Shved: investigation into the case of genocide becoming even more relevant in current international situation
Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Shved spoke to students and teaching staff of the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics on the topic of the investigation of the criminal case of the genocide of the Belarusian people – as reported by the Prosecutor General’s Office
Andrei Shved addressed the youngsters, “It’s very important for me to convey to you the pain and tragedy of the Belarusian people, those terrible facts that the investigative team establishes every day. This is also done for you as representatives of the younger generation. I want you to understand, appreciate, and think.”
The Prosecutor General noted the prerequisites for initiating a criminal case for genocide, “One, maybe two generations of our youth have not only forgotten, but no longer understand the great feat that our ancestors accomplished. A certain part of young people began to abandon our history. It was then that the question arose that we had missed something fundamental, that we had allowed our history to be blurred in the minds and hearts of young people. However, the Great Patriotic War raised the question of whether there should be such a nation as the Belarusians. With enormous efforts, at the cost of millions of lives, a feat that history has never known, the Soviet people, including citizens of the BSSR, defended their right to live.”
Andrei Shved spoke about the goals of the investigation and international co-operation, “Our task is to document every fact of genocide since June 22nd, 1941, indicating all punitive units and the list of punitive forces. At the same time, it is also important for us to establish the names of all our people who were tortured, died, burned alive and torn to pieces, so that their memory lives in our hearts. To do this, we study and constantly expand a huge array of archival documentation. Today, the classification of secrecy has been lifted from tens of thousands of criminal cases against Nazi criminals. The Russian side has almost completely disclosed to us archives that had not been accessible for decades. We receive millions of documents, usually in German. Germany began to transfer to us documents from the 1950-1960s related to the trials of war criminals. Moreover, there are other sources of information. Everything is analysed, summarised, and taken into account when analysing and planning investigative actions.”
