64° SUNNY, Tanya Kazyra: From Petaluma back to Belarus
Last Modified: Monday, November 24, 2008 at 5:36 p.m.
A Belarusian teenager who made headlines this fall when she refused to leave her Petaluma host family has returned home, officials confirmed Monday.
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Tanya Kazyra, 16, boarded a plane Saturday at San Francisco International Airport after requesting she be allowed to return to live with her grandmother, said Cecelia Calhoun, of the Children of Chernobyl U.S. Alliance.
Kazyra refused on Aug. 5 to take a similar flight back to Belarus. She touched off an international dispute when she announced she would stay indefinitely with her host family, Debra and Manuel Zapata.
In interviews with The Press Democrat, she said she had become close to the Zapatas in nine consecutive summer visits. Most recently, she was working on an extension to a visa that expired next month.
Through the ordeal, the Belarusian government insisted she return. The government imposed sanctions on future children’s respite trips that organizers said would have disastrous effects.
Recently, she was persuaded to change her mind in part by talking to a Russian orthodox priest, Calhoun said.
The Zapata family did not immediately return calls.
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