| Amnesty International has
expressed concern about the possible "disappearances"
of prominent figures in Belarus' opposition. The organization
considers a "disappearance" to have occurred whenever
there are reasonable grounds to believe that a person has
been apprehended by the authorities or their agents, and
the authorities deny the victim is being held, thus concealing
the victim's whereabouts and fate and thereby placing the
victim outside the protection of the law. In May 1999 the
former Minister of the Interior, Yury Zakharenko, apparently
"disappeared" leaving behind his wife and two
daughters, while in September the chairman of the unofficial
electoral commission, Viktor Gonchar, and his companion,
Anatoly Krasovsky, apparently "disappeared" leaving
behind several family members. These possible "disappearances"
occurred at key political moments and the Belarusian authorities
have shown great reluctance to investigate the cases. Instead,
they have accused Belarus' opposition of staging the "disappearances"
for the purposes of seeking international attention or have
stated that the individuals concerned have been sighted
abroad.
It is important to note that the victims of human rights
violations are not the only direct victims of state and
non-state persecution, but that their families also are
subjected to great emotional distress. The imprisonment
of a family member in what are often cruel, inhuman and
degrading conditions, their possible exposure to ill-treatment
or torture, the uncertainty of their fate in cases where
family members have "disappeared" are causes of
great suffering and hardship. The families of Yury Zakharenko,
Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky have been forced to
endure numerous pressures as a result of their possible
"disappearances" and in some instances they themselves
have received anonymous threats. Members of the opposition
who have spoken out in support of the men and their families
and have demanded thorough and impartial investigations
into the possible "disappearances" have also been
intimidated by the Belarusian authorities.
Background information
In 1999 Amnesty International has repeatedly expressed concern
about the treatment of members of the opposition in Belarus.
In this period opposition groups have staged a number of
peaceful protests against President Lukashenka, questioning
the legitimacy of his tenure in office. In 1996 President
Lukashenka held a referendum which led to the dissolution
of parliament. In a further referendum in November 1996
he secured a mandate to stay in office until 2001, despite
an election being scheduled for 1999. Opposition groups
and a significant part of the international community have
argued that the referendum violated the constitution and
therefore President Lukashenka's presidency expired in July
1999. Opposition groups have organized a series of peaceful
demonstrations in protest against President Lukashenka,
including unofficial presidential elections in May and a
series of peaceful demonstrations throughout the year. Both
Yury Zakharenko and Viktor Gonchar were prominent opposition
figures.
Yury Zakharenko
Amnesty International has expressed serious concern for
the safety of opposition activist and former Minister of
the Interior Yury Zakharenko, who failed to return home
on the first day of the campaign of the unofficial presidential
elections held in May. The organization fears that he may
be held in incommunicado detention.
Yury Zakharenko is a senior figure in the opposition movement
and was working closely with the former prime minister,
Mikhail Chigir, in the unofficial presidential elections.
He is married to Olga Zakharenko and the couple have 15-year-old
and 23-year-old daughters, Julia and Elena Zakharenko. Yury
Zakharenko's family have not heard from him since 7 May
1999, when he reportedly telephoned his daughter to say
he was on his way home at about 8pm. His wife believes that
he was arrested for his involvement in the unofficial presidential
elections. In an interview on 10 May Olga Zakharenko reportedly
stated: "During the last two weeks two cars would always
follow him. Reliable people warned Zakharenko that someone
wanted to kill him and he ought to be very careful. I also
warned him. But he believed in the rule of law and he never
agreed with absolute tyranny". She also reportedly
added: "I don't hope for the best. I have no hope that
he is alive. He has been murdered and his body will never
be found. This is an act by that criminal Lukashenka who
hired the killers and got rid of his uncompromising opponent,
Zakharenko". Olga Zakharenko has reportedly also been
subjected to intimidation. She has stated that she has received
anonymous telephone calls threatening her and her two daughters
and warning her to leave the country.
On 31 August his mother, Ulyana Zakharenko, appealed to
President Lukashenka in an open letter entitled "Give
My Son Back", in which she wrote: ''Alyaksandr Grigorievich,
you also have a mother and she also worries about her son.
