Belarus: First Anniversary of the Disappearance of Dmitry Zavadsky

The United States remains deeply concerned by Mr. Zavadsky's disappearance in light of a series of politically motivated disappearances in Belarus. Former Interior Minister and opposition figure Yury Zakharenko vanished while walking home on May 7, 1999. On September 16, 1999, former Central Election Commission chairman and opposition leader Victor Gonchar and his associate, Yury Krasovsky, also disappeared without a trace. To date, Belarusian authorities have not provided any accounting of the whereabouts of these individuals.

On July 3, Under Secretary for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky and Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Lorne Craner, along with senior regional officials, met with Dmitry Petrushkevich and Oleg Sluchek, former investigators in the Belarusian prosecutor’s office. The investigators reiterated their public allegations that a death squad created by the Lukashenko regime was responsible for all four of the disappearances of opposition figures. Following the suspicious deaths of one KGB investigator working on these cases, as well as of a witness, the investigators concluded that they were in danger and chose to flee Belarus and publicize their conclusions about the death squad to the press.

The United States takes these allegations seriously and calls on the Belarusian authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the disappearances of Mr. Zavadsky, Mr. Zakharenko, Mr. Gonchar and Mr. Krasovsky and account for their whereabouts.