Rally in Memory of Dmitry Zavadski Took Place

Over 20 journalists came 7 July to the house in Minsk where the cameraman of the ORT channel lived. Dmitry was kidnapped on 7 July 2000. The action was organised by Belarusian Association of Journalists.

Dmitry’s mother, Volha Zavadskaya, addressed those who came. "It is nice that Dima is not forgotten", she said. "I often meet with his friends and colleagues. When we talk, I look at them and see my son. It hurts me that our efforts have been ignored for these 10 years. Nobody wants to answer the question what really happened. Unfortunately, today people considered guilty leave the country."


According to Dmitry’s former wife Sviatlana, the reason of kidnapping Dmitry might be the film "Chechen Diary" which he shot together with Pavel Sheremet. She thinks that the authorities were afraid that Sheremet and Zavadski would disclose the links between the Belarusian authorities and Chechens. Perhaps Dmitry was kidnapped because the authorities wanted to know the contents of the film, so he was tortured and then killed to cover the tracks of the crime, assumed Sviatlana Zavadskaya.


"It pains me that the Belarusian authorities do nothing", she added. "I received the last document on this case in 2006. I don’t know how much time will pass before we get to know what happened with Dima. The only thing we want is to learn the truth. Perhaps my soul will know rest only when Dima’s body will be committed to the ground, and we will come not here, but to his grave."

According to BAJ chairperson Zhanna Litvina, the association plans to make a chronicle of independent Belarusian journalism, but "the work is going on with great difficulty". "Perhaps because there are unfinished pages in the story. The cases of Dmitry Zavadski and Veranika Charkasava are still not solved", said Ms. Litvina. "But as long as we come here there is greater certainty that these pages will be finished."