We remember... Dmitry Zavadskiy

Another well-known name was added to the list of people who vanished without a trace. The ORT cameraman Dmitry Zavadskiy disappeared on Friday morning. He arrived at the Minsk-2 airport, parked his car in the parking lot, went into the arrival hall and … vanished.

The situation in this country concerning the disappearance of people can be called maddening — people vanish into thin air as a mirage, as a mist, as a rainbow. A man can be here one minute and gone the next - no traces are left. The representatives of the authorities tell us each time that when thousands of people disappear, that some of them are found, that there is no need to raise a clamor because Zakharenko has vanished. Beginning with Gonchar, Krasovskiy, and now Zavadskiy. When famous politicians disappear rumors are spread: these people might have fled because they had enough to take with them, they had reasons to escape, or that they had somewhere to go… And now at last we know for sure, with a 100% guarantee that this man’s disappearance was not of his own will.

On Friday morning Dmitry Zavadskiy arrived at the airport to meet Pavel Sheremet who was coming to Minsk. Porters and cabmen saw Zavadskiy in the arrivals hall. He quietly stood there waiting and smoking. Those interviewed stated that nothing strange happened in the airport that morning. People were coming and going, meeting the arriving planes, talking to each other… No one remembered a voice raised, a brawl, or a fight. When Pavel Sheremet got off his plane he did not meet his cameraman — Zavadskiy was not there. The locked car sat in the parking lot, militiamen walked through the halls and around the airport, cabmen waited for someone ready to pay thirty bucks to get to the city… yet absolutely no trace of Zavadskiy. In broad daylight (it was 11 o’clock), a man disappeared at the well-guarded gates, in the presence of numerous people. Zavadskiy did not appear an hour later, or two hours later, or in the evening, or the following morning, either at work or home. All of the hospitals, morgues, police stations of Minsk and the district of Minsk replied uniformly: not registered.

One certainly always hopes for the better. We wish he went on a spree: met a friend, like the character of the famous New Year comedy “The irony of fate…” But everything has been checked – he did not fly out of Minsk, or go to a bar in the airport, or check-in at the airport hotel. He could not have left fifteen minutes before the landing of the Moscow plane and miss his friend’s arrival without anybody noticing and remembering a struggle or confrontation. Only people in possession of certain ID cards could manage to take Zavadskiy away from the arrival hall. Zavadskiy, who together with Sheremet, had experienced the KGB enquiries and the Grodno jail a few years before, was familiar with such “surprises”. Still, under such circumstances, relatives would have been informed about the arrest, even if word did not arrive until evening. Now – silence. Zavadskiy had not recently worked in Belarus. After the imprisonment of the ORT camera team during the famous border incident, the Belarusian Ministry for Foreign Affairs refused to provide the TV station with a regular accreditation, thus introducing a ban on professions, such as cameramen, especially for Zavadskiy. Thus his work took him on regular long-term business trips to Russia, and recently to Chechnya, where along with Sheremet, they worked on the film “The Chechen Diary”. Zavadskiy filmed the fighting, the guerillas and Russian soldiers, hostages, and corpses. Last week he came to our editor’s office and he said that he did not want any more trips to the war. He told us about the methods of finding the missing soldiers and officers in Chechnya. No one could have thought that in peaceful Belarus we too would be looking for our own missing person.

“Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta”,
N8, June 11, 2000

— There are no real results as far as the inquiry is concerned. There are regular promises from the investigators and detectives of different ranks to unveil this case as soon as possible. But with the investigation procedures complete, we are clearly made to understand that they have no information on this case. The most suspicious fact is that nobody tries to inform us. There were no calls to the ORT office or to newspapers after Dima had disappeared. Even in the most typical cases crazy fib-tellers bother us, but in this case there is no word.

Thus, the motives behind the disappearance of Dmitry Zavadskiy and his present situation remain unknown.

The leaders of the Finnish PEN-centre in their address to the Belarusian authorities demanded to take steps to activate the search for the missing ORT cameraman Dmitry Zavadskiy since the beginning of July. “Disappearance of the reporter is an emergency”, state Finnish writers. They express solidarity with Belarusian journalists who are being persecuted by the authorities, and they remind the leaders of Belarus that the freedom of speech is one of the major features of democracy. The address also states that the leaders of the Finnish PEN-centre regard the disappearance of Zavadskiy in the context of other cases of disappearance of a number of Belarusian politicians.

