live. live live. listen. live. minsk the capital of valorous a vigil is being held to remember politicians who disappeared from here 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 because we were acting on orders. we were given a order that was given any of us had refused to be replaced and the next man would have done it all over again. we are talking about a conspiracy. why don't you like about human rights and. here you have the right just there. with the. when you was admitted to hospital 10 months ago he could only walk in

paying. his right hip had been smashed to pieces in a car accident in bellary ury fled to a german speaking region in the alps which shall remain unnamed his application for asylum is still pending then 41 years old yuri received a hip replacement at a hospital in his host country. he has been scarred for life not only by the accident which he thinks was an attempt on his life but also by. an event that turned him into a criminal and destroyed his family. from salutes it all to the shores why i left my family in 2008 hours after the attempt on my life yup when the i realized that my wife and daughter was sacred to me and so i decided to get divorced but the more yet i was wrong since then i have lived alone also it's of them. during no longer felt safe in his home country because he

wanted to speak out get the burden off his chest as he explains he alleges that his former comrades from the mint security unit were pursuing him. the full 4 months i had information that they were either arrest me or imprisonment is. the labor i didn't want to sit in jail or make a confession is ludicrous ill be accused of something i hadn't done you know as a kid the book. store being on them. eerie was involved in a crime that has shaken people in eastern europe to this day the old fire station in the heart of minsk this is where the former minister of the interior yuri's eco ranko parked his car on the evening of may 7th 1909. zachary and co was a key figure of the opposition as always he walked the last few meters to his home

. the reconstruction of the crime is based on the account of the key witness eureka scheme 2 men follow saccharin code so he is unable to escape. 2 more men block his path ahead they are soldiers dressed in plain clothes they belong to the some a special unit. one of the men says they are policeman and if he needs to go with them. 20 years ago the political situation in minsk was dramatic the former minister of the interior decorating co had changed sides and was now the head of the opposition tens of thousands of protestors were on the streets trying to prevent their country from becoming a dictatorship. with 2 controversial referenda valorous president made a bid to gain total power and exclude parliament the people's representatives in

parliament went on a hunger strike in vain. but. since then has been ruling almost singlehandedly della reese is seen as the last dictatorship in europe a police state in its purest form. previously as minister of the interior zakk a rank 0 had tried to bring the country more and more towards the west on a visit to bonn he signed an agreement on police cooperation with germany. what was my concern yes there was. this about. this move led to a clash with the president whose rule became increasingly authoritarian the opposition rallied and military officers joined forces with them with the aim of ousting. although me here very. dear

friends sure. lack ravens are circling above our land. that's why the national congress came together yesterday to protect the constitution against the dictatorship. back then our witness eurico rob ski was 18 years old during his military service he joined a special unit and was soon integrated into a newly founded intervention fullest called saw the way he spent 5 years finally receiving a promotion. he keeps copies of important documents in the refugee home where he's staying and tells us that the originals are in a safe place and this is my membership card for the special units veterans association the. people are served in the fighting units of the ministry of internal advance get one of these i was deputy commander in the 1st group this is

the card you get if you were in the sober. bella ruse has several special units made up of hardened soldiers who are loyal to their president here they show what they're capable of in the men's football stadium images from 20 years ago. saw his mission was to tackle smugglers and the mafia but our witness says that wasn't their sole task sauber was also deployed to forcibly eliminate the opposition. this is here in this summary i made a note of who was involved in the elimination of zachary and co on may the 7th and who was involved in eliminating concho on september 16th who series a list of all the people who knew about it and who were involved with this. says who all the orders were given verbal with the meter just all of them there is no

written evidence because of the over here recordings no minutes these reports or anything like that was used. all of. the corn sure it was probably on behalf of president lucas franco or lib i don't know i can't say . lin's not the most. accurate code does not put up a fight. in the car he tells his kidnappers please do it painlessly the car leads minsk heading north. bellerose 1st became an

independent state after the collapse of the soviet union since 991 minsk has been the capital of a nation with around 10000000 citizens. a statue of lenin leader of the revolution and founder of the soviet union stands in front of the seat of government even today a very soviet style is much in evidence a corner building on independence straight houses the ministry of internal affairs once the work place of you're exactly right next door the headquarters of the intelligence service the k.g.b. back then as today a field center of power all 8 of all chipped has suffered a great deal of persecution and suppression by the state the civil rights activist and lawyer represents the zachary and her family in minsk the work here we are in germany at the home of soccer and has a wife this is his eldest daughter that's me in the middle and the writers are correct his wife they live in germany as political refugees.

