Minister of the Interior ceases to divide disappearance cases into "political" and "ordinary" :: Charter'97 :: News

At the March 1 press-conference Vladimir Naumov deliberately kept silent about the investigation into the so-called loud cases, relating to the abductions of prominent people. The Minister neglectfully noted that Yuri Zakharenko, Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky are simply three missing individuals out of the total 4-5 thousand.

"I do not focus on separate issues. I tell my people that we should not divide the missing people into more and less important. And in future I`d like to communicate with the journalists, not resting on some personalities."

Among the cases, which are paid special attention to, the Minister mentioned the disappearance of ORT cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky. "However, we didn`t achieve a lot here, thought the collection of data is constantly underway. We are gathering information by small pieces. And you cannot blame us for biased approach, as far as we`re considering a whole spectrum of versions." At the same time Vladimir Naumov asked the journalists to take it easy on the law-enforcers, whose spiritual fragility cannot endure journalistic investigations. "It`s because of you that I face difficulty cooperating with my co-workers. Your numerous versions are to a large extent traumatic for the conscience of the investigating crew members."

Avoiding questions about the disappearances of Lukashenko`s political opponents, Naumov gladly slandered the son of the former country`s Premier Mikhail Chigir. He stressed that he thanked those policemen who detained Alexander Chigir. Having totally forgotten about such legal term as "presumption of innocence", the Minister declared with pleasure that "criminal activities of Alexander Chigir threatened the whole situation in the capital and after his detention the situation has greatly improved."

Meantime, he said that he doesn`t intend to check out information, according to which some masked fellows were seen in the vicinity of Chigir`s garage shortly before his arrest. These could well be the guys, who placed stolen spare parts in there. "The trial proceedings will be open, - noted Naumov: And if the jury decides that we are guilty, we will bear full responsibility for that."

"In general, - finally said the Minister with irritation notes in his voice: There`s nothing but an ordinary, serious criminal felony in Alexander Chigir`s case." There immediately arose the question: if there`s nothing special about Chigir`s case, how come it has been placed under personal control of deputy Minister Glukhovsky? In response, the Minister answered that the case files are huge in volume, whereas the investigation commission of the Moskovsky police station consists of personnel, who are too young for the purpose."

Minister of the Interior touched upon the recent scandal with the "Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta", when former head of the Committee for control and revision of the Ministry of Culture Alexander Grachev had publicly refuted his scandalous interview to "BDG". In spite of the expectations of repression on behalf of the "BDG" people, Naumov promised them that "there will be no reaction to this incident in police". The Minister was also reminded of the episode, involving the Committee for fighting organized criminality, which has recently attempted to extort money from entrepreneurs, to cover the celebration of their anniversary. Naumov said that "all guilty law-enforcers were fired due to the power abuse, while the colonels retired out of their own moral convictions." Somehow chief of the Committee Medvedev, who had signed the letters to the entrepreneurs, is still denying his guilt.

At last Vladimir Naumov reported about the soon staff reduction in police. According to his calculations the number of law-enforcers with proper certificates will diminish to 60 thousand. But if we add to that all those volunteering, there overall amount will constitute 90 thousand.