The cat and the rat

• Iryna Khalip. “Novaya Gazeta”
• 9.04.2009, 11:34

Iryna Khalip writes about strange coincidences that can be noticed in resignations of Belarusian law enforcement agencies.

On Monday, Alyaksandr Lukashenka dismissed odious interior minister Uladzimir Navumau. He is the last on the list of Belarusian governmental officials suspected by the West of kidnapping and killing opposition figures in 1999–2000. Secretary of the Security Council Viktar Sheiman, commander of unit 3214 of the internal troops Dzmitry Paulichenka, and Navumau’s predecessor Yury Sivakou have been dismissed earlier.

Navumau was resigned due to “problems with heath”. It is obviously the last thing that can be believed, because the former minister liked telling journalists about his healthy lifestyle, walking over a distance of not less than 100 kilometres.

Some experts say it is a late response of Lukashenka to the 4 July blast in Minsk. On that night, a bomb exploded and injured more than 50 people at a concert, attended by Lukashenka.

Navumau was responsible for investigation of the crime. Dozens of oppositionists have been thrown into prison over 9 months after the blast. Navumau failed to invent something else, and the investigation slowed down. Finally, he decided to satisfy the public with the results of his work and said last week: “It’s not a secret that the explosive device, we found in Minsk, is commonly referred to as cat...”

The Belarusians have already heard something like that: head of the KGB Stsyapan Sukharenka told the similar things ahead of the presidential elections 2006. Mr Sukharenka told on TV about a group of terrorists, sent to Belarus for a terroristic attack. He even explained what the terrorists were going to do: according to the Belarusian KGB, a well-trained group was to poison the Minsk waterworks system by putting a dead rat in the water pipeline. After the country had laughed at this terrifying story, Stsyapan Sukharenka resigned quickly.

The same fate has befallen Navumau. By the way, he said what “cat” exploded at the concert: according to Navumau, acetone peroxide is often called “cat”. Of course, one can try to find out what Navumau meant. But there’s no use in it – three days later all questions to him lost their topicality.