Bush Meets With Wives Of Two Missing Belarusian Men
February 27, 2006
Protesters in Minsk last fall displayed pictures of people who have been killed or gone missing during President Lukashenka's rule (CTK)
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush's aim was "to underscore his personal support for the [wives'] efforts to seek justice for the disappeared, as well as for all those who seek to return freedom to Belarus.
Bush joined a meeting of his national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, with Iryna Krasouskaya and Svyatlana Zavadskaya.
Anatol Krasouski, a businessman who had criticized Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, vanished without trace in September 1999.
Dzmitry Zavadski, a cameraman in Minsk for Russian broadcaster ORT, disappeared on his way to pick up his colleague Pavel Sheremet from the Minsk airport on 7 July 2000.
McClellan said the United States believes that the Belarus authorities are to blame for the two men's disappearance.
(AFP, AP)