We remember... Viktor Gonchar

No Gonchar — No Problem Not only the authority’s representatives agree with that

The farther away the day of Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky’s disappearance is, the more obvious is the desolate conclusion. For the relatives, a rather modest number of individuals, the efforts made to find their loved ones has only increased their worry about their fate. Last week both the authorities and the opposition tried to demonstrate to the public their vigorous activities on clarifying the businessman and politician’s whereabouts. However hard they tried to cover it, the imitation of the process was clear.

Authorities

Last Thursday, a week after Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky’s disappearance, the city police decided to voice their view of the events. Back on Tuesday, the analytical TV program “Panorama” reported “the capital’s police administration has planned a special briefing for journalists, where mass media representatives will be able to get all information about the criminal case’s investigation”.

However, the next day after the loud-voiced announcement, the event became a matter of odd intrigues. The press service of the Chief Administration of Internal Affairs (GUVD) made it clear for the journalists wishing to take part in the briefing that only accredited reporters are invited to the meeting with officials. Even the omnipresent “Interfax” and “Associated Press” were not on the “sacred” list. The inevitable scandal was averted in the evening. The meeting with the participation of the Minister for Internal Affairs decided that everyone may come.

As it turned out later, the capital’s police were about to turn their domestic problem into a political one. Natalya Lappo, head of the press center, confided that the press center’s ceiling was dripping water that day and it would have been simply inconvenient for the journalists to work close to washbowls.

Fortunately, police officials came up with moving the briefing form the GUVD building to a modern press center at the “Dinamo” stadium.

Nikolay Lopatik, chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) Criminal Police’s Chief Administration, Iosif Mihalkovich, first deputy chief of the Minsk city council’s GUVD and chief of the GUVD’s Criminal Police, and Valentin Potapovich, first deputy chief of the Criminal Police’s Chief and chief of the operation-investigation group into the circumstances of the disappearance and location of Gonchar and Krasovsky’s, came to discuss “the organization of work on finding the missing people”. After a half an hour description of the general picture and concern with which police officers are looking for every missing person, one of the journalists lost his patience: “We did not come here to listen to all these fairy tails!” Instantly, the participants got down to business and the briefing turned into a real press conference.

Everyone of the missing was chronologically remembered by name. It appears that according to the “operative data”, one can be “about 90 percent” sure that Vinnikova is outside Belarus. Lopatilk, major-general of the police, decided not to go into detail “because if we answer all your questions, it will be difficult to... well, easy to move. Tamara Dmitrievna has money, she can travel on these questions”. As for her relatives, “they will not tell us anything”, that is why, “one should not make some political figure of her”.

On Zaharenko the investigation has produced “virtually zero information”, “we do not know, where Zaharenko is or what happened to him”. The only consolation: “We have got such a pain, that he must be found”, and “we are looking for him, as one is supposed to, with all our heart and soul”.

On September 21, the Republican Prosecutor’s Office instituted proceedings. Four months after the disappearance of the ex-minister...

According to Genaral Potapov, the investigation works at three versions of Gonchar and Krasovsky’s disappearance: 1) they became victims of a crime against an individual; 2) they disappeared “on their own, known only to them their motives”; 3) the incident relates to “the financial activities of Krasovsky and his surroundings”. As for the question about Gonchar’s kidnapping possibly being “an order of the country’s highest authorities”, it evidently took him off guard: “Do you understand that this very question sounds somewhat provocative? What do you mean by the order? Why should one then institute proceedings and do the investigation work? Because those guilty of Gonchar and Krasovsky’s kidnapping will be made accountable...We are looking for people who could commit all this, whoever they might be”.

So far, the investigation can boast only two achievements: glass fragments found near the sauna, “supposedly from a foreign-made car” and that “a two centimeter brown stain” is possibly a man’s blood stain. As for the Jeep Cherokee, “every property, reservoir, forest tract and so on is checked”.

At the same time, journalists (supposedly from the opposition newspapers) were thanked for the publication of Gonchar’s portrait: “We had it cheaper that way.” As Nikolai Lopatik believes, it is quite enough, that only investigation officers “performing inquiry procedures” have his photograph.