there is an atmosphere of great fear in our country if you express your opinions and you can end up in jail or be forced into corrective therapy that soviet system still exists in our country today. the 2nd case in september 1909 victor gone china and businessman anatoly cross all ski were kidnapped in front of sauna number 3 in minsk they 2 opponents of the regime and members of the opposition plotting to oust the president the witness tells us that both of them were to be eliminated. and this is the military base invader. this is this is where we killed. the roads about 200 meters he goes about 20 meters into the forest this is.

this is where we killed. the land here about 50 meters away as grave was done. was this what we underestimate their clothing here only their shoes were tossed into the grave and buried with. their families half the time victor gone child was the head of the central election commission he stood up against president who wanted more power gone child was trying to stop him brute force was deployed against gone child and his staff during the referendum. for those of course not for peace started k.g.b. agents and special units to their offices. prevention gone from entering the washer put you on their property the witness from the death squad tells us that there was a reward of a $1000.00 for murdering gone shot. if you can i was blown up really just lost

a matter on it and. they were given a reason for getting rid of gone china. will be going sure are discussing the bomb store with noble we were told later on charge had evidence showing that lucas shank 0 had come to power illegitimately and that the vote in 1996 was rigged. but there was a storm but the grandchild was in possession of this evidence. you know when you were brilliant the they told us afterwards that we had eliminated him because of this compromising material that we want to keep. going china zachary enco and cross off ski with the most prominent victims of the look of shanghai regime but they were not the only ones. every year the vigil in minsk commemorates the victims.

with the disappearance of the 3 politicians the country's chances of democratic development also vanished this was good and there is remorse there is a sense of guilt if these people were still alive things would be different in belarus today. were a lot of things would be better today and most importantly there would be no fear we would have a say in things of saccharine corner gone char was still alive. all of vote shows us a figure of an angel. it's a present from the eldest daughter of the minister of the interior who disappeared only a visitor in germany. she said this angeles for you ellen has a committed herself it's

a guardian angel. on the evening of may 7th 1999 yuri secor ranko had nobody to help protect him. the death squad drove him to a military training ground around 20 minutes outside of minsk. the pistol that was used to assassinate him was a special model built for close range use the official weapon executions.

in northern germany this is where your family lives in exile his widow 2 daughters and grandchildren who never saw the grandfather. is the eldest daughter she works as a saleswoman and is the only member of her family to publicly discuss their plight . she and her family came to germany a year after her father disappeared and reluctantly applied for asylum. but now we save up for the whole year and when we arrived in germany we already had tickets for our return flight we came here to report in a democratic country on the situation in our home country. that was all we were planning to do you shot on us last absolutely yeah but then we got a call that the k.g.b.

had started criminal investigations accusing us of vilifying the honor and dignity of the valorous president and the state visit them actually the so that's. today is the 1st time that eleanor zachary in co has heard about the witness and his statement regarding the details of her father's death. at 1st she is skeptical and struggles with her emotions. it's a fact that just i hope the facts are true and they can be checked. of course it is difficult to hear about this and to see the burial sites at the church. let alone to hear how it happened i think that. you need nerves of steel and yes we need. are the facts correct they could be initial answers to this question in strasbourg christiane and i got to listen to the witness statement.

is a defense lawyer from cyprus 15 years ago he investigated the disappearance of the bellerose opposition politicians for the council of europe. is still following the cases today the council of europe scrutinizes human rights and all the more closely in the case of belarus the ability we have today to run and the vince again investigation that iris seems very small. that's a problem well the file as far as we are concerned never close the file would close the day when a probate investigation is conducted and that there are findings as to up hold cup and police disappear people it's impossible for these abductions and murders to have taken place without the consent to put it mildly

of very very high officials and when i say very high officials. my mind goes to the president. who was north of la he knew about it maybe he didn't i can't be sure but i think he did know the storms well. accusations that barely reach alexander lukashenko for many years the president of bella ruse was not welcome in the west that changed in nov 29th chain. the austrian president received the dictator from minsk in vienna it was looking visit to an e.u. country in many years. at the press conference the question of the opposition politicians who disappeared was rawest because shankar did not answer but he admitted that he rules his country

in an authoritarian manna. puts it i also want the citizens of our country to be absolutely sovereign and independent we know that we are only a self-sufficient and appends and our citizens are only as free as our situation allows us and that situation is very complicated because muscle actually. up to murdering zecher into the killers drug to mean sq.

