20 September 2006
Stab wounds may have caused death of Belarusian student in Chicago

A Belarusian student whose body was found in Chicago on September 7 may have died from stab wounds, a source with the Medical Examiners Office of the Chicago Police Department told BelaPAN.

According to the source, the body of the young woman aged between 20 and 21 was found with multiple stab wounds to the chest and the back at a private apartment on West Greenleaf Avenue at 10 p.m.

The press office of the Chicago Police Department would not comment on the investigation.

According to Andrei Kozhan, consul at the Belarusian embassy in Washington, the student had arrived in the United States under the Summer Work and Travel Program sponsored by the US State Department.

Her body is to be delivered to Belarus this week.

The young woman was one of two students from Belarus who were killed in the United States this past summer and a third was the victim of an armed robbery.

In a strongly worded statement issued last week, the Belarusian foreign ministry accused the US government of the inability to ensure the safety of arriving Belarusian citizens.

The ministry urged Belarusian students to refrain from participating in the program, noting "extreme and absolutely unacceptable" conditions of stay.

The US State Department responded that the deaths were tragic but urged continued involvement in the study programs.

"The deaths of the two Belarusian citizens are terrible, albeit wholly unrelated events,"' said spokesman Edgar Vasquez.