MINSK, March 22. /TASS/. Belarus and the United Kingdom can improve their bilateral relationship based on common history and the tragedies both countries have experienced, British Ambassador to Belarus Jacqueline Perkins said on Wednesday after a commemoration at the Khatyn Memorial Complex, which marked the 80th anniversary of the massacre in the Belarusian village annihilated by Nazi invaders during World War II.
"I hope that our relationship can improve based on the common history and the common suffering that our countries endured at the time of the war," the ambassador said, adding that she was "glad with an opportunity to come here to show my support, my sympathy, my sadness at the events that happened in Belarus."
Khatyn has come to symbolize more than 10,000 Belarusian villages that were razed to the ground by Nazi invaders and their collaborators during the Great Patriotic War fought by the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany in 1941-1945. On March 22, 1943, death squads from the auxiliary police unit Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118 and the notoriously cruel SS Storm Brigade Dirlewanger herded all of the villagers into a barn, placed layers of straw around it, sprayed it with gasoline and set the building on fire. Those who were attempting to escape the inferno were mowed down. The Khatyn massacre left 149 villagers, including 75 children, dead. In 1966, it was decided to erect a memorial complex at the site of Khatyn to commemorate all of the Belarusian villages annihilated by Nazi death squads. The museum opened on July 5, 1969.
On Wednesday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergey Aleinik, Russian Ambassador Boris Gryzlov and numerous foreign delegations visited the memorial.