JOURNALIST IRYNA MAKAVETSKAYA THREATENED WITH DEATH FOR “WRONG TRUTH”

13.01.2004.

Homel journalist Iryna Makavetskaya, known for her articles in the BDG newspaper, encountered an unusual, to put it mild, reaction to her materials. A stranger threatened her in phone conversations. Iryna Makavetskaya told radio Racyja:
-- He called me in the night of 11 January. He called 4 times. Basically he was saying that I write the wrong truth, that I’ve lost my flair, that some people didn’t like my last article in the BDG. The article was about Siarhei Sidorski and his appointment to the post of prime-minister. The stranger on the phone told me I should leave the country or quit my job of a journalist, otherwise I would be buried. According to Makavetskaya, her interlocutor suggested the underlying motives of her articles were political.

-- He said the referendum would take place anyway, that the people love the President, he would stay in office for the third term, and we would lose the election anyway. Then he mentioned the name of one Minsk journalist and said they’d managed to get him infected with a dangerous disease, and Makavetskaya should watch her actions if she wants to be alive.
I reported the incident to the police. I told the investigator all the details. This person was not talking of only one article. I also wrote about money. That article was about BST distillery. Officers of Homel KGB are somehow involved in the scandal. One can really track their interest in a certain way of the situation development. Yesterday I gave my testimony to the investigator; I believe the KGB officers are engaged in that.