Dmitry Zavadskiy, a Belarusian cameraman for the Russian public television station ORT, disappeared on July 7. He failed to appear to pick up his colleague, Pavel Sheremet, a Russian journalist, from the Minsk airport. Police found his car at the airport, but have no information about what happened to Zavadskiy.

The United States is deeply concerned by Mr. Zavadskiy’s disappearance in light of a series of politically motivated disappearances in Belarus. Former Interior Minister and opposition figure Yuriy Zakharenko vanished while walking home on May 7, 1999, and has not been heard from since. On September 16, 1999, Belarusian opposition leader Victor Gonchar and his associate, Yuriy Krasovskiy, also disappeared without a trace. To date, Belarusian authorities have uncovered no leads nor provided any accounting of the whereabouts of these individuals.

Zavadskiy and Sheremet had recently returned from Chechnya, where they had filmed a documentary. Since his return, anonymous callers seeking to meet with him reportedly harassed Zavadskiy at his home. Zavadskiy also suspected that he had been under surveillance by Belarusian security services for some time. Belarusian authorities arrested Zavadskiy and Sheremet in 1997 for allegedly illegally crossing the Belarus-Lithuania border during the filming of a documentary on smuggling. They were given suspended sentences the same year.

Mr.Zavadskiy’s disappearance adds significantly to our concerns about the harassment of journalists, restrictions on freedom of expression, and the growing climate of fear in Belarus. We are especially disturbed at the reaction of high-ranking Belarusian authorities, who have dismissed the disappearance as a provocation perpetrated by the democratic opposition.

The United States calls on the Belarusian authorities to make good on their commitment, most recently expressed at the OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna, to conduct a thorough investigation into the disappearance of Mr.Zavadskiy and to account for the whereabouts of Zakharenko, Gonchar, and Krasovskiy.

This is what Pavel Sheremet, the manager of the ORT special programs department, strongly believes. He voiced his opinion at a press conference in Minsk on September 15, 70 days after his colleague disappeared. The ORT reporter Dmitry Zavadskiy disappeared under unclear circumstances in Minsk airport on July 7 of this year.

At today’s press conference Pavel Sheremet broke the vow of silence concerning information on the case of Zavadskiy that he was observing at the request of the investigating body. According to Pavel Sheremet’s words, it has been caused by the new developments around the enquiry, which worried Russian journalists.

Sheremet and other colleagues of the missing reporter were working in close contact with the investigating team from the first stages of the investigation. The ORT team questioned practically all the witnesses and those in contact with him. All the materials shot by Zavadskiy were copied. On the ORT journalists’ prompt, the Russian Agency on Organized Crime arrested a swindler who tried to extort money with the help of a faked videocassette, which allegedly contained a recording of Dmitry’s kidnapping.

But today Sheremet refuted all the versions worked out by the investigating team – motives of kidnapping or disappearance, “commercial” and “criminal” versions.

According to his words, the investigation has been handed over from the Transport Prosecutor’s Office to the General Prosecutor of Belarus. Lopatik has been appointed the chief investigator. Sheremet stated that that was what made him appear in front of journalists. It was Lopatik who conducted the investigation of the case of the assassination of the President’s friend, Chairman of the State Control Committee on Mogilev region Yevgeniy Mikolutskiy. The main suspect in the act of terrorism allegedly committed suicide in his prison cell, two other suspects pleaded not guilty, and the fourth (under age) testified under the severe pressure of the investigating team against all of them. On this ground the case was fabricated and long-term sentences were announced. Who really killed Mikolutskiy still remains unclear.

Sheremet stated that the ORT managed to find out that the Belarusian citizen Ignatovich, a former officer of the elite special group “Almaz”, was really detained in Chechnya in December, 1999 by the Russian secret services being suspected of taking part in the guerilla warfare against the federal forces. Moreover, Ignatovich himself admitted that he served as an instructor in one of the camps of a notorious field commander Hattab. Nevertheless, later he was released due to the lack of evidence. Dmitry Zavadskiy meant this very man when in his interview to “Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” he said that Belarusians also fought on the Chechen side. But Zavadskiy did not contact Ignatovich personally, did not film him with his camera, and only learned about him from the press-service of the Ministry for Internal Affairs of Russia.

