this is d.w. news wife of from berlin tonight they dissented and they disappear did death squads in the former soviet republic of belarus silence political opposition in a v.w. news exclusive we'll hear from this man who says he was one of the killers why is he talking now and can we trust him also coming up he has her back chief executive carrie lamb gets full support from chinese president xi jinping despite the demands of pro-democracy protesters that may i'm sure to resign and

demonstrators in the indian capital delhi towards vehicles in clash with police as they condemn a new law offering amnesty to refugees but not if they're muslims and the car sized satellite that will explore planets beyond our solar system and search for a possible life in outer space. i bring it off it's good to have you with us we begin with a story of death squads who allegedly silenced voices of dissent in the name of the president known as europe's last dictator in the former soviet republic of belarus 3 opposition politicians disappeared without a trace 20 years ago now bella ruse has been ruled by president you see him right there. alexander lukashenko for more than 2 decades his tight grip on power enabled

by his pro russian stance and his 0 tolerance for dissent the missing men include a former interior minister this man you see right here yuri go there was speculation at the time that the president had ordered the assassinations and now in an exclusive interview the w. news has spoken with a man who says that he was a member of the death squads. beauty good of skiis living in a central european country and is seeking asylum that. in a deitsch of an 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 schenkel look who had organized and won 2 controversial referendums to expand his powers and neutralize parliament. since then has ruled the country alone. 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 t w by your acre of ski 4 members of a special military unit abducted and shots of her uncle 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 harang close family. here but. 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 bella ruth says law enforcement system. is a her records family is living in exile in the german town of monster 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 and it evaluates it says it's not about him it's about the entire system but. you just said one can't blame him people are dependent on the system not that you must die if they are forced to commit bloody crimes in its name. every officer of a vigil is held in minsk in honor of you resign 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. or that story produced by my colleague here w. news investigative reporter christiane. it's good to see you this is a fascinating story how did you run across a couple of weeks ago mr greste you wrote an e-mail to dodge of as russian department is obviously a frequent use of our programs in russian and that mail he claims to have important insights into these disappearances cases 20 years ago in his home country and then we said investigative teams for team 4 of us russian natives with a strong knowledge of the country and of the region and me responsible for the t.v. production that's how we started working on it obviously knowing the history just

a ruse you know you have to go when suspicious and. what did you do to verify his story to make sure he was telling you the truth 1st of all we checked his identity is he really the person who pretends to be we did some database research on that and also some inquiries on the ground in his hometown minsk then we met him several times and we did fall long very long interview was working even mine a contradiction contradictions in what he was telling us about these cases and we reworked it and we presented the final evidence to some experts there were a few of them and you were. familiar with these cases and then we decided to go public in so you were able to build up a level of trust why do you think he is telling this story now yuri told us that he wanted to go clear that he wanted to remove a stone from his so fair enough but the whole time we were working with him we had

the feeling that there might be more behind his motivation perhaps even someone a person in belarus who might have told him to flee his country to seek asylum in a western country and then go public but we this is mere speculation we never could find could trace any facts we could have used in our reporting but we don't say where he is but we know that he is somewhere here in western europe seeking asylum you know. these revelations if they are true what does that mean where is this story going to lead us the council of europe has already conducted an investigation years ago and that 2000 fall report they speak about the investigators of a code conspiracy of high ranking russian officials and i think it's possible that the general assembly of the council in strasburg now reopens the minsk file we have

some information tonight that the those left behind the families of the victims are already created putting pressure on the politicians to reopen the file in what would you say because you know what we're going to need the broader political implications for bill a ruse a ruse is somewhat of a pariah anyways i mean can it get worse for the country the country is pretty isolated in your rope and in the past 23 years president look or angle was working hard on breaking this chain and finding partners in europe again these efforts by this new evidence we have now all be in jeopardy and finally do or could have been closed for him we will see christiane for there's always because john thank you fascinating story. and you can see the full story after this program or you can check us out at d.w. dot com and our you tube channel it's d.w. documentary we'll hear some of the other stories now that are making headlines

