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Last update - 23:12 13/04/2008 Belarus workers move bones from Jewish cemetery to dump By The Associated Press Tags: Belarus, Jewish cemetery Workers rebuilding a sports stadium on the site of an 18th century Jewish cemetery in Belarus say they have no choice but to consign the bones to city dumps. "It's impossible to pack an entire cemetery into sacks," said worker Mikhail Gubets, adding that he stopped counting the skulls when the number went over 100. But critics say it's part of a pattern of callous indifference toward Belarus' Jewish heritage that was prevalent when the country was a Soviet republic and hasn't changed. Advertisement The stadium in Gomel, Belarus' second largest city and a center of Jewish life until World War II, is one of four that were built on top of Jewish cemeteries around the country. The Gomel cemetery was destroyed when the stadium was built in 1961, but the remains lay largely undisturbed until this spring when reconstruction began and a bulldozer turned up the first bones. A Jewish leader in Gomel, Vladimir Gershanok, says he asked the builders to put the bones into sacks for reburial at a cemetery that has a monument to Holocaust victims. "We know we can't stop the construction but we're trying to minimize the destruction," Gershanok said. But city authorities have ruled that the construction can go ahead because the bones are more than 50 years old. Igor Poluyan, the city official responsible for building sports facilities, says he doesn't understand the problem. "If something was scattered there, we'll collect it and take it away," he said. A history professor, Yevgeny Malikov, sees the cemetery as part of the city's heritage. He has filled three sacks with bones and pulled aside two of the unearthed marble gravestones. Other gravestones are piled near a trash bin or already carried away. Some of the bones have been carried off by stray dogs. "The history of the city is being thrown into the dump together with the human remains," Malikov said. Jews began settling in Gomel in the 16th century and by the end of the 19th century made up more than half of the population. In 1903, they made history by being the first to resist a pogrom, defending 26 synagogues and prayer houses. Most of Gomel's 40,000 Jews managed to flee before the Nazis arrived. The 4,000 who remained were shot in November 1941. Only a few thousand Jews now live in the city of 500,000. Oleg Korzhuyev, 38, who lives on Karl Marx Street at the edge of the site, said the workers aren't happy about digging up human bones, but if they find a gold tooth then it's a real celebration. Another city, Grodno, experienced a similar problem while reconstructing a stadium built on a Jewish cemetery. The excavated earth and bones were scattered into a ravine. Jewish graves also have been disturbed in neighboring Ukraine. "It's not just a Jewish issue, it's this general Soviet legacy," said Ukraine's chief rabbi, Yakov Blaikh. They didn't respect people while they were alive and they don't respect them when they are dead. This month, the Jewish community in the city of Vinnyntsa was able to stop construction of an apartment building on a pre-World War II Jewish cemetery. Ukrainian authorities apologized, saying they did not realize the construction would affect the cemetery. Belarus, on the other hand, has been one of the least responsive countries on all Jewish issues, according to Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israeli Simon Wiesenthal Center. "The government is simply erasing Jewish history from the face of this land," said Yakov Basin, vice president of the Belarusian Jewish Council. Before the war, about 1 million Jews lived in Belarus and 800,000 of them died in the Holocaust. Today they number 27,000 in the country of 10 million. Belarus' president, Alexander Lukashenko, has shown little respect for Jewish culture. In a radio broadcast in October that provoked a sharp protest from the Israeli government, he suggested that when Jews were numerous in another town, Bobruisk, they turned it into a pigsty. "You know how Jews treat the place where they live. Look at Israel; I was there," he said. Related articles: Residential construction project damages Jewish cemetery in Ukraine Four teens held in U.S. after 499 Jewish graves vandalized Pre-war Jewish cemetery found under Polish apartment building Bookmark to del.icio.us   JDate wins the 'Oscars' The leading Jewish dating Web site is an official honoree of the Webby Awards. 