Alexander Lukashenko’s presidential win, “Europe’s last dictator”, led to question and protests across Belarus last year. This was followed by a severe crackdown on the protesters. and fleeing to Lithuania for the safety of opposition leader Svetlana Tikanovskaya, who refused to accept the election results.
a year has passed Belarus has returned to international attention after Christina Thimanovskaya, Belarusian Olympic sprinter. Came out to reveal that she was forced to return to the country. Before applying for asylum to Poland, who had already offered her a humanitarian visa.
Recently, however, an official at Tokyo’s Haneda airport told reporters the 24-year-old had a sudden change of heart and boarded a plane heading to Vienna, Austria, instead of Poland’s Warsaw.
Just a day after news of the national team’s Olympic runners’ asylum came news that Vitaly Chishov, the leader of the group helping those fleeing Belarus. was lost in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. before being found dead from “hanging” in a park near his home
Ukrainian police have begun an investigation into whether the murder was a suicide. Some have wondered if this was the work of a spy loyal to President Lukashenko, as Chishov has been helping refugees fleeing a massive police crackdown that began in August last year.
But this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. many years ago There have been cases of disappearance or murder of dissident Belarusians who have yet to be identified.
dead reporter
In July 2016, journalist Pavel Sheremet became famous for uncovering the oppression of Belarusian authorities. Died from a car bomb Sheremet was jailed in 1997, beaten in 2004, before emigrating to Russia. and became a famous television reporter
He criticized both the Russian military intervention in 2014 and Ukraine’s own mistakes in relations with Russia.
In Kiev, he works for Ukrayinska Pravda, an investigative news website that uncovers corruption by authorities. The website was founded by Ukrainian journalist Gorky Konkaze, who was beheaded in 2000 and left in the woods.
Amnesty International said the killing of Mr Sheremet was a “monstrous crime” and a “disgusting attack on freedom of expression”.
Activist “Hanged to Death”
Back in 2010, Oleg Bebenin, the founder of the Belarusian dissident group Charter 97, died after hanging at his vacation home outside Minsk. Officials said it was a suicide. But his colleagues were skeptical. He said he was committed to his work and had no personal issues.
Dimitri Bondarenko, one of his colleagues. saw the figure of Bebenin and said that his ankle was broken There are scars and scratches on the hands and chest. and there was a bruise on the back
unanswered riddle
Today, the disappearances of four prominent Belarusian activists between 1999 and 2000 remain unexplained. It was condemned by politicians in Western countries and human rights groups and called on President Lukashenko to order an investigation.
A 2011 report on human rights violations in Belarus by the US State Department said there was “evidence that the government was involved in these cases. But the authorities still deny that it was about the disappearance.”
The four missing persons are:
- Yuri Zachharenko, former interior minister and opposition leader
- Victor Gonchar, former Deputy Prime Minister and critic of President Lukashenko
- Anatoly Krasovski, a friend of Gonchar’s businessman. Opposition funders
- Dimittro Sawadsky, a photographer working with Pavel Sheremet.
The Council of Europe (CoE), the European human rights body. said from the investigation The highest levels of state action are being taken to try to hide the background of these disappearances.
In 2001, two former Belarusian prosecutors who fled abroad claimed that Zachharenko, Gonchar and Krasovsky were killed by special operations teams. before some time later A former soldier with the special operations team also came forward with the same accusation.
However, Radio Free Europe reported that Lukashenko denied he had made any directives.
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