Opposition Asks the UN Security Council to Investigate Disappearances of Politicians

06.08.2010 14:04
Архив Редакция

Leaders of Belarusian opposition and civil society, as well as prominent human rights activists appealed to the UN Security Council, requesting to hold an international investigation on the disappearances of known politicians in Belarus. The appeal was sent to foreign ministers of the UN Security Council permanent members — China, Russia, Great Britain, France and the USA.

In the appeal, the Belarusian side calls the UN Security Council to consider the problem of disappeared opposition leaders and public figures of Belarus and to ensure international investigation of the fate of disappeared, Narodnaya Volya informs.

The authors of the letter refer to the UN resolutions, which read about kidnapping and violation of human rights in Belarus. They also mention the report of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, prepared by Cypriot MP, Christos Pourgourides, who found that high-ranking Belarusian officials had been implicated in the disappearance of four people during 1999-2000.

In this report, the Cypriot MP pointed out that at the highest level of Belarusian state there were taken steps to conceal true information about the disappearances. The authors of the appeal also mention a precedent of the establishment of International UN Commission to investigate the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafiq Hariri, and other politically motivated assassinations in Lebanon.

«Human rights activists of Belarus, lawyers of families and relatives of disappeared people used all domestic as well as regional and international mechanisms of legal assistance, but did not achieved the result. The head of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, who remains in power since the time when disappearances occurred, did not create any conditions for trustworthy and impartial investigation of these cases and blocked attempts of international community to know the truth about the fate of the disappeared», the appeal authors note.

The appeal was signed by former chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus, Stanislav Shushkevich, former ministers, deputies of the Supreme Council of 12th and 13th convocations, leaders of Belarusian political parties and civil society, human rights activists and other prominent Belarusians.

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