KGB AGENTS CONFIRM CONFESSION OF FORMER SOBR MILITANT :: Charter'97 :: News

Videos with another sensational confession of two KGB operatives were posted to all Belarus-accredited Russian TV channels, a range of independent Belarusian newspapers and radio-stations. The tapes portray two persons, one of who introduces himself as an employee of the Minsk KGB department for constitutional order preservation and terrorism fighting Gennady Uglenitsa. The second man didn’t mention his position but called himself Andrei Zhernosek. These folks confirm the data, laid out last week in the testimony of SOBR fighter, who witnessed in fall 1999 the assassination of Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky at the military site near Begoml. However, as different to last week’s man, these two do not hide or avert their faces from video cameras and manifest photos of those, implicated in murders, whose names had been voiced by a SOBR soldier. Gennady Uglenitsa and Andrei Zhernosek claim that both Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky had been massacred. Read further the full text of the sensational testimony.

“Today is August 25, 2001 and we want to make a statement for press, television, citizens and all those, whom it might concern.

- I am a staff member of the Minsk KGB department for constitutional order preservation and terrorism fighting Gennady Uglenitsa. This my step has been conditioned by a whole spectrum of circumstances, when only the publication of data, which we possess can ensure safety to us and our loved ones. The statement has to do with the abduction in 1999 of two persons – Gonchar and Krasovsky.

During that period all newspapers run the photos of the missing ones and the special services were all roused and launched the search. In a couple of months time the search has come to a halt. Everybody seemed fine with the idea that the people vanished and the guilty ones cannot be traced. However, some people thought differently. These were the ones, who considered it their duty to learn truth about the disappeared and, thus, continued search activities. Let Andrei talk about that.

- I am Zhernosek Andrei Mikhailovich. After the people disappeared we started our own parallel investigation. We used diverse activities, which we could only invent. But finally we came across the witness of this particular crime.

Zhernosek shows a group photo of a few interior forces servicemen, sitting and standing near the two vehicles with plates 0221MI, 0224MI, 8832OX (one number plate is on the car, another one is held in the hand of one of the recruits).

- On this snapshot the one to the left is a direct eyewitness of all these crimes. His last name is Metelsky. His first name is Vitaly. Person next to him, sitting atop “Audi” with a number-plate in his hand, is a partaker of the crime. His family name is Mekiyanets. Alexander. The car, on which he’s sitting is one and the same which they used in the affair.

Zhernosek manifests a colored brochure “Interior Forces of the Republic of Belarus”.

- In this booklet you may also find other figures, who engaged in the matter. Here, on this general photo, although the quality is quite poor, stands Vladimir Novatorsky, leader of the quick reaction force group. This one is another perpetrator – Yuri Budko. The picture and face of the main suspect Pavlichenko is, I figure, pretty familiar to all – he features in the commercial block about the troops, swims in the frozen lake and feels quite comfortable. Regretfully, we failed to get the photos of two other participants – lieutenant Koklin and warrant officer Murashko. But, I hope, the emergence of these materials will encourage the law-enforcers and press… More importantly the press, for police somehow stays away from this matter. So, they got to find these people; find and interrogate. And finish what we have started.

So we learnt that in September 1999 this group left the military site at night on two cars. They headed for Minsk and captured two people with the Jeep. They put behind the steering that guy Mekiyanets, threw the victims into their car and pulled out towards their base in Begoml. At around 1a.m. they arrived at the base. Before they ever reached it they turned to some forest road and shot dead Gonchar and Krasovsky. Then they hid the Jeep in the woods, returned to the barracks, parked their cars there and went for a dinner as if everything was fine.

The following day they woke up the soldiers from the company and immediately after breakfast drove them to the barrier-strip to dig a pit there. Here’s the photo from that place and the pit.

Zhernosek points at a small-sized video-tape:

- They dug out the hole and drove the car down there. According to the preliminary information, the bodies are either beneath the car or inside it. They covered the ditch with sand and leveled it atop with the armored personnel carrier. They sort of disguised the location.

I bring my deepest condolences to the wives and kids of Gonchar and Krasovsky. Their husbands, fathers and children will never return home.

