The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

30.08.2013 International Day of the Disappeared marked today

The International Day of the Disappeared is marked today across the world. The tradition of marking the Day of the Disappeared on August 30 was launched in the 1980s by the Latin American Federation of relatives of disappeared people FEDEFAM.

08.07.2013 BCD member fined 2.5 mln for commemorating Dzmitry Zavadski

Judge Tatsiana Palulekh of Minsk Savetski District Court sentenced today Pavel Prakapovich, activist of the Belarusian Christian Democracy’s organizing committee, to a fine of 2.5 mln rubles on charges of staging an illegal picket in memory of journalist Dzmitry Zavadski.

08.07.2013 DZMITRY ZAVADSKY: Missing for 13 Years

27 year old journalist disappeared in unclear circumstances on a way to Minsk airport; the body has not been found. BAJ commemorates Dzmitry Zavadski by a minute of silence at noon on July 7.

08.07.2013 BCD activist to stand trial for commemoration of Dzmitry Zavadzki

The BCD steering committee's member, Pavel Prakapovich, was detained on Sunday, July 7 in Minsk.

13.06.2013 Head of disgraced "Union of Poles in Belarus" to stand trial

One more member of the unregistered "Union of Poles in Belarus", its chairman Mechyslau Yaskevich will soon be summoned to court as a defendant in administrative proceedings. The Shchychyn police forwarded to Hrodna a copy of the charges, given to Yaskevich for an alleged adminsitrative offense – holding an unsanctioned rally.

22.05.2013 Volha Zavadskaya: “It is frightful to think that Dzima’s case will go to archives…”

May 21, a party was held in Minsk to remember the abduction of the cameraman Dzmitry Zavadski.

08.05.2013 Anzhalika Kambalava detained and fined for picket in memory of Zakharanka

On 7 May in Baranavichy an activist of the United Civil Party Anzhalika Kambalava was detained for holding a picket to remind the people about the missing ex-Minister of Interior, Yury Zakharanka.

03.05.2013 Yan Melnikau to spend all Easter holidays in jail

"For Freedom" activist Yan Melnikau was detained by police in the evening of 2 May. He was holding a streamer "Anarchism is not a crime. Ihar Trukhanovich is not a criminal" in Gorky Park in Minsk.

03.05.2013 Brest: authorities bann pickets in honor of Yury Zakharanka

Brest activists of the United Civil Party filed 12 applications to Brest City Executive Committee to hold pickets and remind about the fate of the former Minister of Interior Yury Zakharanka on 7 May (he went missing back on 7 May 1999).

25.04.2013 UCP Mahiliou activists denied permission to hold Yury Zakharanka memorial picket

Mahiliou city executive committee banned a memorial picket to mark the 14th anniversary of the disappearance of former Minister of Defense Yury Zakharanka on the grounds that the UCP activists were going to stage the event in a location not approved by the officials.

17.04.2013 We Will Not Forget: Yury Zakharanka

The Minsk office of the Belarusian Popular Front hosted yesterday an event in memory of Yury Zakharanka, former Minister of Internal Affairs, who disappeared almost 14 years ago. The meeting entitled “We Will Not Forget” was arranged by activists of the Young Christian Democrats.

12.02.2013 Cases of the missing persons must not be dropped

The investigation into the cases of the missing politicians, which has lasted for 14 years, failed to establish the circumstances of their disappearance and the protractors. Meanwhile, the time limitation on these cases ends in a year. After 2014 the authorities can without a qualm of conscience state they "have done everything possible, but the bodies of the missing and the people guilty of their disappearance haven't been found".

11.02.2013 Counsel not allowed to meet Andrei Haidukou again

The Navapolatsk civil activist Andrei Haidukou has been kept under arrest for three months already. These days, the term of the "investigation" into his case has been extended for another month. At the same time, his counsel is regularly prevented from meeting his client: the KGB authorizes the meetings, but then states that "there are no free rooms", as a result of which the factual access to defense is blocked for the suspect.

18.12.2012 Aleh Alkayew insists that there exists video of execution of Yury Zakharanka

Aleh Alkayew, the former warden of a death row prison in Minsk who was granted political asylum in Germany in 2001, has said in an interview with Deutsche Welle that there is a video of Yury Zakharanka being executed, and that an objective of his recent secret visit to Belarus was to obtain the video, BelaPAN said.