Sergei Kovalev: Belarusian Authorities Reluctant to Investigate into Disappearances :: Charter'97 :: News

During January 29 PACE session there took place a working meeting between the chairman of the special PACE commission on the political disappearances in Belarus Sergei Kovalev with representatives of the official Belarusian delegation: “parliamentarians” Leonid Glukhovsky and Andrei Losev. The meeting also attracted chairman of the United Social-Democratic Party Valentina Polevikova and deputy UCP head Yaroslav Romanchuk, as well as the PACE legal department’s rapporteur Vatslav Stankevich.

UCP press-service reports that the first to share his vision on the problem was Leonid Glukhovsky. The “deputy” said that Belarus has the best record in the region as concerns the location of missing ones (92,9%) and that they have to do their best to find everyone, rather than the “chosen ones”. In his opinion the investigation looked into three main versions: political, commercial and the one, according to which the missing politicians will one day show up. He added that they interrogated around 6000 witnesses on Zakharenko’s case.

Glukhovsky and Losev underscored that the “parliament” most actively engages in the investigation into these crimes. They motivated their refusal to set up a parliamentary commission by claiming that they lack proper legal base for it and that it was more effective to address procuracy for the purpose, which has been done.

Valentina Polevikova also shared her opinion on the problem in question. She stressed that the authorities want to halt investigation into these criminal lawsuits and that they feel indifferent towards the destiny of their abducted countrymen. Objecting to Glukhovsky’s statement, she underscored that they never really examined the political version of Gonchar and Zakharenko’s disappearance and never really talked to the people, which could have given information on the case.

Finally, Kovalev said that the government’s only right policy, given it wills to refute accusations of human abductions, is to make the problem totally public and transparent. PACE sub-commission’s chairman received an impression that the Belarusian side doesn’t care about the investigation at all.