Jury Zacharanka

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General Jury Zacharanka (Belarusian:Юры Захаранка, Russian: Юрий Захаренко, Yuri Zakharenko; January 1, 1952 - 1999(?) ) was the Belarusian minister of internal affairs and oppositional politician abducted and probably killed in 1999.

Jury Zacharanka was born in the town Vasilevičy, Rečyca rajon.

At the moment when Belarus gained independence Zacharanka was deputy chief of Interregional Organised criminality fighting department of the Soviet MVD.

In 1994 he was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs of Belarus.

On October 16, 1995 he was dismissed from this position by president Alexander Lukashenko. Zacharanka joined the opposition to the president and was elected member of the governing board of the United Civil Party of Belarus. Having strong support among top officers in the army and the State Security Agency ("KGB") Zacharanka was a dangerous enemy for Łukašenka.

The ex-minister was abducted in the evening of May 7, 1999. The state did not make serious attempts to search for the politician. Several years later the former MVD official Aleh Ałkajeǔ fleed to Germany and stated that he was witness of that Zacharanka and several other abducted opposition leaders have been murdered on the orders of top Łukašenka's helpers.

In commemorance with the abducted politicians and political prisoners of Belarus, the Belarusian opposition and its supporters have on the 16th of every month The Day of Solidarity with Belarus.

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