The officers were much more talkative when describing their relations with the relatives of the disappeared: “The investigation group officers encountered the unwillingness of the relatives to share with them valuable information, which hinders inquiry procedures”. It turns out that this was the very reason for taking such a hastily decision to issue proceedings on this matter and to conduct the investigation according to the Criminal Procedural Code. It is not hard to foreshadow the following actions: Lopatik confessed that “we take away everything, then we sit down and lay it out; we are interested in the telephone numbers, we are interested in notes too, and in visiting cards, we are interested in everything”. The air of objectivity disappeared completely when journalists asked the chief of the MVD Criminal Police’s Chief Administration about his position on the incidents’ media coverage: “I do not have any questions to the state media... They have a chance to call me up and ask how to present this or that... As for the independent media, they do not want to cooperate with me on this matter. So they write, in general, some facts at their own discretion”. A direct question on whether the Belarusian state television’s interpretation coincides with “the official police version” received a straight answer: “It coincides with what I have, with what has been gathered”.

Opposition

The Supreme Soviet’s real attitude toward its acting chairman was demonstrated on September 19. Gonchar had been thoroughly preparing for this session - it is probably the reason for his kidnapping. Half an hour after the beginning of the session, an elderly man came into the overcrowded hall of the Minsk movie theater “Pobeda”. With difficulty, leaning on a cane, he approached Gennady Terenya and whispered something to him which lead to the Supreme Soviet chairman’s call for everybody to leave the property in order to avoid incidents. However, it was clear that the authorities would have hardly dared to take any measures against the meeting as several hundred labor collectives and unions’ representatives came to listen to Gonchar’s report about the situation in the country. The session continued in the cramped office of the United Civil Party (OGP), where Terenya pattered, for some reason, his own, version of Gonchar’s report. In the end everybody agreed that the opposition should not preoccupy itself with self-flagellation. The most hypocritical act was a unanimously approved address to “the leaders of states, international organizations, parliaments and world governments”, in which the MP-s unassumingly called on the west to resolve their problems and expressed their own “readiness to contribute to the negotiations process between the existing regime and the political opposition, mediated by the OSCE.

Only six political parties (including the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)) agreed to sign a statement addressed to Knut Bollebeck, OSCE chairman, which “distrusts the very possibility of any talks and contacts with the regime” and contains an address to the same international community “appealing for active interference to help Belarusian citizens to stop the usurpers’ terror”. The leader of the opposition Communists Sergey Kalyakin, who refused to sign the statement, has deemed it as “very harmful when someone, whether it is head of the state, political parties or the opposition, takes upon itself functions not belonging to it” that is, “the one of investigation or court”.

The opposition was active intermittently, or more exactly, two times. The first time - on September 20, a group of MP-s staged a rally in the capital demanding the initiation of an inquiry procedure against Lukashenko and Bozhelko. The second one - last Friday at a regular meeting of the parties’ Advisory Council made a hard statement addressed to the chief of the KGB, Matskevich. “The KGB officials have removed themselves from the inquiry, although one of the top politicians’ kidnapping is directly linked to the problem of state security . . . We demand from the KGB and from you personally to take all necessary measures... to unravel the fate of the disappeared . . . as a legitimate chief of the KGB... you must do all possible to stop the political terror”.

Media

Once again one has to confirm an unparalleled ability of the state media, especially Belarusian television, to twist facts. However hard, the first deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Udovikov and Minsk’s Chief Prosecutor, Kupriyanov were asked not to make any absolute conclusions before the expertise results were received and the official inquiry was over, they cannot calm down. Since the 20th of September, the rate of absolute judgments in the “Panorama” has been climbing. On that day, “self-shooting” of the disappeared was only one of the versions, while the following programs featured Television News Agency’s (ATN’s) reporters and the original investigators who had long ago brought Gonchar’s case before the court. However the TV station accused of bias, as usual, was the opposition media who is virtually the only other source of media that considers “cleansing” as a possible fate for the disappeared. Though, Udovikov in his interview on the “Panorama” on the 20th of September and a few days later, his Ministry colleague, Lopatik at the press conference, have actually blessed the official media for “feats of arms”. So, it is not surprising.

By the way, there is a possibility of the state media hype around one more subject, related to Gonchar’s disappearance. It was transparently hinted at in the analytical TV program “Resonance” by Koziyatko, a reporter who spoke about how he uncovered the opposition’s financing sources. Prior to uttering one of the “sponsors’” (Georgy Lazarevich Ostrovsky’s) second name and the surname of another one (Aleksander Smantser’s), he made short, but very meaningful pauses...