Although you are the President, first and foremost you are
a son. You are shown every day on television. But what about
me? I had a child but suddenly he was gone. If someone would
tell me that Yura is alive and has not been murdered or
tortured to death I would feel immediately relieved. I cannot
sleep at night... and during the day I cannot find any peace''.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs is
reported to have said in May that Yury Zakharenko was not
being held in Minsk, and that his whereabouts were unknown.
In the light of the apparent unwillingness of the Belarusian
authorities to investigate his possible "disappearance"
members of the opposition set up their own commission to
ascertain what had happened to Yury Zakharenko and to pressure
the authorities to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation.
The head of the commission, Oleg Volchek, reportedly stated
at a press conference on 10 August, at which Olga and Elena
Zakharenko were present, that there was evidence that he
had been detained on Zhykovsky Street in Minsk and forced
into a car. The authorities have been reluctant to investigate
the case further.
After founding the commission to look into Yury Zakharenko's
possible "disappearance" Oleg Volchek became an
object of state attention. He was arrested and ill-treated
by police officers during a peaceful march in Minsk on 21
July, during which at least 50 other people were arrested
by police officers. Amnesty International learned that he
was allegedly beaten unconscious at a police station and
detained until the next day. Although he made a number of
complaints to the authorities about his ill-treatment, the
authorities reportedly failed to investigate his allegations.
He was subsequently charged under Article 201 (1) of the
Belarusian Criminal Code for 'aggravated hooliganism' and
faced a possible prison sentence of up to one year, but
when his case came to trial in late November a court in
Minsk rejected the charges against him.
Amnesty International has called on the Belarusian authorities
to initiate a thorough and impartial investigation into
the possible "disappearance" of Yury Zakharenko.
If he is in police custody the organization has urged that
he be protected from any form of ill-treatment. The organization
has also urged that he be given immediate access to his
family and to legal representation as enshrined in international
human rights standards(1) and that any criminal charges
against him are made public.
Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky
Amnesty International has expressed serious concern for
the safety of prominent opposition leader Viktor Gonchar
and his companion Anatoly Krasovsky, who failed to return
home on 16 September 1999. Amnesty International fears that
they may be in incommunicado detention where they would
be at risk of torture, ill-treatment or ''disappearance''.
The two men had visited a sauna on Fabrichanaya Street
in Minsk on the evening of 16 September and are believed
to have attempted to leave in Anatoly Krasovsky's car at
approximately 10.30pm. There are reports that traces of
blood and broken pieces of Anatoly Krasovsky's car were
found on the ground near the sauna, from where the men may
have been forcibly abducted. The Belarusian police visited
the location the following day, but it is not known whether
they have been able to confirm whether the blood belonged
to either of the two men. Since they went missing there
has been no reliable information about the whereabouts of
the men. Amnesty International learned that on 19 September,
three days after the men's possible "disappearance",
Viktor Gonchar was due to give a key report to members of
the former parliament on the political situation in the
country. Viktor Gonchar was reportedly also due to meet
the new American ambassador to Belarus in the days following
his possible "disappearance".
Viktor Gonchar was chairman of the electoral commission
before President Lukashenka dissolved parliament after the
controversial referendum of November 1996 and he had a leading
role organizing the unofficial presidential elections of
May 1999. His companion, Anatoly Krasovsky, is reported
to run a business. Both men are married and Viktor Gonchar
has a 17-year-old son and Anatoly Krasovsky 16-year-old
and 21-year-old daughters. After their possible "disappearances"
Viktor Gonchar's wife, Zinaida Gonchar, reportedly contacted
the police and the KGB to find out if he had been arrested
but she was unable to get any information. It was also reported
that after the two men's whereabouts became unknown Zinaida
Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky's wife, Irina Krasovsky, visited
a number of foreign embassies in Minsk in search of support.
In her efforts to find her husband Zinaida Gonchar has issued
a number of open letters to the international community,
among whom the spate of possible "disappearances"
of prominent opposition figures has caused a significant
amount of concern. In a letter to the Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in early October Zinaida
Gonchar reportedly stated: "Belarusian special services
had been openly shadowing Gonchar 24 hours a day since the
start of the year, law enforcement bodies cannot but know
his whereabouts", and added: "Because it was they
who organized Gonchar's kidnapping, they do not need to
search for him".
