there's a d.-w. news line from berlin revealing the truth about state's death squads in the former soviet republic of valor reuss in a d.w.i. exclusive report we hear from this man who says he was part of a team order to kill opposition politicians also on the program. hong kong's chief executive kerry land gets beijing's full backing president sheikh tells her she has his unwavering support despite the demands of pro-democracy protesters that she result.

i'm phil gayle welcome to the program we begin in the former soviet republic of brother bruce and the story about death squads killing 3 opposition politicians who disappeared without trace 20 years ago belarus has been ruled by president alexander lukashenko for more than 2 decades and he's widely considered to be europe's last dictator the missing man include a former interior minister this man yuri is that. there was speculation at the time that the president had ordered the assassinations now in an exclusive interview i spoke with a man who says he was a member of a death squad that killed. your recruit of ski is living in a central european country and is seeking asylum there. in a deitsch avella exclusive he tells us about his time in

a regime death squad in belarus and reveals new details about a series of crimes. a number of opposition politicians in belarus disappeared 2 decades ago and it's still not known what happened to them on the evening of may the 7th 1909 yuri's a her ankle parked his car here near the old fire house in minsk and was never seen again. at that time the former interior minister was a leading figure in the opposition. her ranko and his supporters wanted to prevent the country descending into dictatorship and to remove president alexander look at . look who had organized and won 2 controversial referendums to expand his powers and neutralize parliament. since then has ruled the country alone belarus is considered the last dictatorship in europe. this reenactment of the murder of your is a harangue who is based on statements made exclusively to us d

w by year. for members of a special military unit abducted and shots a harangue called dead in a forest gorecki tells us he was one of them and an accomplice to the crime and that as a member of the armed forces he had no choice 20 years later he has a message for the harangue close family. here but. i also my sincere condolences. i took part in the murder. i offer you my apologies. i can show you the burial site on a map the rest is up to you and better ruses law enforcement system. is a her records family is living in exile in the german town of munster his eldest daughter yelena hears from us for the 1st time details of her father's abduction and murder she calls the informant a man without a conscience. if you knew on it. you would get so it says it's not about him it's

about the entire system of. course and you just said one can't blame him people are dependent on the system i'm not but you know he died that forced to commit bloody crimes in its name. every autumn a vigil is held in minsk in honor of euro zone harang who and the other opposition politicians who disappeared. he says he also knows what happened to them so perhaps after 2 decades the truth about the regime death squads in belarus is about to come to light. the report was produced by the dublin investigative reporter christiane the trip a welcome christiane how did you 1st come across the story a couple of weeks ago mr you wrote an e-mail to the russian service is obviously a frequent user of programs in russian and that mail he claims that he has some important knowledge of these disappearances 20 years ago in his home country then

we set up an investigation team for colleagues of mine russian natives with a strong knowledge of the region and me responsible for the t.v. output ok so some strong claims there how did you verify his story and indeed his identity 1st we decided to clear his identity data based research was done and we also did some inquiries on the ground in his hometown and mends then we met with him on several occasions with that for a long very long interviews and and these interviews we again and again repeated the key questions related to these cases he was talking about and we even found mine are contradictions in these interviews we did and worked on these contradictions and presented the evidence we've got to some legal experts in europe there are some few of them who are familiar with the case and ok so if we believe him these are crimes. that he was positive 20 years ago so why is he telling the

story now good question you he told us that eventually he wanted to go clear that he wanted to remove a stone from his will that's how he put it and that's fair enough but we were not 100 percent sure that no other motives behind it perhaps even people who told him to flee to take refuge in the west and go out to the public with his story but we never never found any facts that gave us really evidence that there is more behind it than this person a motive someone who wants to go clear as there was so he's left belarus not presumably because these are allegations that i suppose anywhere else is asylum seeker in a western country right so again if the revelations are true where does this take us. years ago the council of europe already conducted an investigation into these cases and. in the 2004 report council of europe

investigators talk about a quote conspiracy of high ranking officials in belarus and in the light of this new evidence we now know or have some evidence what happened to the bodies we now know who shot who killed the politicians there might this misfire might be reopened by the council of europe and there might be mandates to investigate officially investigate what happened so president look at your career is not a man who broke opposition so does this have political implications for belarus itself i'm afraid yes and they might be quite dire and below us is a country pretty isolated pretty much isolated in europe no one wants to do business with that country due to the very dictatorial style mr bush anger is running his country and the situation of human. and so on in the last 23 years bill