gorecki says he had no choice he had to take part in the assassination. or. the were doing was but there was no girl in the line might have question that lead down inside. but when a young man receives an order either your part of the system or you are not. so i knew i had to follow this through the bros of the country if i had failed i would have ended up in the same hole in the ground. for the council of europe investigators 2nd rank those murder was clearly the work of a death squad. 'd a death walk. by publishing a book. for peace or just. the officer allegedly responsible has already been named in an official document from minsk

which was passed to investigators from the bellerose public prosecutor's office. at that school. house. on behalf of the state that's why they use the pistol from or that will use for the visual executions. just to give it an appearance that these wear will teach alex ignitions. and that's a kind of message does yours open and say you know this is not obvious sure but it is really us with this side someone to put the pressure to put the terror on the orders. after the murder the assassins bring the body back to minsk. the car leaves the city motorway and heads for symmetry. the group commander colonel publishing co disappears with the corpse in the

direction of the crime atory him there is no trace of the body after that. the witness statement severely incriminates dimitri pavlyuchenko a highly decorated officer in the belarus ministry of internal affairs as did the man who deployed the sober special unit as a death squad to also murder the opposition politicians. and we soldiers were just carrying out orders we only arrested the man. we didn't pull the trigger we didn't carry out the liquidation order or did that he was the one who pulled the trigger. a witness is not obliged to incriminate himself therefore some doubts still remain as to what actually happened the families of those left behind continue to demand justice for the events of 20 years ago gorecki has a message for them but most of all for the relatives of the dead. here in the north

. by express my deepest condolences. i was involved in these murders and i offer my apologies. i can show you where they are buried on the map you know what i'm doing here. everything else depends on you and the judicial system in belarus. this is. words of remorse which need to be processed. on the hook to tell ken i accepted. exile and how big it. he was and what i thought they had chosen people with no family or relatives in belo roost to carry out the assassinations so that they could also be liquidated afterwards at the thing that at the going out. and i'm surprised that

a witness has turned up who was willing to talk about it openly. talk about it up close. eleanor zachary and co finds her response later directed at the man who was an accessory to the murder of her father. at the new one. if you will it's just it's not about him it's about the whole system behind him and you just said yes we cannot be blamed personally. and that but you know she died of a power yes people like him are dependent on the system and they're forced to commit its gruesome crimes. even if i said this to him i can't say it to the thousands of others who served with him mr bush. the political system in bellerose systematically violates human rights the flags of 47 member states can be seen outside the council of europe building in strasbourg the bella reuss flag is not among them in order to become

a member deloris would 1st have to face up to its past otherwise it will remain an outsider in europe. you can't consider a society other wealthy and i would say a consolidated society without the ability and that the capacity and the the possibility to know what's happened we can't condemn that that but 1st we must know math clearly no one is responsible and in 4th disappearance is a way to i the truth i think they're all democracies or europe. we do not. accept below roza without solving the important issue of that is appearances and many other problems as one of the other axis is not only these problems.

these i can describe it as an important. the tip of the iceberg we should everybody sees but. they've been the water the reserve be a spare civil rights and liberties of violated in belarus it's the only country in europe with the death penalty is still in full list the media is firmly in the hands of the state there is hope for change mainly among young people and human rights activists who can still remember the events of 20 years ago when the opposition was brutally eliminated. i believe that the disappearance of the politicians and bella roost will be resolved it's no longer just a matter for the government history has taught us that. in latin america similar cases were investigated 30 years later and are still being investigated. and bella

reuss is in europe to go on with. europe has not forgotten bell roots all the opposition politicians who disappeared. human rights activists from amnesty international have planted trees for them in the dutch city of and hovan. one see it as an hour's vigil in the growth of remember and. when i get a letter most of the letter writing we are wounded by our past in this wound will

never heal. it will always open up again in our memories in our dreams. of not being able to say goodbye to someone not being able to bury him is the worst punishment. there is the sum of. the past is a lifelong burden. it is only when the murders have been resolved that this burden may become lighter for those left behind as well as for better or worse.

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