BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
23/03/2008
Belarus marks 65th anniversary of Khatyn tragedy
MINSK, March 23 (Itar-Tass) - Belarus marks on Sunday one of the most mournful dates - the 65th anniversary of the tragedy in world-known Khatyn. This small village, situated 54 kilometres from the Belarussian capital Minsk, was fully burnt down by Nazis together with all its residents (149 people, including 75 children).
A requiem-rally was held on Sunday at the Memorial Complex, opened in the place of the former village. Speaking at the rally, head of the Belarussian president's office Gennady Nevyglas said: "Some young politicians in former Soviet republics and other countries are inclined to forget the horrors of the Second World War and even try to whitewash and even honour those who had destroyed civilians in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, trampling underfoot the memory of millions of innocent victims. Such sacrilegious attitude must be cut short in the present-day world."
He noted "Khatyn has become a bleeding wound, preventing our people from forgetting the historic memory". Nevyglas emphasised that the grand Khatyn Memorial is a symbol of people's memory and pain about the tragedy, a symbol of immortality, and millions of people from all over the world come to this memorial to pay homage.
"The toll of Khatyn bells also mourn massacred innocent residents in other Belarussian villages, deplore much-suffering residents of the besieged Leningrad, many hundred thousands of innocent victims, murdered in Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Majdanek and other Nazi concentration camps," Nevyglas stressed.
The rally was attended by war veterans, young people and delegations from war-ravaged cities and villages as well as from foreign states, including representatives from memorials in Lidice (Czech Republic) and the Piskaryovskoye Cemetery (Russia).
Source:
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=12505643&PageNum=0
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