Between 1999 and 2000, four political opponents disappeared - Yury Zakharanka, former minister of the Interior, Viktar Hanchar, former vice-president of the Parliament, Anatol Krasowski, businessman and Zmitser Savadski, journalist. This led to the establishment in 2002 by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of a special subcommittee to clarify these cases as well as to the appointment of member of Parliament Christos Pourgourides as special rapporteur.
While the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Resolution 1371 of 28 April 2004 requests the executive authorities of Belarus to initiate criminal investigations with a view to clarifying the alleged involvement of a number of high ranking officials, including Mr Sivakov, the FIDH and Viasna recall that a fair and impartial investigation in those disappearances has not been carried out in Belarus.
In its April 2004 recommendation to the Council of Ministers of the Council of Europe on "Disappeared Persons in Belarus », the PACE urges the member states of the Council of Europe « to exert maximum political pressure on the current leadership of Belarus, including through sanctions, until a credible, independent investigation of the alleged involvement of high-ranking officials in the disappearances, or their cover-up, has been carried out ». It further invites « the judicial authorities of those countries whose domestic laws give their national courts international jurisdiction for cases of serious human rights abuses ... to begin proceedings against certain high-ranking Belarusian officials for the alleged murder, for political reasons, of one or more of the four disappeared persons ».
The FIDH and the Human Rights Center "Viasna" :
– Condemn the participation of Mr Sivakow as Head of Delegation to the Athens Olympic Games and call on the Belarusian authorities to initiate a truly independent and impartial investigation into all alleged cases of enforced disappearances in the country
– urge the Greek authorities to comply with their international obligations pursuant to the UN Convention Against Torture and in particular article 5.2 which requires all States Parties « to establish its jurisdiction [...] in cases where the alleged offender is present in any territory under its jurisdiction ».