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'{{Short description|Belarusian politician and pro-democracy activist (1957-1999)}}{{Infobox person | name = Viktar Hanchar | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1957|9|7}} | birth_place = [[Byelorussian SSR]], [[Soviet Union]] | disappeared_date = {{Disappeared date and age|1999|9|16|1957|9|7}} | disappeared_place = [[Minsk, Belarus]] | disappeared_status = {{Missing for|1999|9|16}} | education = | height = | relatives = }} '''Viktar Hanchar''', or '''Viktar Hančar''' ({{lang-be|Віктар Ганчар}}, {{lang-ru|Виктор Гончар}}, '''Viktor Gonchar''', September 7, 1957 – September 16, 1999?) was a [[Belarusians|Belarusian]] politician who [[Forced disappearance|disappeared]] and was presumably murdered in 1999. He was born in the village of Radzichava, Slutsk Raion. Hanchar graduated from the Law Department of the [[Belarusian State University]] in 1979 and worked as law research worker at different major Belarusian institutions. ==Political career== Beginning in May 1991, Hanchar worked as first deputy chairman of [[Maladzyechna]] mayor. In May 1994, he ran for the Constitutional Court of Belarus, but did not receive the support of most MPs. During the presidential elections in 1994, Hanchar was one of the most active in the election campaign headquarters of [[Alexander Lukashenko]]. In 1994, after the victory of Lukashenko in the presidential elections, Hanchar was appointed Deputy [[Prime Minister]] of Belarus, but soon resigned. Hanchar joined the opposition to the president and joined the [[United Civic Party]], becoming a member of its Political Council (since 1995). In 1995-1996 he was general secretary of the [[Commonwealth of Independent States|CIS]] Economic Court. In 1995, Hanchar was elected to the [[parliament of Belarus|Supreme Soviet of Belarus]]. In 1996 he was appointed chairman of the Central Election Committee (CEC), and actively opposed to Lukashenko during the [[1996 Belarusian referendum|1996 referendum]]. In 1996, he was dismissed by the president from his position. Hanchar never recognized the results of the 1996 referendum as legitimate. In 1998, Hanchar led an alternative Election Committee during the 1999 presidential election, organized by the opposition as a protest against constitutional reforms by Lukashenko. == Disappearance == Hanchar [[Disappearances of people in Belarus|disappeared]] in [[Minsk]] on September 16, 1999, along with his friend, the businessman [[Anatol Krasouski]]. Pieces of broken glass and blood were found on the supposed site where Hanchar and Krasouski had been last seen. On December 5, 2002, they were officially declared missing by the court. In January 2003, the Chief Prosecutor of Minsk suspended the criminal investigation into the disappearance of Hanchar and Krasouski. According to the former head of jail number 1 [[Oleg Alkaev]] (Aleh Alkaeu), Viktar Hanchar was abducted and executed on the order of people close to President Lukashenko.<ref>[http://charter97.org/rus/news/2003/01/21/nv Олег Алкаев: существует видеозапись убийств Захаренко, Гончара и Красовского] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091213014141/http://charter97.org/rus/news/2003/01/21/nv |date=December 13, 2009 }}</ref> Investigation of the disappearance of Hanchar and Krasouski is one of the main issues of the Belarusian opposition, and is also mentioned in the documents of international organizations. In September 2004, the [[European Union]] and the [[United States]] issued travel bans for five Belarusian officials suspected in being involved in the kidnapping of Hanchar: Interior Affairs Minister [[Vladimir V. Naumov|Vladimir Naumov]], Prosecutor General [[Viktor Sheiman]], Minister for Sports and Tourism [[Yuri Sivakov]], and Colonel [[Dmitri Pavlichenko|Dmitry Pavlichenko]] from the Belarus Interior Ministry.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/28-09-2004/7115-nongrata-0/ |title=USA, EU declare Belarus officials personas non grata|publisher=[[Pravda]] |date=28 September 2008 |access-date=3 March 2015}}</ref> For several years the Belarusian opposition has organized the [[Day of Solidarity with Belarus]] on the 16th of every month to commemorate the disappearance of Hanchar, Krasouski, [[Jury Zacharanka]], [[Dzmitry Zavadski]], and the mysterious death of [[Hienadz Karpienka]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://charter97.org/ru/news/2008/9/16/10161/|title=День солидарности: 9 лет назад исчезли Виктор Гончар и Анатолий Красовский|website=charter97.org|access-date=2018-01-03}}</ref> In December 2019, [[Deutsche Welle]] published a documentary film in which Yury Harauski, a former member of a special unit of the Belarusian Ministry of Interior, confirmed that it was his unit that had arrested, taken away and murdered Yury Zakharanka, and that they later did the same with Viktar Hanchar and Anatol Krasouski.<ref>{{cite web |title=Belarus: How death squads targeted opposition politicians |url=https://www.dw.com/en/belarus-how-death-squads-targeted-opposition-politicians/a-51685204 |website=Deutche Welle |access-date=25 November 2020 |date=16 December 2019}}</ref> ==See also== * [[List of people who disappeared mysteriously: post-1970|List of people who disappeared]] ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== *[http://charter97.org/en/news/2009/9/16/22003/ Kidnapping of Hanchar and Krasouski: authorities have something to hide] *[http://www.ciwr.org/gonchar_en.html Viktar Hanchar on ciwr.org] {{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | title=Head of Central Electoral Commission | before=? | after=[[Lidia Yermoshina]] | years=1996}} {{succession box | title=Deputy Prime Minister | before=? | after=? | years=1994}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanchar, Viktar}} [[Category:1957 births]] [[Category:1990s missing person cases]] [[Category:Belarusian jurists]] [[Category:Belarusian State University alumni]] [[Category:Members of the Supreme Council of Belarus]] [[Category:Missing people]] [[Category:Missing person cases in Belarus]] [[Category:People from Slutsk District]] [[Category:United Civic Party of Belarus politicians]]'