Belarusian authorities demanded to stop desecrating Jewish tombs
- 8.10.2009, 9:25
Participants of the annual meeting of US immigrants from Mozyr wrote an open letter to Alyaksandr Lukashenka, expressing their concern over condition of Jewish cemeteries and places of killing of Holocaust victims.
The letter of October 3 notes that in autumn 1943, after Mozyr had been occupied by the Nazi troops, more than 20 dwellers of the town set themselves on fire, which was a unique event during the WWII, BelaPAN reports. The Ashdod City Council (Israel) named a city park after the Heroes of Mozyr on December 7, 2005. The stone and the memorial sign, erected on the site of the deed in 2003 by the World Association of Belarusian Jewry, were ruined on a decision of the Mozyr city executive committee.
On August 28, 2008, the Belarusian Republican Scientific Council on History and Culture Heritage at the Ministry of Culture decided to include the site of self-immolation in the State List of History and Culture Heritage of Belarus. The council satisfied the request of WABJ’s president Jakov Gutman and offered the authorities of Mozyr to restore the stone and memorial sign on the site of the deed by November 1, 2008, and improve the place by January 1, 2009. Unfortunately, these recommendations haven’t been fulfilled by the Mozyr authorities, the statement says.
The authors also inform about repeated desecration of the Jewish cemetery in Ryzhkou Street during pipeline installation in 2003 and repairing heat pipeline in August 2009. “A request of Mozyr dweller Pavel Nazdra and our countryman WABJ’s president to the militia department of Mozyr and the prosecutor’s office didn’t stop the works,” the statement notes.
The authors of the letter demand that the Mozyr officials, who “violated the law of Belarus, basic norms of the civilized society, affecting damage to the international image of the state” should be brought to responsibility. The authors also express a hope for the situation to be radically improved.