around the world the architect of france's controversial pension reform has resigned over alleged conflicts of interest john paul deliverance departure comes 12 days into nationwide strikes against his plans which aim to plug a chronic deficit in the pension system now this is a blow to president emanuel micron whose government remains walked in a standoff with trade unions a court in belgium has postponed until february a decision on whether to extradite former catalan president. to spain the court will wait for the european court of justice to rule on the case of another former catalan separatist leader who's currently jailed in spain which tomorrow fled to belgium after overseeing the outlawed referendum on independence back in 2070. delegates from europe and the united states of attended a ceremony in belgium to mark the 75th anniversary of the battle of the bowl it was one of bored war to use bloodiest episodes in which u.s.

forces defeated a german attempt to stop advancing allied armies in december of 1944. executive kerry lamb has received the full backing of china's leadership despite the demands of pro-democracy protesters that she stand chinese president xi jinping told lamme that hong kong and had what he described as its grimmest and most complex year since its return to chinese rule 22 years ago president xi went on to say that lam has been unwavering support despite her government's poor showing in recent local elections and this month's huge pro democracy rally. we will continue to family support you and your leadership of the hong kong government in exercising government policy as mandated by law we will femi support

the police of hong kong in strictly enforcing the law. we hope people of all walks of life in hong kong unite and work together to push hong kong's development back on to the right track. with. china's president xi jinping speaking there there have been more violent protests in india over a contentious new citizenship law the legislation provides a fast track to citizenship for refugees from bangladesh pakistan and afghanistan but it excludes muslims critics say that undermines the constitutional right of equality for everyone opposition has been especially strong in india's northeastern state of som but the unrest has spread to other parts of the country in the capital delhi police clashed with students today. riot police fire a volley of tear gas. and their target student protesters holed up inside the

capital's prestigious jimmy amulya islam a university there demanding that the government resend a contentious new citizenship law. critics say the law discriminates against muslims by only granting indian citizenship to non muslim refugees from neighboring countries. after trading rocks at the police. the student demonstrators finally surrender with their hands aloft. and are ushered on to buses a destination unknown. property to some people. only and just as the. tensions were running high across india buses were burned during protests in the capital disrupting public life in. the.

hundreds marched in opposition to the new law. some here involving retribution should the government ostracize muslims. are ready to support the government but if they're going to harass muslims then it won't be tolerated muslims launch a massive movement against it. back in delhi and hundreds were again gathering at the university campus. the crowd electrified by claims of police violence the night before. the police came at us with batons while they are protesting peacefully fancher the campus the police even attacked the students who were studying in the library they were not involved in the protests they threw tear gas shells in the library does not fundamental rights a citizen of this country i'm just punch a guard and this has been shameful the police students but. authorities insist they responded appropriately to this youthful demonstration but

with the situation on a knife's edge their next move will be closely watched. by journalists. from the online publication the lead she joins us from. her also taking place it's good to have you on the program the protesters are saying that this is a war which discriminates against muslims but india's foreign minister narendra modi's says that the citizenship law and i'm quoting him here he says it's a 1000 percent correct so where where's the truth here and what truth do the does the public believe. there are 2 versions of the truth as far as the protesters go the protests that we've seen in delhi. and chennai and had about an all of the in the rest of mainland india as we like to call it these are against the exclusion of muslims from the system ship amendment act which has recently been

passed as far as the northeastern part of the country goes these people are protesting against any sort of migrants coming into their states because it's a very diverse culture with a lot of trite a lot of. ethnic groups living there and they're free that there can be an influx of migrants with the passage of this bill and they are very firmly opposed in that they don't want any migrants at all so one of these sets of protests as a protest about different things and what not in some of the is saying is that the muslims have not been included because the 3 countries that the citizenship amendment act talks about all muslim countries pakistan afghanistan and bangladesh so his logic is that muslims cannot be defused g.'s or persecuted in a muslim state and that is it isn't for. muslims being excluded from the list