Viktor Ivitsky,
“Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” (Belarus Business Newspaper), # 43,
1 November, 1999

 

Separation of Powers? First Victim of The Political “Cleansing” The authority has at last made the most decisive step towards “putting the final screws on defiant democrats and other opposition members”. Has everyone become afraid? Gonchar’s disappearance is not only a blow to the intentional settlement of the constitutional crisis, asserts the OSCE’s advisory and monitoring group. But it is also a slap in the face to international public opinion.

Let us put is this way, the authorities could have several motives for Viktor Gonchar to “disappear”. Lukashenko was silently and patiently watching how Latypov, non-officially supported by Myasnikovich, with Vick’s mediation attempted to establish a dialogue with the opposition. It seemed that the major aim of proving to the public the dialogue’s significance and somehow splitting the opposition’s ranks was achieved. However, the President did not figure out till the very end that any type of talks is no good for him. Thus, our native pigeons’ party has lost its “lobby battle” in the “game of war”. The presidential surroundings have reassured themselves that today talks are not only ineffective and non-productive, but they are also gradually destroying the “solid state system”. It is obvious that lately Lukashenko’s eyes have seen only very specific information about the opposition having a real plan of the existing regime’s “bloodless coup” and “has already matured for that”. However, the official version of Gonchar’s disappearance is most likely connected to a financial-criminal background. The most interesting fact is that the official version’s main character will be not Gonchar (why should an already prominent opposition leader get extra promotion?) but Anatoly Krasovsky, the “Krasiko’s” director. The authorities are trying to implant into the pubilc opinion a thought that even if the attempted kidnapping took place, it was not against Gonchar but against his companion, and these are quite different accents, aren’t they?

Picket organized by the deputies of 13th Soviet:
“Lukashenko! Return Gonchar!”

It is known that literally several days before his disappearance, Krasovsky had spent 6 days in the detention center (SIZO) as a part of campaign on getting back the “Poisk” bank’s non-repaid credits. It is also known that the “Krasiko” head’s name somehow topped the bank debtors’ blacklist presented to Lukashenko by Prokopovich. However, even the official statistics suggest that the firm “Krasiko” was not a persistent defaulter. The only fault of the Director General was that he was two weeks overdue on the credit repayment schedule. Moreover, with the help of his businessmen colleagues, his wife managed to collect the necessary sum of $102,000 and her husband, who even wasn’t brought before the court, was set free. Why didn’t the authorities claim that Krasovsky never managed to repay his debts and thus became the victim of a turf war?

However, it is Gonchar who is lately the most active and aspiring opposition leader. It is he who repeatedly forced other opposition members to make some visible political actions. Gonchar was fairly considered a political radical.

In his time, the present first vice-speaker, worked in Lukashenko’s team. It was a fairly short period but it was enough to see who is who in the ruling elite. Gonchar believes, and he mentioned it not once, both privately and in public, that it is principally impossible to come to an agreement with Lukashenko. That is why any talks today are Utopian and pointless. What can be discussed with a person who is not ready to gave up even a little of his power? Gonchar’s position in general and on the negotiations process in particular was notable for being quite tough: “The opposition members should agree between themselves, work on the international political markets (especially the Russian ones), look for allies, and build up a united anti-Lukashenko front. But other opposition leaders were honestly afraid of Gonchar, sincerely believing that the vice-speaker was constructing a “united opposition platform” for his own triumphal mounting of the presidential throne.

Gonchar was cosidered a real and apt politician abroad too. The political elite of the neighboring Russian state started to count on his penetration and feeling of politics. Through Gonchar some Russian politicians tried to work with the Belarusian opposition. It is known that lately not everybody was satisfied with Lukashenko. Unrestrained dictator habits of the “younger Slavic brother” hampered a productive dialogue between Russia and the West. However, Gonchar was never considered as Lukashenko’s possible successor. Many viewed the vice-speaker as a starter capable of launching a sophisticated system of the State machinery’s coup d’etat. It is known that lately Gonchar had a series of meetings with the representatives of the ruling nomenclature. It is clear that such “receptions” were the place for coordinating efforts on changing the current government policy line.

Naturally, all this as well as a rather promising team of aides, which Gonchar has already started to shape, scared some top officials. It is one thing when a Belarusian politician receives money from some Western charitable foundation for organizing a conference. Though it is another thing when a newcomer on the political scene can be allocated considerable investments.