or risk was working out on breaking the train and finding being re accepted as a partner in europe and all these efforts now could suffer serious setback. due to blue investigative reporter christiane 3 thank you for more on the story go to our website d.w. dot com or indeed our you tube channel t w documentary now to some of the other stories making news around the world the architect of france's controversial pension reform has resigned over alleged conflicts of interest trump ordeal avoids departure comes 12 days into the nation wants strikes against his plans which i'm to plug a chronic deficit in the pension system it's a blow to president emanuel mccraw government remains locked in a standoff with trade unions. delegates from europe and the u.s. have attended a ceremony in belgium to mount for 75th anniversary of the battle of the boat it was one world war 2 bloody step reserves in which u.s.

forces defeated the german attempt to stop advancing allied armies in december 1944 . 1300 people were killed in iran's 3 day crackdown on protests last month a new figure from amnesty international updates their previous estimate of just over 200 deaths iran has acknowledged that protesters were killed but has not released figures on. their home cogs chief executive kerry lott has received full backing of china's leadership despite the demands of pro-democracy protesters that she stand down chinese president xi jinping told muslims that hong kong had had what he described as its grimmest and most complex year since its return to chinese rule 22 years ago the president as you had time to say that mr lamb had beijing's unwavering support despite her government's poor showing in recent local elections and this month's huge pro-democracy rowdy. we will

continue to firmly support you and your leadership of the hong kong government in exercising government powers as mandated by law we will firmly support the police of hong kong in strictly enforcing the law. people of all walks of life in hong kong unite and work together to push hong kong's development back onto the right track. heavily censored in mainland china. efficient line is to betray the 6 months of pro-democracy protests as terrorism found by external forces the voices of ordinary citizens on the mainland are missing one man has made it his mission to give them a platform despite the censorship. after lunch i changed into a new set of clothes covered my face with a black mask and merged into the stream of black people do i know why hong kong

people are protesting i'm very clear about that do i know the risk of participating in these protests as a mainland very clearly yes if i get arrested i would likely be sent back to the mainland where i might simply evaporate into thin air nobody would see me alive again and if i died nobody would ever see my body. the testimony from china's mainland in support of the hong kong protests one of the voices the chinese government is trying to silence this man who calls himself midway dude is trying to make them heard he was born on the mainland as well. i know that there are people in china who love democracy who love freedom and who support hong kong. but with the current situation they cannot speak out. because he's afraid of retribution and has relatives on the mainland midway dude

cannot reveal his identity he grew up on the mainland and moved to hong kong at a young age it was here he started questioning that nationalism he was raised with little by little he grew to support on this democracy movement. when you've gotten to know freedom it's very hard to go back to a situation where you don't have any freedom at all. mainlanders who support hong kong's protests might be a minority but midway do things they should be heard they can submit their story to him by an anonymous form then he posts them on twitter and his blog even he himself does not know their identity because this project tree holds in chinese legend the place people with their secrets and. there's a trend in china in recent years that your colleagues your friends even your family

members all students will report you to the old florida keys. they think you are not nationalistic enough they think your betraying your country. these past 10 years i've seen with my eyes wide open how my favorite comics t.v. shows and books were banned and have disappeared from the shelves in mainland china i saw how the best opinion leaders were arrested or silenced. i said nothing and i did nothing now i regret that i deeply regret that that's why i cannot bear to see this happen again. this guy truly has courage he lives up to his words and he walks the talk. i have great respect for these he has received over 200 messages so far 200 little signs of dissent from a country where it different opinion can be

a crime. well to sport on the door of the 1st knockout round of the champions league has taken place germany's byron munich will face english premier league side chelsea will meter but 2 legs in february and march through should dortmund have a showdown with their former coach thomas to cool and his paris sandra last 16 debutantes rb leipzig will face last season's runners up tottenham and the pick of the other pairings a record winners round madrid to meet english champions manchester city and holders liverpool play athletico madrid. now it would be the christmas season without overzealous revelers dressing up as santa and doing things you wouldn't normally find santa doing except for a good cause in the spanish city of barcelona the annual santa claus motorcycle rally broke its own record with 7000 seasonal bikers on the road 2000 santas took part in the annual charity run in the course of us a capital pristina the same sort of thing happened in the usa here boston with

fewer clothes of their nearly $200.00 people running around in swimsuits all in the name of charity. alpha's will be here fully closed with business after just a moment of a list of the top. of the day. to day don't miss our highlights. program. w dot com highlights. closely. carefully. the soon. to be a good play.