BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

30/10/2007

Belarusian Activists Mark Remebrance Day For Victims Of Stalin Era

Activists on October 29 held a day of commemoration for the victims of repression in Belarus under Soviet leader Josef Stalin, Belapan and RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported. The event was organized by a civic committee dedicated to commemorating the 70th anniversary of the execution of around 100 prominent Belarusian intellectuals by Stalin's secret police. The committee, formed in November 2006 and led by geologist Radzim Haretski, historian Ihar Kuznyatsou, and writer Vasil Yakavenka, has called on the Belarusian authorities to commemorate victims at the government level, but the request has been rejected by the State Security Committee (KGB). According to the committee, the Soviet regime in Belarus killed or imprisoned at least 1 million people, 600,000 of whom were sent to labor camps, between the 1920s and the 1950s. AM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/10/3-cee/cee-301007.asp