Shved: Prosecutor General’s Office to seek to bring every living Nazi criminal to justice
Belarus’ Prosecutor General Andrei Shved, during a meeting with judges and heads of structural divisions of the Supreme Court, informed about the progress of the investigation of the criminal case on the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War, and drew historical parallels – as reported by the Department for Interaction with Mass Media and Editorial Work of the Prosecutor General’s Office
Addressing the audience, Andrei Shved noted that prosecutors, investigators, experts, historians and archivists daily establish new facts about the crimes of the Nazi invaders and their accomplices. He explained why the topic of the heroic struggle of the Belarusian people during the war years received a new meaning, pointing out the increasing manifestations of extremism and Nazism that Belarus is opposing today.
Andrei Shved spoke about mass punitive operations against civilians in Belarus. He noted that the standard scenario adopted by the fascists was the destruction of villages together with their inhabitants as part of the so-called ‘pacification’ operation.
“We have reliably established that the Nazis and their accomplices carried out at least 180 punitive operations on the territory of the BSSR, with nationalist units from almost all of Western Europe taking part in them,” the Prosecutor General underlined.
During his speech, Andrei Shved focused on the unmotivated cruelty of the invaders and their devaluation of the value of human life.
He assured that the Prosecutor General’s Office will seek to bring every living Nazi criminal to justice, despite the fact that they enjoy the protection of foreign states and are hiding in their territories. “It is important for us to form an impartial picture of the genocide and – through decisions of national courts – show the true role of the punitive forces. It is necessary to reveal the role of each of them in particular operations. Monuments and busts are erected to these people in Western Ukraine, and streets are named in their honour. We have neither the moral nor the legal right not to show us, our children, grandchildren and all people the true face of such tricksters: indisputable, objective, based on evidence, indicating the time, place and other factual data about what they did and how,” stated Andrei Shved.
At the end of his speech, the Prosecutor General presented the Supreme Court staff with three books from the Genocide of the Belarusian People series.
Representatives of the judiciary thanked Andrei Shved for his informative speech with a deep historical analysis, as well as for valuable publications. They noted the enormous benefits for Belarusian society that the ongoing investigation, which has essentially become a national project, has brought and continues to bring, as well as his significant personal contribution to the protection of historical memory.
