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US embassy expresses regret over vandal attack on Clinton Bench in Kurapaty

The US embassy in Minsk expresses regret that Clinton Bench, a granite monument in the Kurapaty Stalin-era massacre site just outside Minsk, has been damaged once again in a vandal attack, spokesman Alyaksey Salamakha told BelaPAN.

The vandals smashed the bench and took away a piece of it. The damage was discovered on Tuesday when some 20 people arrived at Kurapaty to commemorate victims of the Stalin terror.

"The embassy regrets that the memorial bench, a gift of the US people to the Belarusian people, was damaged once again. But what is more regretful is that this vandal attack offends the memory of thousands of Stalin terror victims in Kurapaty. The embassy is determined to continue paying tribute to those killed in Kurapaty," he said.

Mr. Salamakha noted that the embassy considered ways of repairing the memorial.

This was the 11th vandal attack on the monument that was donated by President Bill Clinton on behalf of the people of the United States during his visit to Belarus in 1994. The previous one occurred two months ago. The vandals then threw the bench's granite slab off the concrete supports and scattered flowers and candles placed on the monument.