Doc. 9783
10 April 2003
Disappeared persons in Belarus
Motion for a resolution
presented by Mr Pourgourides and others
This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only the members who have signed it |
The Assembly has been worried for two years now by the disappearances of MM Zakharenko, Gonchar, Krasovski and Zavadski and the circumstances of the death of Mr Karpenko.
Its Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights established in September 2002 an ad hoc Sub-Committee to clarify the circumstances of disappearances for allegedly political reasons in Belarus.
So far, in spite of the efforts undertaken by the Sub-Committee to clarify the circumstances of these disappearances, the authorities of the Republic of Belarus have failed to provide the required information. Moreover, it appears that the investigations by the Belarus authorities were not conducted in a satisfactory manner.
Accordingly it urges the authorities of the Republic of Belarus:
- to elucidate the circumstances of the disappearances of Yuri Zakharenko, former Minister of the Interior (disappeared on 7 May 1999), Viktor Gonchar, former Vice-President of the Parliament of Belarus (disappeared on 16 September 1999), Anatoly Krasovski, businessman (disappeared with Mr Gonchar) and Dmitri Zavadski, cameraman for the Russian TV channel ORT (disappeared on 7 July 2000) and the circumstances of the death of Gennady Karpenko, former opposition leader and presidential candidate, on 6 April 2001;
- to co-operate closely with the ad hoc Sub-committee established by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in order to clarify the circumstances of disappearances for allegedly political reasons in Belarus.
Signed (see overleaf)
Signed 1:
Pourgourides, Cyprus, EPP/CD
Clerfayt, Belgium, LDR
De Puig, Spain, SOC
Gubert, Italy, EPP/CD
Laakso, Finland, UEL
Martínez Casañ,Spain, EPP/CD
Marty, Switzerland, LDR
McNamara, United Kingdom, SOC
Pavlov, Bulgaria, NR
Prisăacaru, Romania, SOC
Škrabalo, Croatia, LDR
Tiuri, Finland, EPP/CD
Toshev, Bulgaria, EPP/CD
1 SOC: Socialist Group
EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party
EDG: European Democratic Group
LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group
UEL: Group of the Unified European Left
NR: not registered in a group