Reminiscences about Cherkasova and „good buy“ to Grodnikov...



Two tragic events were recalled on 20 October 2005. One year ago Veronika Cherkasova, a journalist of the independent newspaper Solidarity“ was cruelly murdered. Today the last words were said to Vasilij Grodnikov, a freelance correspondent of „The Nation‘s Will“, who was also murdered. Was that a coincidence? Or a regular event? A terrible reality of the current Belarus.

The president Aleksandr Lukashenko in all state TV stations and radio channels as well as from the pages of privatized (by the Byelorussian authorities) newspapers stated (within the period of one year), that Belarus is nearly the single state in the world where journalists are not murdered. The reality showed, that they are murdered.

Veronika Cherkasova was cruelly murdered a year ago, on 20 October. The murders have not yet been found. The situation is sad: no witnesses and absolutely nothing what could show traces of the murder. A lot has been said and written.

Unexpectedly the Prosecutor‘s Office declared the stepfather and son of the murdered as suspects.
We will not talk about the misery of the family. A lot has been said and written. And suddenly, on the eve of one year commemoration of the tragedy the Prosecutor‘s Office found Anton, the son of Veronika and her mother. A very famous journalist Diana Cherkasova was again invited to the Prosecutor‘s Office of the city. Why? As it turned out, after nearly one year, they found a “pool of blood” in the kitchen of Veronika as if belonging to the son of the murdered journalist. No one noticed any injuries in the body of Anton during the day of funeral.

While journalists were standing by the Prosecutor‘s Office of Minsk, a shocking information reached them about the murder of a freelance journalist of the „Nation‘s Will“ Vasilij Grodnikov. His nickname among journalists was „Uncle“, since the pensioner Grodnikov usually made huge sketches and wrote essays dealing with the most important subjects of life of the Byelorussian nation. Many of the materials, irrespective of the places where these were published, were not acceptable to the Byelorussian authorities.

On Thursday, after visiting the cemetery in Kolodisci, where Veronika Cherkasova was buried, the members of the Byelorussian Association of Journalists moved towards the Northern cemetery, where Vasilij Grodnikov found his final shelter.

I would not like to relate the similarity in time of the two above tragedies with the activities of authorities, but... this will have to be done. If we were told the truth about the death of Veronika Cherkasova, if the names of those who kidnapped Dmitrij Zavadskij, Viktor Gonchar, Anatolij Krasovskij, Jurij Zacharenko were known and if someone answered the question why Genadij Karpenko died, there would not be any other question. So far we are mourning and remembering...

Genadij Kesner