Prosecutor General: Belarus is the only country in the world that experienced all known forms of genocide
Belarus, or BSSR in the Great Patriotic War years, is the only country in the world that experienced all known forms of genocide – as stated by Prosecutor General Andrei Shved during his recent meeting with the State Committee of Forensic Examinations staff, the Prosecutor General’s Office reports
Mr. Shved informed on the reasons for the initiation and the course of the investigation into the criminal case on the genocide of the Belarusian people, countering extremism and terrorism. He expressed gratitude to the State Committee of Forensic Examinations and its employees for their joint work, noting that it would not have been possible to reach certain results without forensic experts.
According to Mr. Shved, prosecutors, investigators, historians and archivists daily establish new facts of crimes committed by the Nazi occupiers and their accomplices against civilians. “This work is especially relevant in the light of the current international situation, when Nazism is again attempting to revive in some countries with an active support and assistance of Western states. At the same time, we know that this topic is very complex, and it concerns all of us: after all, there is no family [in Belarus] in which relatives and friends did not suffer during the Great Patriotic War, there is no family in which the memory of terrible events does not continue to live in hearts – especially of the older generation, who were born and grew up in times of the Soviet Union,” he added.
The Prosecutor General reminded about the events of 2020 that preceded the initiation of the said criminal case, the organisational aspects of the work of law enforcement agencies at that time aimed to ensure law and order on streets, to protect citizens, to prevent crimes and offenses, including against law enforcement officers. Mr. Shved also informed on the analysis prepared by October 2020, according to which the core of the ‘militants’ who operated on the streets of cities were Belarusian neo-Nazis.
Turning to the criminal case of the genocide initiated in April 2021, the Prosecutor General identified the investigation team’s task, “It is important for us to understand the details, to show every fact of the destruction of civilians, to establish the time, date, names of units and lists of punishers for each locality, to identify – if possible – the names of people killed during a certain punitive operation.”
Mr. Shved also noted, “From a legal point of view, we can now state – after two years of work – that the Republic of Belarus (known as the BSSR during the Great Patriotic War years) is the only country in the world that was subjected to all known forms of genocide.” He noted that, from the first days of the war, the mass destruction of people was widespread – through shooting, gallows, gas chambers, burning, famine, and spread of epidemics. Such measures were supposed to generate fear and suppress any attempts to resist the occupation regime.
The Prosecutor General reported on some results of the investigation into the criminal case of the genocide of the Belarusian people: over 17.5 thousand witnesses and victims were interrogated, including almost 8,000 former prisoners of death camps, more than 480 inspections of the terrain and 40+ excavations were carried out, more than 580 places of citizens’ forced detention, including 90 previously unknown ones, and over 2,500 previously unknown burned villages were established.
“Not only the Nazi invaders took part in the genocide of the civilian population, but also their European allies, Lithuanian, Latvian and Ukrainian police battalions, which were particularly cruel. The Prosecutor General's Office will make every effort to ensure that every living Nazi criminal is brought to criminal responsibility – despite the protection of foreign countries on which territory they are hiding from justice,” Mr. Shved stressed.
