Kurapaty: Clinton’s Bench Defiled again

04.12.2006.

According to BelaPAN

Unknown vandals again defiled Clinton’s Bench set in Kurapaty wood at the North-Eastern outskirts of Minsk, place of mass fusillades performed by NKVD during Stalin’s rule.

On 15 January 1994, during his official visit to Belarus, Bill Clinton on behalf of the American people presented this memorial sign to the Belarusian people for commemoration.

In summer 2001 unknown vandals broke the marble bench. Then it was restored and reinstalled on 15 January 2002 by the US ambassador in Belarus Michael Kozak. After this the bench survived numerous assaults of unknown vandals. At the end of 2005 they threw it on the ground and stained with red paint. On 6 December 2005 on public demands Minsk district department of internal affairs brought a criminal case on the facts of vandalism in Kurapaty. In the end of February the police suspended the case without having found the vandals. One more assault took place in spring 2006, when unknown persons tore off and stole the iron crown from the memorial. This time they again tore the upper slab off, threw it on the ground and scattered around flowers and candles.