Gonchar was an adversary of the Vick’s scheme talks because it suited perfectly only the ruling elite. Gonchar insisted on the priority of the Supreme Soviet’s power and suggested the opposition to unite around the MP-s. Probably this was the reason for unfavorable sentiments towards Gonchar in the opposition lobbies. Well, let us forget about the past. It is after Viktor Ivanovich’s disappearance that one of the “prominent opposition members”, member of the Charter-97, had the nerve to make a rather unholy remark saying that she is sorry for Zaharenko but why should one have pity for Gonchar?

Really, why should we have pity for the person who always demanded faithfulness to one’s principles and accountability for one’s words and actions. Some Western observers had not favored Gonchar too. In particular, the head of the OSCE’s advisory and monitoring group, Vick expressed rough judgments addressed to Gonchar. The most memoarble is his “conflict in absentio” with Gonchar’s wife, Zinaida Aleksandrovna, when Gonchar being the chairman of the election committee was detained for 10 days in relation to running the Belarus presidential election.

It is obvious that attitudes to Gonchar are very diverse. But one should do justice to him: he had no lobby agreements with the authorities. He also did not want to bargain for a couple of sits in National Assembly’s House of Representatives. Having removed such a radical political opponent form the active political life, the authorities have placed a bet on the power extremism and maximalism. However, there is a reasonable question: who will dare today to promote negotiations as the only way of solving the constitutional crisis?

By Alexander Potupa,
The Narodnaya Volya, # 176,
23 September, 1999

 

Zinaida Gonchar: “It’s Imposible that Lukashenko is Unaware of Victor’s Fate...” On September 16, 1999 Viktor Gonchar, vice-speaker of the 13th Supreme Soviet and Anatoly Krasovsky, a businessman were kidnapped as they went out of the sauna in the evening. Untill today there is no information about their fate. The country is allegedly conducting an inquiry. The wives are crying, the relatives are suffering. Groun-up children are waiting for them as home.

— I have written about the incident to the heads of almost all world countries, — tells Gonchar’s wife, Zinaida. — It is easier to say whom I have not yet addressed. i received letters of support from the Czech president, American vice-president, Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister for Foreign Affairs of France... Albert Gore, American vice-president wrote: the United States persist in stating that Lukashenko’s regime is responsible for my husband’s whereabouts, that form the moment of Lukashenko’s coming to power, human rights as well as the rights of citizens are violated in Belarus and that the government of the country will be held accountable for its opponents’ disappearance.

— A year has passed. Are there any new facts in Gonchar’s disappearance case?

— Lately, I set about a curious correspondence with the Security Council. On July 22, an aide to the President, Posohov said in the Belarusian TV program “Panorama” that kidnapping of people in Belarus is staged by the secret services. I sent a letter to Sheiman wondering: “What does Posohov know exactly?” I asked the Security Council to find out form the official authorities’ representative Posohov what concrete secret services organizre kidnappings in our country. After some time I received an answer signed by Sheiman’s first deputy, Novelsky: “...it is clear from Posohov’s words that it is not about Belarusian or any other secret services. He meant that the situation in Belarus may be destabilized form the outside by some hostile to our state foreign secret services. then I wrote the second letter and asked to specify these secret services. On Tuesday, September 12, I got an answer form Novelsky that the correspondence with me is ended according to the article 11 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On citizen’s requests”.

— Such a cynical answer. Is it the only way the Belarusian authorities participate in the investigation of the disappearance of your husband, a very famous man in the country?

— Yes, that’s right. I sent letters in regard to Posohov’s interview not only to the security Council but to the KGB as well. I asked to question Poshov on the fact of information about people’s kidnappings he has. I asked the Prosecutor’s Office investigator whether he had a talk with Posohov. He said that Posohoved refused to come to the interrogation because he is a state official and is very busy... That’s the way the investigation is executed. they made up an illusion of inquest, not anything more.

However, sometimes the authorities remind of themselves. On Wednesday, September 13, I hosted the Russian ORT channel TV crew. Pavel Sheremet is shooting a documentary about the kidnapped in Belarus. As soon as the TV crew arrived, a car with antennas turned up under the windows of our house. Before Viktor’s kidnapping such were always there — they tapped all our conversations and telephone talks. All last year our house’s residents listened to our telephone calls. They just turned their TV-s to the AST channel and... got connected to our phone call. Everybody came to worn us... And now, after all that happened, the authorities cannot leave us alone! Instead of throwing money at tapping, they would better give it teachers, collective farmers whose salaries are delayed for months...

