Violations of legislation regulating the proper functioning of burial sites have been identified

An important area of activity for local executive committees is ensuring the proper functioning of public, religious burial sites, military graves, and war victim graves, identifying old and unknown graves to preserve the memory of individuals and events in national history, and enriching the historical and cultural heritage. An inspection conducted by the prosecutor's office of the Vitebsk region revealed violations of legislation regulating these issues in practically all regions of the oblast.

Thus, everywhere, proper work on the inventory of burial sites has not been organized to identify unauthorized burials and burial plots with destroyed tomb structures, the degree of destruction of which precludes their repair and restoration (Braslavsky, Gluboksky, Ushachsky, Sharkovshchinsky, Shumilinsky, Miorsky, Dubrovensky, Chashniksky districts, etc.).

In accordance with the legislation, all burial plots are subject to state registration, which in practice is often not observed (Dubrovensky, Sharkovshchinsky, Chashniksky, and other districts). At the same time, shortcomings in the state registration of burial sites negatively affect the formation of the state centralized automated information system "Population Register," which is based on a database of personal data of individuals, including information about burial places.

The condition of burial sites is far from satisfactory. In particular, many cemeteries are not equipped with temporary waste storage areas, and their timely removal is not ensured, resulting in the formation of garbage dumps, remnants of woody and shrubby vegetation, and used ritual accessories directly at the burial site or beyond its fence, including near rural residential areas. Measures are not always taken in a timely manner to remove trees in a dilapidated condition, repair fences, and eliminate other deficiencies in the landscaping of burial sites (Beshenkovichsky, Gorodoksky, Shumilinsky, Vitebsky, Ushachsky,Toločinsk, Lepel, Dokšicy and other regions).

According to the provisions of the legislation, land plots on which old graves are located may only be used for green spaces; the construction of capital buildings (except for memorial and religious ones) is not permitted in this territory. Meanwhile, proper measures are not always taken in places to determine the boundaries of territories occupied by old graves, and to resolve their legal status in order to prevent the unlawful use of such territories. As a result, there are old unrecorded burials in a neglected state, overgrown with shrubs and grass, with damaged tombstones, which generally has a negative impact on the appearance of settlements (Hlybokaje, Pastavy, Šarkauščyna, Braslaŭ and some other districts).

In not all cases have the local Councils of Deputies made decisions on closing burial sites, despite the fact that burials have not actually been carried out there for a long time (Miory, Rasony, and other districts). For most existing burial sites, no title documents for land plots have been issued.

Executive committees have not properly organized the work to identify burial sites that can be granted the status of a historical and memorial burial site. These are burial sites where famous and prominent individuals are buried, persons who have rendered services to the state and society, historical and cultural values are located, unique religious objects and material objects with distinctive artistic properties for granting them the status of historical and cultural value, and mass burial sites of citizens. Such objects have been identified in Vitebsk, Polotsk, Hlybokaje, Miory districts and some other regions, in connection with which local executive committees have been asked to consider the issue of initiating the assignment of the status of a historical and memorial burial site to these objects before the regional executive committee.

In order to eliminate the identified violations and establish order in this area, prosecutors have prepared more than 15 prosecutorial acts

supervision, including by the regional prosecutor's office, a corresponding representation was submitted to the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor of the Region Elena Kozlova.