Vandals violated reproduction of Our Lady icon in Kurapaty (Photo)

• 2.05.2008, 13:36

A reproduction of Our Lady icon, installed on the chapel by artist Alyaksei Marachkin, was torn off. Act of vandalism happened at night.

Alyaksei Marachkin told in the interview to Radio Svaboda, all acts of vandalism in Kurapaty are committed by the current authorities’ consent.

“This is an act of vandalism, act of earthliness. It is committed if not with connivance of the authorities, then by their consent. Similar cases are never investigated. I’m on holiday in Barsuki village now. When I return, I’ll make not a reproduction, but draw it on wood board and affix it someway. I had a feeling that a time will come and it will happen again to my regret.”

It is not a first time when Our Lady icon on the chapel in Kurapaty has been violated. Earlier, swastika was painted on the icon.

The chapel was installed near the big cross at the entrance to the Kurapaty forest. The icon of Our Lady of Innocently Killed is fixed there. It was installed on Dzyady Day (day of commemoration of the dead) in 2003. In December 2005 unknown vandals drew a swastika on the icon. Other memorial signs in Kurapaty were violated, too.

A. Marachkin renewed the chapel on 5 October 2007.