Viktor Gonchar

Viktar Hanchar (Belarusian: Віктар Ганчар, Russian: Виктор Гончар, Viktor Gonchar, born September 7, 1957) was a Belarusian politician who disappeared and was presumably killed in 1999. He was born in the village of Radzichava, Slutsk Raion.

Hanchar graduated from the Belarusian State University Law faculty in 1979 and worked as law research worker at different major Belarusian institutions.

Beginning in May 1991 Hanchar worked as first deputy chairman of Maladzyechna mayor. In May 1994 he ran for the Constitutional Court of Belarus, but did not receive the support of most MPs.

During the presidential elections in 1994, Hanchar was one of the most active in the election campaign headquarters of Alexander Lukashenko. In 1994, after the victory of Lukashenko in the presidential elections, Hanchar was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus, but soon resigned. Hanchar joined the opposition to the president and joined the United Civil Party, becoming a member of its Political Council (since 1995). In 1995-1996 he was general secretary of the CIS Economic Court.

In 1995 Hanchar was elected to the Supreme Soviet of Belarus. In 1996 he was appointed chairman of the Central Commission on Elections, and was actively opposed Lukashenka during the 1996 referendum. In 1996 he was dismissed by the president from his position. Hanchar never recognized the results of the 1996 referendum as legitimate. In 1998, Hanchar led an alternative Elections Committee during the presidential elections of 1999, organized by the opposition as a protest against constitutional reforms by Lukashenko.

Hanchar disappeared in Minsk on September 16, 1999, along with his friend, the businessman Anatol Krasouski. Pieces of broken glass and blood were found on the supposed site where Hanchar and Krasouski had been seen last. On December 5, 2002 they were officially declared as missing persons by the Court. In January 2003 the Chief Prosecutor of Minsk suspended the criminal investigation of the disappearance of Hanchar and Krasouski.

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