— Are you going tomorrow to a picketing organized on the day of Viktor Iosifovich’s disappearance by the United Civil Party?

— Last month I was rang up by Liudmila Griaznova who told that they were going to picket the sauna, the place of Viktor’s kidnapping. I resolutely refused to attend it. It’s an absolutely desolate place. The sauna attendants do not need reminding of what happened — they remember it. I will actively participate if they are picketing the presidential Administration’s headquarters where the person guilty of all this is.

— Earlier you complained that Viktor’s friends have forgotten you.

— Only Liudmila Griaznova phoned me. Only my friends and relatives are with me. I call Viktor’s mother up and try to support her. She is crying all days long. She cannot understand how Lukashenko who was a guest in her house and whom she treated to everything she had, could let her Viktor be removed. It’s impossible that he’s unaware of Viktor’s fate...

Recently I decided to find out how the investigation conducted by a special commission of the 13th Supreme Soviet going on. I sent letters to the members of this commission. Among them a letter to Sharetsky forward via the Lithuanian Embassy. It’s a pity but I haven’t received any answers yet.

— Has anything pleasant happened in your family this year?

— My son was admitted to university. It’s the only good news...

By Maria Eismont,
The Narodnaya Volya

Citizen Lukashenko!

I address you in this way because I cannot do it in any other. Not only respecting themselves politicians but any sensible man no longer precept you as a president.

I am a Belarusian worker who has lived through a life of hardships and hard labor. Together with my husband we have raised four children: two daughters and two sons, one of which, Viktor, is the 12th and 13th Supreme Soviet’s MP. During the war my husband was taken to Germany where he had the utmost experience of all “pleasures and charms” of the favored by you Fascist regime. The referendums held by you only split the society, separated fathers and sons. At that time the fathers still believed in the good leader’s holy image.

You are afraid to go for an open election because it will bring you a shattering defeat. You still have some supporters in the countryside. These are people who have undermined their health with back-breaking labor, who are with their last forces feeding themselves and you. They are working at their farms, land plots, pigsties and in the field. Otherwise, they would not survive on their miserable pensions. They wear out their galoshes, padded jackets and riding-breeches.

They are your support. But you are unaware of the common people’s life. So, don’t torture yourself and the 10-million Belarusian nation! Don’t ruin Belarus! Resign!

My son was one of the first to realize who Lukashenko is. He was the first to resign form his office, although you were convinced that no one leaves power. He had the guts and decency. After that you would not let my son do his job as Viktor had brains, excellent abilities, looks, manners, and the capability to do real business. You persecuted him.

In November 1996 he didn’t go against his conscience and occupied the post of the Central Election Committee’s chairman. Only my son knows of what it took him to do it. That was followed by a fabricated “charge” of Viktor getting billion credits. In March 1999 Viktor was detained for 10 days and taken to the detention center in the Okrestina Street. After the detention, he went on a dry hunger strike, was treated with disdain and subjected to violence but he survived it all. And he was not going to gave up his principles. Such people as Viktor cannot be talked into, bought or broken.

I pray to God and believe that my son is still alive. I pray to God and hope for the sensibility of those with whose “help” people are disappearing.

Together with my son you were at my house, sat at the table bought for the hard-earned money forty years ago, remember a common Belarusian woman’s hospitality and kindness. Lukashenko, come to your senses if you did not know or have forgotten the main Bible commandment and come so far that you can make an attempt on one’s life! Come to your senses! I was never ashamed of my children. I am proud of Viktor and will always be! Give me my son back!!! I believe that he is still alive!

My descendants will be proud to carry the name of Gonchar. As for your name, little children will be frightened with it. Your descendants will be ashamed of it as of a stigma. If the evil takes place I will curse you and my children together with numerous relatives will be cursing you. They will curse your family. You will be never forgiven either by the Klimovs, the Kudinovs, the Starovojtovys, the Vinikovys, the Chigirs, the Leonovs, the Zaharenkos nor by hundred thousands of Belarusians, deprived of the basic right for a decent life and millions of those sympathizing with them.