Sheremet himself is sure that Dmitry Zavadskiy followed the fate of the active members of the Belarusian opposition Yuriy Zakharenko and Viktor Gonchar who were kidnapped by the secret services in order to frighten political opponents of Lukashenko.

Just a few days ago new details of the case of Dmitry Zavadskiy were revealed. It is known that five people have been arrested on suspicion of taking part in his kidnapping. As it turns out, two of them are active members of Belarusian militia, and the other three are retired officers of “Almaz”, a special group of the Ministry for Internal Affairs. According to a well-informed source, the police want one more ex-Almaz officer. In the opinion of the same source these very circumstances have played their part in the recent appointment of the ex-chief of “Almaz” Naumov as Interior Minister who was summoned to suppress the wave of information concerning the participation of his officers in the alleged kidnapping of the ORT cameraman.

The manager of the ORT special projects Pavel Sheremet had been conducting an investigation and making a documentary for four months. During their visits to Belarus the journalists of this TV company were under surveillance which was revealed by the ORT security service.

The administration of the public and political broadcasting was responsible for shooting “The Wild Hunt”, but practically all the departments of the ORT took part in its production. According to Sheremet, now there are serious grounds to suspect Belarusian secret services in Dmitry’s disappearance: “The investigators’ dead silence concerning this topic only proves this conclusion”. All the materials ORT receives on the case of Zavadskiy are rendered to the Belarusian authorities but Minsk has practically “frozen” contacts with the ORT. There was no reply to the General Manager Mr. Ernst’s letter to Alexander Lukashenko. Under such conditions the initiation of proceedings by the Russian General Prosecutor concerning the disappearance of Zavadskiy is being considered.

Svetlana Zavadskaya, wife of the missing journalist Dmitry Zavadskiy who disappeared last summer in Minsk, appealed to the world community to help her find her husband. The text of Svetlana’s address was published in Swedish on the website www.vitryssland.nu. We offer its complete translation. Svetlana also sent such letters to Lukashenko and Putin, but she says there is little hope for the authorities’ help.

Svetlana Zavadskaya’s appeal to the world community

On July 7th, 2000 my husband Dmitry Zavadskiy disappeared. He was a Russian public television cameraman working in Belarus.

In the morning of that day he drove to the airport to meet his friend and colleague journalist Pavel Sheremet, who was arriving from Moscow. But he failed to do so. Dima vanished without trace in the airport.

The law enforcement agencies initiated proceedings formulated as “the premeditated murder”. Endless interrogations of all the acquaintances and relatives started. Everyone was under suspicion – including Dima’s mother and me. All this was terrible. I was literally made to give a written undertaking not to disclose the secrecy of investigation. The statement that journalists interfere with the work of the investigators justified it. But what is weird – they made me give this undertaking but the investigating bodies didn’t care to inform me about the results of the inquiry even once during five months. All the attempts to get any information were fruitless. During these five months we have heard numerous assurances of various top civil servants that this case will be disclosed in the nearest future and that Dima will be found. But a lot of time has passed and nothing has changed.

I am on the verge of despair. I hope so much that our guardian angel will protect Dima and us from the worst. “God save us!” – these are the words I have been trying to go to sleep with for five months already, and I meet a new day with the same words believing in God and human wisdom.

I am afraid to think that my son and I will not know probably for years what really happened. How could a man vanish without a trace in broad daylight in a well-guarded place before people’s eyes?

In 1997 the authorities convicted my husband and Pavel Sheremet for making a documentary about the border. Actually, they were convicted for their professional activities. I hope this is not the continuation of that inconceivable story when people were arrested only because they were journalists and were telling the truth.

I have recently written to A.G.Lukashenko and V.V.Putin but I haven’t received a reply so far.

The authorities inspire little hope. That is why I appeal to the world community to help me find my husband.

