BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

08/11/2010

Stalin-Era Victims' Memorial Vandalized In Belarus

MINSK -- The Minsk Oblast authorities have sent a group of investigators to the town of Kurapaty, near Minsk, to investigate the reported vandalism of a memorial to Stalinist terror victims, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

On November 5, vandals reportedly damaged 38 wooden crosses at a memorial in honor of the Belarusians killed during Soviet leader Josef Stalin's purges of government and military officials as well as the repression of peasants in 1936-38.

Minsk Oblast Interior Ministry officials said a criminal case had not yet been launched.

Opposition Belarusian Popular Front party (BNF) member Ales Chakholsky told RFE/RL that the vandalism might have been timed to coincide with either Russia's National Unity Day on November 4 or the anniversary of the October Revolution in 1917 on November 7.

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/content/StalinEra_Victims_Memorial_Vandalized_In_Belarus/2214446.html