Yury Zacharanka

Colonel Yury Zakharanka (Belarusian: Юры Захаранка, Russian: Юрий Захаренко, Yuri Zakharenko; January 1, 1952 – May 7, 1999) was the Belarusian minister of internal affairs and oppositional politician abducted and probably killed in 1999.

Yury Zakharanka
Юры Захаранка
Minister of Interior
In office
July 28, 1994 – October 16, 1995
Prime MinisterMikhail Chyhir
Preceded byUladzimer Danko
Succeeded byValyantsin Ahalets
Personal details
Born (1952-01-01) January 1, 1952
Vasilyevichy, Soviet Union
DiedMay 7, 1999
Political partyUnited Civil Party of Belarus
Spouse(s)Volha Zakharanka
Childrentwo daughters
Residencemissing
Military service
AllegianceSoviet Union
Belarus
Branch/serviceLaw Enforcement
RankMajor-General (1994)
Colonel (1996)
CommandsInterregional department in fight with organized crime

Early life

Yury Zakharanka was born in a small city of Vasilyevichy, Rechytsa Raion.

Political career

At the moment when Belarus gained independence Zakharanka was deputy chief of Interregional Organised criminality fighting department of the Soviet MVD. In 1994 he was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs of Belarus. On October 16, 1995 he was dismissed from this position by president Alexander Lukashenko. Zakharanka joined the opposition to the president and was elected member of the governing board of the United Civil Party of Belarus.[1] Having strong support among top officers in the army and the State Security Agency ("KGB") Zakharanka was a dangerous enemy for Lukashenko.

Abduction

The ex-minister disappeared in the evening of May 7, 1999. The state did not make serious attempts to search for the politician. Several years later the former MVD official Aleh Ałkajeǔ fled to Germany and stated that he was witness to Zakharanka and several other abducted opposition leaders being murdered on the orders of top government officials.[2][3] In commemorance with the abducted politicians and political prisoners of Belarus, the Belarusian opposition and its supporters have on the 16th of every month The Day of Solidarity with Belarus.[4]

In September 2004, the European Union and the United States issued travel bans for five Belarusian officials suspected in being involved in the kidnapping of Zacharanka: Interior Affairs Minister Vladimir Naumov, Prosecutor General Viktor Sheiman, Minister for Sports and Tourism Yuri Sivakov, and Colonel Dmitry Pavlichenko from the Belarus Interior Ministry.[5]

In December 2019, Deutsche Welle published a documentary film in which Yury Garavski, a former member of a special unit of the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs, confirmed that it was his unit which had arrested, taken away and murdered Zacharanka and that they later did the same with Viktar Hanchar and Anatol Krassouski.[6]

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See also

References
  1. Biography at slounik.org
  2. Oleg Alkaev: Video Records of Zakharenko, Gonchar and Krasovsky’s Murders Exist Indeed
  3. Orders to Annihilate Zakharenko, Gonchar and Krasovsky Emanated from Sheiman and Sivakov
  4. Solidarity with Belarus
  5. "USA, EU declare Belarus officials personas non grata". Pravda. 28 September 2008. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  6. Belarus: How death squads targeted opposition politicians
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