Working on the issue we used the special equipment to ensure our own safety. It included the night-sight vision tool, camouflaged uniforms, special metal-detector, which reacts to the metal, especially cars and huge iron objects. American brand Fisher, “Jenemy-3” model. We also used four radios. These items were all confiscated under certain circumstances. At the moment all of them are kept in Partyzansky police station. Police there can confirm this.

After we arrived at the barrier-strip, we searched it with the detector. We explored the whole strip, the pit included. In the pit the metal-detector showed that if you stand with your face turned towards it, from the side of the strip, that is right side – there you can see the edge of the pit, that the personnel carrier rode there. In this particular pit 3,30-3,40 meters long and 1,6-1,8 meters wide there’s a distinct metal anomaly. After we dug twice there, we bumped into something metal. We never went any further, for the military site is in close proximity. It is located some 200 meters away from the place. There are paths leading to the pit there.

Uglenitsa:

- As for this issue, if anyone has any doubts… I personally took part in interrogating the witness. We numerously talked with each other. But not until our third or even forth talk did he tell us full testimony, detailing all the episodes of the case. If you can’t find others, this one is living in Borisov. He’s a former driver, who served in unit#3214. In September he served in Pavlichenko’s SOBR. He drove him a few times. Approximately 1,5 weeks ago the witness went into hiding. Although we promised him safety guarantees, he didn’t trust us. Just like many others, involved in the matter, don’t. They either lose heart and hide away or keep their mouth shut.

With regard to the examination of the military compound, all the data, communicated by the witness, found confirmation. We drew the plan of the site, that of the barrier-strip; its location and all other details coincide. We explored everything. I personally took part in studying the strip. Right now it looks as though no one trained there for more than a year. Why it is left desolate remains unclear. SOBR is still deployed in the site near Begoml.

Zhernosek:

- The pit itself is placed on the edge of the strip. I mean all the barriers go straight, while the ditch is placed to their side. That immediately strikes the eye. As soon as we placed the metal-detector in there, it in no time displayed anomaly.

Uglenitsa:

- Emergence in press and TV of the video-records of the anonymous person, whose appearance and voice were altered – was the initial attempt to present at least some additional testimony on the matter in order to stir certain people and make them work. But the reaction of the government and special services is opinionated: ostensibly this video-cassette is phony and has nothing to do with kidnapped politicians. In reality, this is not at all so. It is directly linked to it. And we confirm it to you, not hiding our faces from camera.

If we take in detail the circumstances, in which we want to release this statement, as I already said before, our major concern is safety. Safety to us and to the witness, whom, I believe, they have to find now and urgently interrogate, provided the case hasn’t been shut. If it is, then they have to resume proceedings. One could also forward a written letter to the procuracy. May be that’s what we’ll do. But not until our security is guaranteed.

The equipment, of which Andrei spoke, is indeed in Partyzansky police station. I can confirm that it’s over there. I saw with my own eyes how they seized it.

We are lucky this info hasn’t got to the ones, interested in the disappeared cases. I mean police leadership, Security Council and SOBR. Else, I figure, this press-conference, let us call it this way, and this our statement would have never seen light. That’s how it would be otherwise. So, under the present conditions we can’t but undertake all security measures. If the state ensures our safety and manifests its real attempts and steps to finally resolve the issue, we may show up at the proper institutions. But, taking into account the political situation in the country and the current system of power, it doesn’t seem like it could be a the case in the near future.

Zhernosek:

- There has been the direct intention to add two more names of missing people, whom they would also fervently look for afterwards…

Mr. Sivakov, who once said that locating Zakharenko is a matter of honor for him, has in reality paid money for the assassination of Zakharenko, Gonchar and Krasovsky. The witness can tell you how they passed out envelopes full of money as a “moral compensation” to the partakers in the crime. How these folks bought with this bloody money winter coats, VCRs, saved up for cars and felt at ease. Let their relatives ask them where the servicemen got such huge money. Who paid them and for what.

Uglenitsa:

- In order for you not to get an impression that we just concocted it all, we may present records of conversations with the witness, which we carried out and during which he discloses all details of the occurrence, that happened in September 1999 at the Begoml compound.

The five-minute recording starts with the footage of the desolate barrier-strip and pitch, spoken of in the statement.