Amnesty International has also received copies of several
letters which Zinaida Gonchar addressed to the head of the
Belarusian KGB, Vladimir Matzkevich. In one letter dated
18 September she wrote: "You must understand, that
the abduction of Gonchar is a political crime, which has
caused indignation throughout the world. Therefore, as the
legitimate president of the KGB, approved by the Supreme
Soviet, you have the obligation to undertake all necessary
measures to find my husband and find the organizers and
perpetrators of this crime. Otherwise the leadership of
the KGB and you personally will shoulder the same responsibility
as the organizers of the crime".
Opposition spokespersons in Belarus have complained that
the authorities have failed to investigate the possible
"disappearances" of the two men. The deputy head
of the presidential administration, Ivan Pashkevich, reportedly
stated shortly after the men's possible "disappearances"
that Viktor Gonchar had deliberately gone missing to attract
attention to the sessions of the dissolved parliament, the
former 13th Supreme Soviet. In a television interview on
23 September the leader of the police investigation team
investigating the case, Valyantsin Patapovich, appeared
to give little credibility to the claim that the possible
"disappearances" had been politically motivated,
stressing that either the men had fallen victim to robbers,
absented themselves voluntarily or somehow fallen victim
to an organized crime group in connection with Anatoly Krasovsky's
business affairs. On 25 September the state-owned newspaper,
Belarusskaya Niva, circulated a story that Viktor Gonchar
had been seen in Lithuania on 19 September in conversation
with the exiled speaker of the dissolved parliament, Seymon
Sharetsky. The story, which was widely reported in the state-controlled
media, was condemned by Belarus' opposition as pure fabrication
on the part of the Belarusian authorities. Over a month
later, on 30 October, President Lukashenka also reportedly
commented on the men's possible "disappearances"
during a meeting with Adrian Severin, the head of the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly's working group on Belarus, stating
that Yury Zakharenko was in Ukraine and Viktor Gonchar was
in Russia. The opposition rejected the statement saying
that there was no evidence that the missing men were abroad.
Viktor Gonchar has a long history of peacefully opposing
President Lukashenka and is a former Amnesty International
prisoner of conscience. At the beginning of March 1999 he
was sentenced by a Minsk court to 10 days' imprisonment
for organizing an unsanctioned meeting in a cafe with other
members of the electoral commission. While in prison he
reportedly suffered a heart attack. Amnesty International
adopted him as a prisoner of conscience and expressed serious
concern about his health and the failure of the prison authorities
to provide him with appropriate medical care. He was officially
charged under Article 190 of the Criminal Code of the Republic
of Belarus, ''Wilful self-conferment of an official title
or authority'', which carries a maximum penalty of two years'
imprisonment or correctional labour. At a press conference
of the electoral commission on 19 May 1999 Viktor Gonchar
confirmed that the charges against him still stood.
Amnesty International's recommendations:
Amnesty International is calling for an immediate and impartial
investigation into the possible "disappearances"
of Yury Zakharenko, Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky
and for the results to be made public. If they are in police
custody, the organization is calling for their whereabouts
to be immediately made known to their families and that
they be given legal representation;
Amnesty International is calling on the Belarusian authorities
to make public any criminal charges against them and, if
they are in detention, that they be released immediately
unless charged with a recognizably criminal offence;
Amnesty International is urging that Yury Zakharenko, Viktor
Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky be protected from any form
of torture or ill-treatment;
Amnesty International is calling on the authorities to ensure
that the families of the three men are protected against
all forms of intimidation and are not subjected to any form
of torture and ill-treatment.
Amnesty International is calling on the authorities to ensure
that Oleg Volchek, the head of the independent commission
demanding a thorough and impartial investigation into the
possible "disappearances", is not subjected to
any form of intimidation for his opposition activities.
****
(1) Principles 7 and 8 of the Basic Principles on the Role
of Lawyers and Principle 17 of the Body of Principles for
the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention
or Imprisonment
|