“I FELL IN LOVE WITH HIM AT FIRST SIGHT”

They are a beautiful couple – Dima and Sveta – and they are unbelievably young to have a ten-year-old son. They met each other in a disco, she was sixteen, and he was seventeen. “I fell in love with him at first sight. He was so handsome; I had never met such a person. We lived through a lot of different things during these ten years, we even lived separately for a year. I realize that as time passes I love him more and more and I am very happy that Dima is my husband”.

We are sitting in a cosy, nicely furnished flat of the Zavadskiys. Sveta, thin as a reed, can’t stop crying. “When he was arrested three years ago it was easier, we knew that he was alive. But now we are going mad.”

INSANE WEIGHT AND DULLNESS AT THE SAME TIME

“I didn’t have any foreboding of evil on that day”, says Olga Grigorievna, Dima’s mother. “There was just one thing: Dima is not the one for sentiments, kisses and embraces are not customary with us, but on that day when leaving he reached for me and kissed me. My heart missed a beat and I’ve not seen him since. You know, it’s such an insane weight and dullness at the same time, that at the beginning you can’t do anything”. Olga Grigorievna is a dentist, head of a department but immediately following her son’s disappearance, she could only fill in registration cards. She is thankful to the colleagues who understood her. “Now I am working, I volunteered to be the doctor on duty for New Years Eve and Christmas: I won’t stand staying at home. God forbid wishing this on anybody! I sometimes cry aloud though I am a strong woman and seldom cry”.

HE WAS HARD TO RECOGNIZE AFTER CHECHNYA

Dmitry Zavadskiy is indifferent to politics. He is just a good cameraman and loves his work. He likes to go fishing in his free time, but work is the essence of his life. It is not a burden for him but a delight. After he had been released from prison and had not been given accreditation in Belarus he said: “I will go insane without work, I am getting dull, I do not know what to do with myself”, recollects Svetlana. If he loves his work, than he does it honestly. And being honest in certain lines of work requires courage and integrity. A cameraman can’t even close his eyes in shock – he has to shoot!

“You know, before Chechnya he used to be the heart of any company, but after that trip he was hard to recognize. He had never been a chatterer, but he stopped talking completely. He did not tell us anything. All of a sudden one time while we were sitting at the table with friends he said: “Pavel Sheremet and I were leaving for a block-post that was continually under fire. The military told us: “Farewell, guys, nobody comes back from there” and it was the only night when that block-post was not shot at. When they came back alive, everyone was stunned. He looked as if he had aged considerably and was trying to understand something. It was difficult for him to live with all he saw but he would not tell me anything, and I never tried to get anything out of him. He came home from prison a different man three years ago, we couldn’t recognize him: he was like a strained string, he could fly off the handle over a trifle. But he somehow managed to return to normal life. After Chechnya everything was different, everything seemed to turn upside down inside him.

“I FLEW ON THE WINGS OF HAPPINESS”

Two months after our child Yura was born, Dima went to the Army. It wasn’t an easy trial, but we managed. “Dima isn’t one of those who would repeat ten times a day “You are my sweetheart” and things like that. He says it once but it is for life. For a long time we were on the rocks, there was no money to buy presents. When he joined the ORT our life became much easier. I remember one of my birthdays. I got up in the morning and went to the kitchen. When I came back there was something round tied with a band placed near the bed. “Wow, what is that?” – “It’s for you”. I unwrapped the parcel and found French perfume.

I love him so much. I try to do all the household chores myself though he always helps me and never evades. I could serve him breakfast in bed: he used to sleep up to the last minute. It’s not humiliation, it’s happiness – to wake him up and put a tray at the bed. When visiting other families I can’t stand seeing a husband and a wife having an argument. Life is so unpredictable, anything can happen”.

FRIENDS DIDN’T LEAVE US IN TROUBLE

It took Dima quite a long time to make up his mind about leaving the Belarusian TV for the ORT. He was very close with his colleagues; he was considered “the personal operator of Lukashenko”. He used to say: “I don’t know what kind of state leader he is, but he is a good person. And now they suggest that I join the ORT”. His mother asked him: “How can you walk out on the first person in the country?” But Sveta told him repeatedly: “We’ll be able to build or buy a flat.” His mother now lives separately.

