Memorial crosses sawed off in Barysau

Two memorial crosses in Batarei, the site of mass executions during Stalin's rule near the city of Barysau, Minsk region, were sawed off by government workers. Nasha Niva newspaper reports that the local authorities are yet to issue an official explanation.

One of the crosses, errected to commemorate the victims of the famine uprising in 1930s, stood in Batarei for over one year. The second cross, installed on May 23, 2008 to remember Yurka Monich, the leader of the anti-Bolshevik resistance in Belarus, was sawed into several pieces.