On 16 September, human rights activists and relatives marked the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of Opposition Leader Viktar Hanchar and Businessman Anatol Krasowski. The police detained several persons. (21-SEP-04)
At 8.30 PM Viktar Hanchar´s wife Zinaida Hanchar, her official representative Hary Pahaniayla and some other human rights activists came to the Prosecutor´s Office of the Republic of Belarus.
Distributed report
The member of Human Rights Center “Viasna” Tatsiana Reviaka handed out the book “Belarus. Undisclosed Crimes of Newest History” to workers at the office. The book contains a report by the Parliamentary Assembly at the Council of Europe (PACE) about the missing persons in Belarus, with evidence that links the highest-level officials (including the prosecutor general Viktar Sheyman) to the crime.
Detained
The police tried to detain Zinaida Hanchar (named Gonchar in Russian language) at the entrance of the office, but her official representative Hary Pahaniayla defended her. As a result, he was detained and taken into a police car. The worker of Human Rights Center “Viasna” Tatsiana Reviaka held copies of Christos Pourgourides´ report and was detained for that. The “Interfax” journalist Aliaksey Bukchyn was also detained.
The detainees were brought to Minsk Tsentralny Borough Board of Internal Affairs. The police checked the journalist´s accreditation and let him go. Hary Pahaniayla and Tatsiana Reviaka were detained there for three hours. The police composed on them reports of administrative violation upon article 172.3 of the Code of Administrative Violations “distribution of printed editions without issue data”, the aim of which was aimed at inflicting harm to state and public order, rights and legal interests of citizens”.
Hary Pahaniayla reportedly didn´t carry the printed editions in question. Now the reports are to be considered either at court or by an administrative commission. If the human rights activists are found guilty, they will be fined. The maximal sum of the fine amounts to $50.
Resolutions against Belarus
On April 28, the Parliamentary Assembly at the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted two resolutions on Belarus calling for Lukashenko´s administration to launch an investigation into the cases of disappeared opposition figures and end its persecution of independent media. The resolutions came just two weeks after the adoption of another strongly worded resolution by the UN Human Rights Commission which listed a slew of human rights violations in Belarus and appointed a special rapporteur to conduct an investigation in the country.
CoE asked for independent investigation
PACE has expressed its concern by the disappearances of Yuri Zakharenko, former Minister of the Interior (disappeared on 7 May 1999), Victor Hanchar, former Vice-President of the Parliament of Belarus (disappeared on 16 September 1999), Anatoly Krasovski, businessman (disappeared with Mr Hanchar) and Dmitri Zavadski, cameraman for the Russian TV channel ORT (disappeared on 7 July 2000).
Christos Pourgourides, a CoE parliamentarian from Cyprus, wrote a report to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights on the disappeared cases.
The Assembly concludes that a proper investigation of the disappearances has not been carried out by the competent Belarusian authorities. On the contrary, the elements collected by the Rapporteur have lead it to believe that steps were taken at the highest level of the State to actively cover up the true background of the disappearances, and to suspect that senior officials of the State may themselves be involved in these disappearances.