of citizens who will be fast tracked in this legislation that we're seeing now it comes knowing that it has weak opposition to he he won with a strong mandate in the west. so he's pushing this forward saying that he's doing it because that's what the people want. that's absolutely right i mean this is one of the election manifesto was that what he had promised in 2014 that said but he was not able to deliver until now the other problem is that he had made was the national registry of citizens which has now been completed in the northeastern part of the stick with illegal bangladeshi immigrants have you know they've been weeded out in a sense and this is their the promise that he had made and of course the 3rd promise that it made was about the building of the controversial hindu temple at the disputed site in the u.

of the i know that british all of these 3 very controversial issues have come up at around the same time and this is and today the minister has also made a statement that the hindu temple would be built within 4 months at that disputed site which is disputed between the hindus and the muslims so clearly the b.g.p. government with its vast sweeping majority is pushing through a lot of very pro majority and in kind of you know my gender is and this is not going down but he went with minorities in india and understandably so journalists so the rubbish on car joining us tonight from not thank you for the county only is on for the launch of a european research satellite that will research planets outside of our solar system now it's due to blast off from the european spaceport in french guiana in west africa on tuesday the satellite is called cheops which stands for the

characterizing exoplanets satellite and who knows it might even detect signs of life in outer space. the key ops mission is designed to advance the search for extraterrestrial life for the 1st time the satellite will study planets orbiting distant suns so-called exoplanets. chips will observe how these distant worlds pass in front of the stars they orbit to make this possible researchers 1st had to scour the sky with other telescopes to select the stars to be targeted by the satellite. looking at the one star at the time. so we need to know that staal has a plan that we need to know when this planet passes in front of the star and at

that moment we point cope's they are. the satellite is set to measure the tiny fluctuations in brightness that occur when a planet passes in front of its star a celestial body the size of our earth dims the light by just 100th of a percent. can measure this barely perceptible flickering more accurately than ever before. from the decrease of light you can infer how big the planet is compared to the stuff because it just hides a part of the surface and you can compute which fraction of the surface is being hidden by the passing planet and that gives you then the size of the planet. all this without going there or this without seeing the planets you just see the shuttle. with his telescope astronomers can determine another property of the invisible planets their mass they then want to combine this information with the

data they obtain from cheops and thus determine the density of distant worlds this shows them whether they are planets made of rock or gas. or whether the distant worlds have an ocean or consist of ice. the satellite should also find out whether they have an atmosphere this allows conclusions to be john as to how habitable these worlds are. super telescopes such as the extremely large telescope will then take a closer look at the earth like exoplanets in the coming decade they will look for traces of life in their atmospheres and find out for example whether there are microbes and plants there. but here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around this world more than 300 people were killed in iran's 3 day crackdown on protests last month but the 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 and us media reporting that the white house is planning to announce the withdrawal of 4000 troops from afghanistan president visited military personnel there last month and has long sought to reduce the u.s. is $13000.00 strong presence in the country the u.s. envoy to north korea says washington will not accept gains end of year deadline to make concessions installed nuclear talks steven being is visiting south korea where he urged the north to return to the negotiating table. tensions have been rising after pyongyang conducted a series of weapons. aren't sports news the draw for the champions league round of 16 took place on monday in the tell us more

about that i'm joined here now by my colleague they branding from the boards dave it's good to see you ok so you talk me through this there are a few german teams still alive in the tournament right if there are 3 even if they get teams over that of advanced in the tournament we have by and you nick a purist your dortmund and lights flying the german flag and we actually have a report on them and their match ups going into the tournament so let's take a look at that. byron munich's to mulch us season isn't going to get any easier in february the german giants have been drawn against reigning europa league winners chelsea in the champions league round of 16 it will be a rematch of the 2012 final which biron lost on penalties to the london club i have to a slow start but have turned the corner in the fullness week and their strong form has given them a boost of confidence for the clash. where fairly confident. feel good about the draw of course chelsea have players that can hurt us.