'Worse than Nazi camp' A Libyan envoy to the UN says the situation in Gaza is worse than in concentration camps.   1.   It made me cry 08:46  |  sweis Melbourne 13/04/08   2.   Cemetary Restoration 09:04  |  Mike 13/04/08   3.   Lukashenko is not wrong about statements on Israel 09:08  |  don 13/04/08   4.   Desecration of graves 09:28  |  Alan 13/04/08   5.   Wow! The Goyim are at it again... 09:37  |  AVI 13/04/08   6.   Non Jewish bones in Israel 09:38  |  Palestinian Brit 13/04/08   7.   Israel has desecreated hundreds of Palestinian Cemeteries 10:35  |  George Skandar 13/04/08   8.   Sad, but Israel does the same 10:37  |  Sam 13/04/08   9.   #3 Don 10:59  |  Ibn Musa 13/04/08   10.   #6 Palestinian Brit 11:08  |  * BEN JABO 13/04/08   11.   #8 Sam - It was an "Old" cemetery 11:34  |  * BEN JABO 13/04/08   12.   Instead of complaining 11:54  |  Stephen of New York 13/04/08   13.   If the dead do not object, then why should we? 12:04  |  Natallie Durson 13/04/08   14.   if it`s such problem 12:34  |  Samos 13/04/08   15.   Speechless 12:39  |  Catholic Israeli 13/04/08   16.   Jewish Bones are Not More Precious Than Those of Palestinians. 12:48  |  Mr. Know-It-All 13/04/08   17.   Lukashenko`s way 13:51  |  saul eitan 13/04/08   18.   As a Palestinian 14:20  |  Hussein 13/04/08   19.   N3 don because the country is you not the government 14:39  |  db 13/04/08   20.   Hussein you go home first 15:03  |  Settler 13/04/08   21.   Natallie Durson - Argument Flaws 15:04  |  SOI 13/04/08   22.   to: Mr. Know it All 15:11  |  SOI 13/04/08   23.   Bulldozers @ Work 15:39  |  Mary 13/04/08   24.   Jews came back to their homeland in Israel 15:44  |  Abu Yusuf 13/04/08   25.   This is a remibdder 16:15  |  sama 13/04/08   26.   Ben Jabo 17:30  |  Palestinian Brit 13/04/08   27.   DUMP LUKASHENKO! 17:35  |  VOICE))))))))) 13/04/08   28.   Ben Jabo - the hundred years rule? 17:35  |  Palestinian Brit 13/04/08   29.   Following the Minsk example 18:40  |  Michael 13/04/08   30.   Holocaust Victims Victimized 18:46  |  Margaret 13/04/08   31.   Surely the Weisenthal Center realizes... 19:17  |  Colin Wright 13/04/08   32.   Why a strong Israel is needed 19:41  |  Sam 13/04/08   33.   Posts #2, 13 etc. Confused about "desecration" & "deconsecration" 23:11  |  DJStahl 13/04/08   34.   BELARUS 23:50  |  L-A 13/04/08   35.   Disgusting 23:53  |  Sam 13/04/08   36.   THIS IS WHY ISRAEL EXISTS 00:37  |  zionist forever 14/04/08   37.   6 00:41  |  zionist forever 14/04/08   38.   13 00:52  |  zionist forever 14/04/08   39.   #28 Palestinian Brit 01:05  |  * BEN JABO 14/04/08   40.   Israel was built upon many thousands of graves 04:06  |  leven5 14/04/08   41.   #40 leven5 07:13  |  * BEN JABO 14/04/08   42.   PA homes destroyed and they are amongst the living 10:45  |  lydia 14/04/08   43.   israeli vs jewish grievance 12:29  |  matthew 14/04/08   44.   #33, DJStahl: May need more evidence you actually exist. 13:43  |  zmogus 14/04/08   45.   #28-2 Palestinian Brit 17:09  |  * BEN JABO 14/04/08   46.   One of the few things that sets us apart from... 17:25  |  Deborah 14/04/08   47.   Re #44 If Zmogus actually read the articles he linked... 00:23  |  DJStahl 15/04/08   48.   #46 Deborah 00:36  |  * BEN JABO 15/04/08   49.   UNSPEAKABLE DESECRATION! 05:52  |  PK 16/04/08   50.   #12-Stephen of NY-You`re Idea is Excellent Solution 05:56  |  PK 16/04/08   51.   #1-I`m sorry to hear that. My sympathies 06:10  |  PK 16/04/08   52.   Fellow Jews, THIS IS #1 ISSUE 11:14  |  Chaim 17/04/08   53.   Outrageous 06:40  |  Joseph Parker 21/04/08   54.   This is discusting 05:01  |  marilyn 24/04/08   55.   City official "dosent understand the problem" 03:12  |  The disapora 25/04/08

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