15 August 2001
Lyudmila Karpenko and Irina Krasovskaya visit Brest
Lyudmila Karpenko and Irina Krasovskaya visited Brest on August 14. The wives of politician Gennady Karpenko, who died under unclear circumstances in 1999, and businessman Anatoly Krasovsky who disappeared along with his friend, former Central Election Commission Chairman Viktor Gonchar, in September 1999, said that they were
touring through Belarus to "urge people to give thought to what is going on." Before visiting Brest, the wives met with representatives of the public in the towns of Slonim and Pruzhany.
"Under this government, we will find out nothing about our husbands," Mrs. Karpenko said. She expressed conviction that her husband was murdered for his political activities. "We know who ordered [the killings and kidnappings], but we want to know who executed the orders."
In July, the wives visited Moscow, Paris, and Washington to draw the international community's attention to what had happened to their husbands.
"In the United States, we requested to set up a commission to investigate the circumstances of the disappearance and assassination of our husbands, and asked the United States to influence the Russian authorities. Our trips did not go unnoticed. [Belarusian leader Aleksandr] Lukashenko reacted to them. He called them 'fuss' and us 'plotters.'" Asked whether they had appealed for help to Mr.
Lukashenko's wife and mother, Mrs. Karpenko said that it would be pointless because "an apple does not roll far away from the apple tree."
Mrs. Krasovsky told the audience that the abduction of her husband and Mr. Gonchar appeared to have been thoroughly planned from start to finish. She said that the Belarusian ruler had sacked the prosecutor general and the Committee for State Security (KGB) chief when they were too close to solving the case.
The wives said that they were touring through Belarus because they felt that their stories could cause women to become more active and more united. They were to go to Baranovichi on August 15 and to visit locations in the Vitebsk region.
Within the next two weeks, non-governmental organizations' members in Brest will pass out in the streets appeals by the wives of the disappeared politicians.
http://brestonline.com/en/news/news53.html