The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has adopted a resolution on the case of Viktor Gonchar, a member of the Thirteenth Supreme Soviet of Belarus, who disappeared, together with his friend, Anatoly Krasovsky, on 16 September 1999.

In the resolution, which was adopted unanimously, the Council recalls the following:

- A report, published in 2004, of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe into disappearances for allegedly political reasons in Belarus (Pourgourides report) gives ground to believe that “steps were taken at the highest level of the State actively to cover up the true background of the disappearances, and to suspect that senior State officials may themselves be involved in these disappearances”;

- In an interview President Lukashenko gave on 10 June 2009 to the Russian newspaper Zavtra, he stated that the cases of Mr. Gonchar and Mr. Krasovsky “were murders for business reasons; they had to buy or sell something and failed to stick to their promises, so they were killed, as is usual in ‘half-bandit’ circles; traces of a murderer have recently been found in Germany”; the German authorities have nevertheless denied this; moreover, Mrs. Krasovsky has denied that her husband had any business problems;

- In July and August 2010, a documentary entitled “The Nation’s Godfather” was aired on a Russian TV channel and was also available in Belarus; the film dealt inter alia with the involvement of State authorities in the disappearance of politicians, including Mr. Gonchar; on 7 July 2010, the President of the opposition United Civil Party, Mr. Anatoly Lebedko, made an application to the Prosecutor General to investigate the evidence presented in the documentary and to initiate criminal proceedings against the persons referred to in the film as the masterminds and perpetrators of abductions and killings; although under Belarusian law, the Prosecutor General’s Office should have responded to Mr. Lebedko’s application within one month, he has to date received no information on this point.           

In the resolution the IPU Governing Council:

- Thanks the Chairman of the Standing Committee on National Security for his letter; regrets, however, that it is merely a formal reply that in no way responds to the specific questions and concerns it has constantly raised in this case;

- Sincerely hopes that the House of Representatives of Belarus will finally take serious account of its considerations and requests for information so as to facilitate a more substantive dialogue;

- Believes that the House of Representatives can only do so if it takes a more critical stance regarding the absence of any results in the investigation, 12 years after Mr. Gonchar and Mr. Krasovsky disappeared, and the continued secrecy surrounding it; calls on the House of Representatives to do everything possible to help ensure that an effective investigation is carried out, in particular by insisting
on obtaining specific information on how the different leads and concerns which have thus far emerged are being addressed.

IPU Resolution (full text, pdf)