The work for the ORT was very interesting and benefited the family financially. After Dima’s disappearance, his family was not left in trouble. The ORT pays Dmitry’s salary to the family, without this money they wouldn’t have been able to survive. Sveta – a modeller – is now unemployed. A lot of people offer help. “I wish we knew where to direct this help”, says Olga Grigorievna.

All that dirt the Belarusian TV had poured on Dima during the first days after his disappearance was absolutely unexpected for Olga Grigorievna. “It was very painful, really. They did not know Dima. How could they?” The Belarusian TV refused to provide a studio for Olga Grigorievna to have a live TV talk with Alexander Lubimov. This is how they understand professional solidarity.

Olga Grigorievna strongly believes and professed many times that “Dima is very honest. He can keep silent, and he’ll never tell a lie. When I heard of the recanting letters, I said that he couldn’t have written them and soon I was proved right”.

After Dima returned home from prison he and his family were offered to emigrate to Great Britain. They were promised a five-year material help until they settled in. But Dima and Sveta couldn’t even think about that: to leave their native land, the city they loved so much. If only they had known…

They regularly visit different power offices. Nobody is rude to them everybody is extremely polite. Only at the very beginning they told Svetlana at the Prosecutor’s office: “Do not distract us from work. If we need you, we will send for you.” She cried bitterly all the way home. Now everything is different. She is thankful to the investigator Latypov for showing her compassion. Interior Minister accepted Olga Grigorievna after her first call. She also spoke with one of the President’s advisers but received nothing but sympathy there. “I need hope. For the worse or for the better. Just something definite. It’s such a deadly pain not to know what has happened to your child.”

Svetlana and Olga Grigorievna have been through great deal of pain in dealing with the press. When they were informed about the letter of a KGB officer, they had nearly gone mad with grief. Pavel Sheremet comforted them saying it was a fake. Then, an article in a newspaper declaring that Belarus and the family are in for some awful news - they had to deal with that as well.

THEY LIVE WITH US

“Up till now I see him in my dreams almost every day”, says Svetlana. “We tell each other about what is going on. The first night after the disappearance he told me: “Sveta, I am so cold”. And just recently our son, Yura, had a dream and he told me: “Don’t worry, father will soon come back”. Together with Olga Grigorievna they visit fortune-tellers and prophets. They are ready to hear any word of hope. “I am happy only in my dreams, when I see Dima,” says Svetlana.

P.S. Something terrible is going on around us. The latest disappearances include Yuriy Zakharenko, Victor Gonchar, Anatoly Krasovskiy, Dmitry Zavadskiy.

They are politicians and common people who did not side with any parties. It is so convenient when people disappear — any dirt can be poured upon them, hints can be made: don’t worry about them, they will soon turn up in a nice, rich country. They are much better off than you can ever dream of… This is frightening: anyone of us can fall into the same situation. The bell tolls for every one of us.

Anna Lyashkevich
“Komsomolskaya Pravda”, January 12, 2001

124 members of Swedish Parliament signed a petition to Alexander Lukashenko demanding to investigate a succession of mysterious disappearances of political opponents of the Belarusian regime. The representative of the Social-Democratic Party Andreas Igeman spread copies of the text of petition among deputies of the Parliament. Prior to the adoption of the petition a documentary “The Wild Hunt” by Pavel Sheremet had been shown on the Swedish television channel TV 2 on November 26 and 28, 2000, alongside with publications of topical articles in Swedish press.

TEXT OF PETITION

We, deputies of the Parliament of Sweden, are concerned about the disappearance of the cameraman Dmitry Zavadskiy, the politician Victor Gonchar, the businessman Anatoly Krasovskiy and the former Interior Minister of Belarus Yuriy Zakharenko, who vanished without a trace between May, 7th 1999 and July 7th 2000. We, the undersigned, address to You, President Alexander Lukashenko, with the demand to carry out a thorough investigation of these disappearances in hope that it will help to define the fates of the missing people.

“I think that Dima’s kidnapping is a result of secret services’ activities.”

— I feel my son is alive…I am being tortured by just one question: how will they give him back? Just how?

