Ulliana Zakharanka has been waiting for his son Yury for 5055 days. The former Minister of Interior, who was brave enough to make a stand against Lukashenka’s regime, was kidnapped on May 7, 1999.
Unfortunately, Zakharanka was not the only one who disappeared within that grim year of 1999. The sad list includes also Viktar Hanchar, Vice Speaker of the XIII Supreme Soviet; businessman Anatol Krasouski; cameraman Dzmitry Zavadski. The investigators remain silent having no answers to the key questions: where are the people? What happened to them? Moreover, in 2014 their cases might well be dismissed on the ground of expiry of the statute of limitations. Meanwhile, opposition and human rights defenders accuse the authorities both of non-feasance and crimination.
“In 1999-2000 high profile disappearances occurred but since the regime has brought up the generation of “siloviki”( security-service agents) prepared for executing any order. They are also ready to assassinate. We remember Veranika Charkasava, Aleh Biabenin and others,” European Belarus activist Aliaksandr Atroshchankau said.