dortmund have their eyes on an equally difficult task facing down french powerhouse police on the yellow wall welcome back former coach thomas to call for the 1st time since he left dortmund in 27 teeth. like steve have fought their way to the top of the bundesliga but. knows they have potential to even more. forward to improving further and that our will be even better results with only get better 2 i'm trying to push the boys a bit so they know we can be better and so they can be better players than ever before as the year comes to a close and the champions league is a good a place as any to show up their development but even if you are at their best last season's finalists tottenham hotspur will be a stern testament knockout round. and what we've got here is by munich getting a rematch of the 2012 final with chelsea is that juicy or what

yeah i think it's a pretty exciting one and i mean sure that was 8 years ago but you do see some clear through lines between that team and what's going on today so frank lampard played for chelsea in that match now he's coaching that club and then. and jerome boateng all ran out for byron and that final and they're still kicking around this time by a really in transition. their coach on the flick that still has the interim tag in his name so it's really hard to say what they can expect going into that match dortmund will face off against their former coach correct me if i'm wrong here thomas. and paris sun star studded roster i mean so dorman do they really have a chance it's going to be tough for them i mean p.s.g. are basically so strong when you call them star studded it's absolutely right they have neymar and kill you know a amongst a host of other great players so they're almost always favorites and they've won their league 6 in the last 7 seasons so basically the only way they measure how

well they do in a season is if they can win or at least advance in the champions league so also to call facing the former club is going to add a little fire on there too i like premier league team tottenham to contend with where do you see you know who do you see coming up on top here that was definitely the toughest one to call when tottenham appointed jos a merino as coach in november i think a lot of people raised their eyebrows a little bit because he seemed to not really fit tottenham's philosophy and they've won 4 of their last 5 matches they look really good meanwhile leipsic are quietly leading the been dislike by far the best attack in a really solid defense so that one could go either way i can't give anyone any betting tips there everyone is going to look into your crystal ball just yet daybreak from the abuse bortz they did. well this is v.w. news and these are our top stories and alleged former hit man has told the news that he was part of a death squad ordered to kill off politicians in the former soviet republic of

villa roofs the killings took place 20 years ago as president alexander the consolidated his hold on power. china's president xi jinping has expressed his unwavering support for hong kong leader kerry lam despite months of violent anti-government protests in the territory the demonstrators accuse beijing of eroding the island's democracy and they want to resign earlier hong kong police announce that they are no longer tolerate any more violence. india has seen a more violent protest over a new citizenship law criticized as being anti muslim the mall grants those fleeing religious persecution around 2 indian citizenship but does not apply to muslims. scientists at the european space agency are preparing to launch a new research satellite dubbed. mission will be to study earth like

planets in other solar systems in the search for extra terrestrial life. this is the w. news from berlin for more you can follow us on twitter and you can visit our website w dot ca. i'm very golfball see you again at the top of the. assassination

in minutes but d.-w. exclusive 20 years ago 3 prominent members of the bellerose you know opposition disappeared without a trace now a key witness has come forward to reveal what he knows and admitting in the process that he was an accessory to murder his information leaks little doubt the orders to kill came from the highest authorities a close a big success of next on d w. the

markets. of the morning more. of your business magazine. germany on t.w. . it was the speech of his lawyers perhaps his best certainly his most difficult. the speech by colin tristram on december 19th 1989. shortly after the fall of the read the chancellor addresses

the people of east germany. the middest tense the crowd clamors for german unity journalist peter allen borg was at the scene. 30 years later he looks back on the title in dresden. starts december 19th d. w. . illiam. minsk the capital of the larousse a vigil is being held to remember politicians who disappeared from him without a trace 20 years ago. a key witness has come forward he tells us that as a soldier of a special unit he was involved in the abduction and murder of the opposition politicians with the bill because we were acting on orders. we were given a verbal order that was given to any of us.