I think there is a powerful person behind those who kidnapped Dima…

They say the world is small. Not long ago my nieces were having dinner in a restaurant. They were sitting there and talking and all of a sudden one of them heard the people behind them talking about Sheremet. They mentioned the name “Zavadskiy” and one of the phrases sounded like the following: “So what, can’t we, representatives of power structures, come to an agreement? Did we have to give him an opportunity to leave the country?” How do we interpret that?

There were three men in civil clothes. They must have felt or noticed that their conversation had attracted the attention of the girls at the next table and they changed the topic of their conversation. My nieces noticed the car in which the men left; it was a white “Volga” with a state number plate. Strangely enough I later saw this car on Volodarskogo St. driving through the gate of the State Committee of Frontier Troops.

I am waiting. Waiting and waiting. And I am somehow sure it is not in vain. On January 1st a kitten came to our flat. I was seeing my nieces off and when I came back, the porch door was open and the cat was sitting at our door. The cat now lives with us and its name is Kuzya. They say it is a good sign… I believe Dima will come back.”

The leaders of the Russian Interior Ministry openly avoided making public statements about the progress of the investigation into the disappearance of the ORT cameraman Dmitry Zavadskiy. Moreover, they agreed not to comment on the actions of the Belarusian law enforcement agencies. Thus, on March 21st the first deputy to Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kozlov refused to be interviewed on this topic by the ORT reporter Dmitry Novozhilov in Mink. In a private talk he revealed that public statements on this topic had been “vetoed” by the Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Rushaylo himself.

On the 11th of June 2001 Dmitri Pashkevich, an officer from the investigation group of the prosecutor’s office of the Republic of Belarus, published new information about the investigation of “the notorious cases” of the high-profile disappearances in Belarus. According to his and Oleg Sluchek’s words, there is a special organized squad, acting under the authority’s order, which eliminates disagreeable influential people. Ignatovich and Malik, accused in Zavadsky’s case, are the members of that squad. The squad of murderers was organized by ex-minister of internal affairs Yuri Sivakov (now a highly ranked officer in the presidential administration), acting on General Secretary Victor Scheiman’s order (now Prosecutor General). Dmitry Pavluchenko, a former “ALMAZ” special forces officer, leads this group. Further information that Naumov, Minister of Internal affairs, still sees arrested Ignatovich and Malik, also was sensational. This message also included ballistic information about the gun used to shoot the disappeared people. This is a special gun that is used for carrying into effect death sentences in Belarus.

According to Petrushkevich and Sluchek, all victims of political crimes could be found in the area of the Minsk North Graveyard in Novinki. Nevertheless the attempt of former General Prosecutor Boghelko and ex-director of KGB Matskevich to expose the troops and find the dead bodies ended with their notorious dismissal. This information was sent to all Belarus mass media via the Internet. The interview ended with a promise to provide a video copy of this interview in the nearest future. They also assured that they had many documents about Zavadski’s case.

I, Oleg Anatolievich Sluchek, ex-detective of Prosecutor Office, have at my disposal information about the following:

“…After the referendum in 1996, the Secretary of the Security Council gave an order to the Head of Internal Forces to organize a “special group” which would be able to fulfill all orders right up to murder.

Pavluchenko lead the group. This group was ordered to develop and practice plans for kidnapping and killing people. This plan excluded the possibility of discovering corpses. In fact, the order was to develop a plan of “ideal murder:” if there are no corpses, there is no crime.

To avoid identification of corpses in case of discovery they decided to use a gun, which could not be identified further. This gun is used for carrying out death sentences in Belarus. The manner in which the murder occurred also was planned – a shot to the head. They received the gun only for one or two days and gave it back after fulfilling the order. This plan was considered ideal and the group began to get more serious orders – political ones. Zakharenko disappeared, followed by Gonchar, and then Krasovski. The last disappearance was journalist Zavadski. Pavluchenko got all orders directly from Sivakov. Sivakov got them from Sheiman. After Sivakov’s dismissal the group was under total control of Naumov, the new minister of internal affairs. In total, the group perpetrated more than 30 murders.

Question:

— Is it true that people, who were investigating this case, died under strange circumstances?

Answer:

— Two officers from Criminal Investigation Department, who were involved in this case, have died in strange circumstances since January.

“Narodnay Voly”, №108, 15.06.2001

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