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Commemorative ceremony held at Kurapaty Stalin-era massacre site

About 20 people took part in a ceremony that was held at Kurapaty, a Stalin-era massacre site just outside Minsk, on Monday to commemorate Stalin terror victims.

Among the participants were opposition youths, former Gulag prisoners and activists of the Belarusian Voluntary Society for Historic and Cultural Heritage Protection.

They laid flowers at memorial signs, held a minute's silence, lit candles, and sang Belarusian national revival songs.

Seven police officers and plainclothesmen observed the ceremony.

Thousands are believed to have been executed by the NKVD at Kurapaty in the 1930s.

Monday's ceremony became the 25th since opposition and civil society activists began holding rallies at the site on the 29th day of every month more than two years ago.

"As long as we hold such events, there's hope that the problem of Stalin terror victims will come to public attention and will be reflected in the government's policy," said heritage activist Uladzimir Ramanowski.

Civil society activists erected a six-point cross at the site of Trastsyanets, a Nazi death camp near Minsk, on December 24 to honor the memory of prominent nationalist Vintsent (Vintsuk) Hadlewski who was executed by the Nazis on that date 66 years earlier. The majestic Cross of Sufferings was put up to commemorate thousands of citizens of Belarus and other countries who were murdered by the Communist and Nazi totalitarian regimes at the site in the years before and after the war, Mr. Ramanowski said. //BelaPAN