I appeal to all Belarusian and European politicians not to stop and help me to find my son! I am grateful to thousands of people compassionate with me, Viktor’s wife and son as well as with my children.

Valentina Adamovna Gonchar

 

Husbands Left. Wives are Waiting... Zinaida Gonchar is sharing her thoughts on the incident

— A more than weird disappearance of your husband can hardly be named an accident. Too many menaces had been addressed to him. When did they start?

— Victor experienced the whole spectrum of the physical and psychical methods of pressure, invented by the humankind, or rather, by its worst part. As soon as he resigned from the vice-president’s post, some “freaks” started to menace our family. I remember the way they tried to wreck his election campaign to the Supreme Soviet in 1995! First, an election center in one of the schools was “mined”, then the Institute of Melioration, the site of the meeting with voters, turns out “gassed”.

It was followed by rumors of our numerous properties and unpaid credits. My husband is the most honorable in financial matters. He never got involved into any kinds of foundations, grants and other “mangers”. By his nature Gonchar is a self-sufficient person: financially, politically etc.

— The rivals always have probem to endure this...

— “Problem” is not the right word. You must have a little forgotten the 1996 attempt on his life when by mistake not he but his secretary was shot at. It was clumsily made up, the same way it is done now.

— Zinaida Mihajlovma, why have they decided to act against Gonchar in this particular way now?

— You remember and know yourself the ways in which they were trying to eliminate Gonchar this year. There were warnings of him acting in terms that could have been classified as “rebellion”. By the way, the Criminal Code’s article in question provides for such penalties as a huge “term” and even capital punishment.

Not once our family was intimidated with a dreadful death during the preparation and running the presidential election on May 16 this year. And what about the humiliation of the Supreme Soviet’s MP taken for the closed trial and following it detention in the distribution center in the Okrestina Street.

I believe, it was already then plain for everyone that Gonchar won’t be broken down by any tortures. He will not make any arrangements with the regime as most of our pseudo opposition members would. However, they ventured THIS now, when the Supreme Soviet became an efficient body, when all opposition has trusted its powers, when the opposition united by Gonchar started to pose real threat. No one will argue against the fact that Belarus has few leaders like Gonchar.

— Gonchar could not underrate the danger of the situation. Didn’t he have a wish to leave for a “normal” country? I know he had many chances to do it.

— I used to tell him in the darkest moments of our life: “Let’s leave it all, go away and start all over. You are a professional. We’ll survive”. He answered: “Zina, you are strong. Hold on a little more. I know it’s hard but who will do it if not me?”

— Some people are cynical enough to see the money trace as the reason for Gonchar’s disappearance, meaning that he owes money to some suspicious characters after the May campaign.

— I have nothing to excuse for and no one to address my excuses to. I will just say that all the money that Gonchar earned in its time in Latvia was allocated to politics. If there was a question what to spend it for, cheese or his vacation, Gonchar always chose the latter. As you can see we live in a regular apartment with no European standards repairs. My husband had a chance to earn standard living and wanted everybody in this country to be able to do that.

— Have you expected such actions regarding Gonchar and Krasnovskij?

— We got accustomed to live in permanent stress and naturally tried to forecast the possible development of events. For example, Viktor believed that he will be “shut down” for a certain time after the above mentioned Central Election Committee’s meeting. We feared that he might have been put to prison at the final stage of this year’s presidential election campaign.

As for the disappearance... My husband foresaw some harsh measures against himself. After having watched the famous meeting with power representatives (on the day of Gonchar’s disappearance) he said: “He won’t let me hold the Supreme soviet’s session. The trigger has been pushed.

— But one could observe no other visible worrying symptoms before his disappearance.

— Yes, we cannot be surprised by phone calls’ tapping, shadowing or other “tricks”. But once Gonchar said: “I am not afraid of their menaces, I am anxious when they keep silent”...

— Do you believe that people’s disappearances will continue?

— I am sure of it. The chain reaction has took off. And it concerns not only opposition members but also the rival camp’s top officials and their family members, in order they are afraid and do not move. There are many honorable people there who, I suppose, would like to quit but can’t do it fearing for themselves, their children, for their future. This is a case of recidivism of the society of fear, where really courageous people are a rarity and, as it turns out, a thereat...

By Aleksandr Koktysh,
The Svobodnye Novosti,
September 24, 1999

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