Viktor Gonchar Turns 44 :: Charter'97 :: News

First Vice-Speaker of the 13th Supreme Soviet of Belarus, chair of the Central Electoral Commission disappeared off the street in Minsk on September 16, 1999. Together with a friend of his, businessman Anatoly Krasovsky Gonchar was returning home that evening. At the place on the Fabrichnaya street, where the two men were kidnapped, they only discovered pieces of car glass and bloodstains of the victims on the asphalt.

In May 1999 Gonchar, guided by the Constitution, launched a campaign on the presidential elections in Belarus, disrupted by the authorities. In July 1999 Gonchar announced the termination of Lukashenko’s official tenure in office. A few years earlier Viktor Gonchar actively engaged in the activities of the Supreme Soviet during the constitutional crisis of 1996, seeking to impeach Lukashenko.

Numerous documents, rapports and testimony of the procuracy and KGB detectives implicated the authorities in the matter. There are witnesses, who claim that the two men were slain by the SOBR death squad. In this light no one seems to marvel at the fact that the law-enforcement bodies have been trying in vain for two years to locate such renowned people.

Today, on September 7, on Viktor Gonchar’s birthday, the United Civil Party within the framework of “Want to know truth campaign” is holding a rally “Chain of those who care” opposite the presidential residence in Karl Marx str. 38. The event is scheduled for noon. Later in the day – at 5-6p.m. – UCP activists will go for another action – in Viktor Gonchar’s hometown Lida. The picket of solidarity will also be held by the Belarusian community in the EU capital Brussels.