RESPONSE

BELARUSIAN PRIME MINISTER SERGEY LING HEADED THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL
COMMISSION INTO THE TRAGEDY’S CAUSES

Belarusian prime minister Sergey Ling has headed the intergovernmental commission on the investigation into the tragedy’s causes. Within 10 days S.Ling is to report the results of the investigation to the President. The commission was also joined by Head of the President’s Administration Michail Myasnikovitch, State Security Secretary Viktor Sheiman, General Prosecutor Oleg Bozelko and a number of ministers. At the same time, a special commission on helping the families of the victims has been created. Its activity is to be supervised by the General Prosecutor.
At present the government has been examining the issue of granting financial aid to the victims’ families. It will most likely be one-time payments and pensions, the amount of which has not been yet identified.
“I would like to ask you not to accuse of judge anybody…This is not only the personal sorrow of the families, it is the grief of the whole country,”  said President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko during the emergency session with the Republic’s top officials. I hope that what has happened will not be the reason of a split in the society or a subject of political speculations,”  stated  head of the state. He called on people “not to accuse any person or any specific department.” “The special commission supervised by the Prime Minister will investigate into the reasons and report them to me,” said A.Lukashenko.
The President  thanked the Health Ministry and the ambulance doctors that worked all night trying to save the injured.
“I ask the families of the dead to receive my sincere condolences ,“   said the President.
A.Lukashenko has tasked the high-ranking officials of the Republic to visit the hospitals where the victims were taken. Under the presidential decree the headquarters on informing the population have been set up. The headquarters’ main task is helping the citizens of the Republic to find the relatives and friends among those who died.
Deputy Chairman of the Minsk City Executive Committee Pyetr Semashko has informed  that as on 10 a.m. the bodies of 24 persons who died out of the overall 53 have been identified in the Minsk medical institutions (morgues).
As on 3 p.m. 29 bodies out of 53 remain unidentified. Among the unidentified persons there is a girl currently in the intensive care department . According to L. Sokolovskaya, 77 people are undergoing hospital treatments, 32 out of them are in the intensive care departments.
Mostly Minsk and Minsk district residents are among the dead. According to preliminary data there are no citizens of other CIS countries among them.
According to A.Semashko, at present all the possible efforts have been taken to identify the corpses. In these activities have been involved the prosecutor’s offices of Minsk and the Minsk region, the law-enforcement specialists, address services , the representatives of the higher and secondary educational institutions and relatives.  The national TV has been mentoining the phone numbers  on which people can find their relatives and friends: the telephone of the Interior Department  and the telephone number of the Minsk City Executive Committee .

SPECIAL STATE COMMISSION ON MINSK METRO TRAGEDY HAS DISCUSSED REPORT TO PRESIDENT OF BELARUS

Under the chairmanship of Belarusian Prime Minister Sergey Ling has taken place the session of the special commission on the Minsk metro tragedy set up on the order of Alexander Lukashenko.
The journalists were not permitted into the room were the session was held. A source in the Belarusian government has informed  that during the session the commission discussed its report on the reasons of the tragedy that it has to submit to Head of the state on June 10,1999.
In particular, the participants of the session proposed that the equipping of the metro entrances should be completed in order to make them safer in case of emergencies. Besides, the commission members have examined the issues concerning the organization of the mass festivities in Minsk and other big urban centers of Belarus.
The session participants have also discussed the variants of perpetuating. On the 40th day from the day of the tragedy, the city authorities are intending to install in the metro passage a monument to the tragedy’s victims. Yet, the relatives and friends of the latter are in favor of closing the passage and making a memorial out of it.
The commission members have also examined the situation with the aid to the victims’ families. The Ministry of Health officials say, more than 400 persons applied for help during the days right after the tragedy. Until now 120 people have been hospitalized, the state of 5 of them is characterized as critical. The commission has given specific orders on rendering a comprehensive assistance to the victims of the tragedy.

MINSK TRAGEDY OF MAY 30 IS A NONSENSICAL ACCIDENT

The tragedy that took place in the underground passage of the “Nyemiga” metro station on May 30 has been “a nonsensical tragedy”,  said President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko during his interview to the journalists in Minsk on Thursday, June 3,1999.
On May 30 as a result of the crush 53 persons  died and hundreds were injured. Under the decision of the President a special commission was set up in order to investigate into the reasons of the tragedy. It as headed by Sergey Ling. On June 10 he had to report the results of the investigation to the President, as it has been ordered.
A.Lukashenko  said, the commission had given him preliminary data.
“I would not like to make any final conclusions, yet. Maybe, specialists will clear up or explain something… But even now I see that what happened is a nonsensical accident, and we will make conclusions on the results of the investigation… It is important that such a thing should never happen again,”  said the President. According to him, in the near future the commission will make its final report to the President.
A.Lukashenko has stated that after the commission finishes the investigation, it will hold a press conference with the participation of  head of the state.

