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KGB officers search homes of independent journalists in Homyel

KGB officers on March 27 searched the homes of two independent journalists in Homyel, Anatol Hatowchyts and Dzmitry Karpenka.

As Mr. Hatowchyts told BelaPAN, the raid on his apartment resuted in the seizure of a total of 34 items, including a computer, a laptop, a camera, CDs, video and audio cassettes, and books about Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The search was conducted by four KGB officers under a warrant signed by Alyaksey Stuk, deputy prosecutor of the city of Minsk, in connection with criminal proceedings against Andrey Abozaw, Pavel Marozaw and Aleh Minich who were accused of defaming the Belarusian leader.
According to Mr. Hatowchyts, the officers explained that they were looking for any things that might have relation to the case. They said that they did not know what such things could be, and that they were just executing an order.

The apartment of Mr. Karpenka was searched by five KGB officers under the same warrant. “I don’t know what they wanted to find,” he told BelaPAN. “But I’m luckier than some of my colleagues, as I have neither a computer nor a laptop nor even a typing machine. For some reason they took away Michael Jackson CDs and DVDs of feature films by Russian director Kira Muratova. In addition, they tracked dirt into the apartment and I asked them to compensate me for the need to clean up after them, but they refused.”

Messrs. Abozaw, Marozaw and Minich fled the country in early 2007 after being subjected to criminal prosecution over animated cartoons lampooning Mr. Lukashenka, which were posted on the Web site of their organization, Trety Put (The Third Path), as far back as 2005.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists views Thursday’s massive KGB raids on the homes and offices of independent journalists throughout the country as retaliation for frank coverage of the brutal dispersal of a peaceful demonstration in Minsk two days before.