Ales Bialiatski: ‘Navumau fulfils orders obediently’

Ales Bialiatski, head of Nasha Viasna human rights organization, thinks that a new interior minister won’t lead to better legal situation in the country.

‘We shouldn’t forget that Uladzimir Navumau is among the suspected of involvement in disappearance of Belarusian opposition leaders. And he, like Pinochet, can’t avoid responsibility for this,’ the human rights activist told the Charter’97 press center.

According to Bialiatski, Belarusian human rights activist remember Uladzimir Navumau, headed the Ministry of Internal Affaires since 2000, for he personally led dispersals of peaceful opposition demonstrations. ‘He repeatedly violated the Constitution by his actions, and we must deal with this some time’, the human rights activist said.

The head of the Nasha Viasna center thinks a new minister can’t mean that relations between the police and political opponents will become better. ‘When Navumau was a minister, it could be seen that he didn’t take independent decisions, he just fulfilled orders obediently. Everyone understands who was giving the orders to him,’ Bialiatski said.