HEADS OF RUSSIA, UKRAINE AND LITHUANIA EXPRESS THEIR CONDOLENCES IN RELATION TO THE TRAGEDY IN MINSK UNDERGROUND

Ukrainian, Russian and Lithuanian Presidents Leonid Kuchma, Boris Yeltsin and Valdas Adamkus expressed their condolences to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in relation to the tragedy in Minsk underground.
In his telegram B. Yeltsin underlined that ‘he is shocked by the tragedy that happened in Minsk and caused deaths of dozens people’.
‘I share deep grief and express heartfelt sympathy to the brotherly Belarusian people, families and friends of those who died and were injured in the tragedy’, reads the message of the Russian President.
On behalf of all theUkrainian people L.Kuchma expressed deepest condolences to families and relatives of those who had died.
 ‘News about the horrible tragedy that happened in Minsk underground and cut short lives of dozens of  young Belarusians caused deep pain and sympathy in Ukraine,’ reads the telegram.
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus sent a telegram to A. Lukashenko with sincere condolences to the families of those who had died in the underground passage.
Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin sent a message to his Belarusian counterpart asking him to give his sincere condolences to the relatives of those who had died and to all affected by the tragedy.
Head of Russian foreign office Igor Ivanov sent his Belarusian counterpart Ural Latypov a telegram with his condolences in respect to the Minsk tragedy. The telegram says ‘I am deeply shocked by the news about the tragedy that happened in Minsk on May 30. I express my deepest sorrow and ask to convey my sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who died or were injured in the tragedy’.

THE MAYOR OF MINSK CONDEMNS THE CLAIMS OF THE OPPOSITION, WHICH ACCUSES THE MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES AND THE MILITIA OF THE DEATHS IN THE UNDERGROUND PASSAGE

Vladimir Ermoshin has condemned the claims of the Belarusian opposition, which puts the blame for the 53deaths in the squash of the underground passage on the municipal authorities and militia.
Earlier the opposition-minded organizations formed a public committee to investigate the circumstances of the tragedy of May 30. The committee members put the blame for what had happened on the authorities.
The public committee was headed by one of the NPF leaders Lyavon Borshchevsky. In his opinion, the Belarusian authorities had once again revealed their “amorality, inability and reluctance to protect people”. The opposition activist believes that Belarus  has Europe’s largest number of law enforcement structures per head of the population, “however when it is time to save people, there is neither equipment nor militiamen”.
The Belarusian opposition was indignant at receiving the news that the state investigation commission included persons who had been responsible for maintaining order and safety on May 30. “They will be analysing into their own activity”, stressed Stanislav Shushkevich, member of the public committee. The former speaker of the Belarusian parliament puts the blame for what happened on the leadership of the Belarusian militia. “They teach their subordinates how to beat people rather than save”, he noted. “Yermoshin, Sivakov and Sheiman must not be members of the commission, but viewed as witnesses at best and suspects at worst”.
V. Yermoshin in his turn stated that after the tragedy had happened, one must not struggle against the authorities but join efforts to help those affected.
Commenting on the claims of the opposition, which blames the authorities,  the mayor stated that “they have simply lost their marbles”.
Boris Tarletsky, head of the Municipal Interior Department, stated in the course of the press-conference that the militiamen operating at the site of the tragedy +had done their utmost to save the people’s lives, 2 of them dead, 5 hospitalized with heavy bodily injuries. The head of the municipal militia stated that the state investigation commission would have the list of persons who had been engaged in maintaining order on May 30. A total of 195 agents, including 8 servicemen of the interior department personnel, 31 – from the regional departments, 62 SWAT representatives, 14 road-policemen, 80 military men, was enough to maintain order on Masherov Avenue, B. Tarletsky reported.
Yet, the Ministry of Finance decided to supply hospitals with drugs for the victims of the tragedy that took place on May 30. The decision was taken on May 31 at the extraordinary meeting of the Ministry of Finance.

COMPENSATION PAYMENTS TO FAMILIES OF THOSE WHO DIED ON MAY 30 AS A RESULT OF THE TRAGEDY IN MINSK UNDERGROUND WILL EQUAL BLR 100 MILLION

Compensation payments to families of those who died on May 30 as a result of the tragedy in Minsk underground will equal BLR 100 million, and to those injured in the tragedy-BLR 30 million, as Belarusian Prime Minister S. Ling declared during his visit to The First Aid Hospital that received victims of the tragedy.
According to him, the interdepartmental commission investigating into the circumstances of the tragedy made the above proposal. The commission was set up under the President’s directive. At 3.00 p.m. there began a session of the above commission.
Meanwhile, relatives of those who died there gather at the underground passage at ‘Nyemiga’ station. The underground passage where 53 people died and more than 150 were injured in a crush jam was decorated with flowers .Relatives, eyewitnesses and people who do not know where their children are, gather in the passage. They exchange the information and the lists of those who was injured. The lists were obtained from the medical institutions that received victims of the tragedy.
 

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