Deputy chief of the US OSCE mission in Vienna Josiah B. Rosenblatt delivered a statement on Belarus to the OSCE Permanent Council June 18. Following comes its full text:

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Employees of the department for financial crimes, who are currently searching the “NS” office, motivate their actions by the fact that a few days ago, during the raid in one of the Minsk firms, police allegedly seized flyers in support of Mikhail Chigir, dating back to alternative presidential elections, initiated in 1999 by Viktor Gonchar. The firm’s director said that the leaflets were published in 1999 in the press, belonging to the “NS” editor-in-chief Pavel Zhuk.

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“Nasha Svaboda” staffers report that during the police raid at their office, the law-enforcers from financial investigation department confiscated materials of plainly anti-Lukashenko content: caricatures, critical articles about the government, samples of stickers and flyers of political parties and movements, which are stored in the newspaper’s archives. The searchers are particularly interested about the location of the periodical’s server. “NS” employees claim that they are ordered to get away from PCs and threatened to confiscate them.
At around 2p.m. the law-enforcers broke without warning into the newspaper’s premises. They started looking into the journalists’ personal belongings, accounting papers, drawers and computer database. The next issue, being prepared tonight, may or may not see light.

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Mogilev ZUBRs held June 17 their action “Lukashenko’s election campaign underway: time to choose” at the Bykhov marketplace. The theatrical performance involved 9 troupers, impersonating a pensioner, worker, student, villager, teacher, entrepreneur, drunkard, president and ZUBR activist.

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Literally overnight the walls of the “Sozh” residential area and Komsomolsky prospect were covered by inscriptions “ZUBR”, “Time to choose” and “Sashka is a fool!”

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Artificial price advantages, previously enjoyed by the foreign legal entities, doing business on the territory of Belarus, are cancelled by Lukashenko’s latest decree.

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Two months ago there had been opened an interior air corridor Grodno-Minsk-Gomel. It takes AN-24 jumbo 50 minutes to reach the capital and proceed to the Sozh river. One ticket to Minsk used to cost 9,500 rubles ($7). The project only operated for six weeks and was discarded from lack of profitability.

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Earlier today the Central Electoral Committee registered initiative groups of five nominees for the presidency. Three contenders failed to move over to the next stage. Pensioner Vladimir Laptsevich appeared to have included into his team’s list the folks, who had no idea they were there. “Lipen ltd” director Aleksei Lyashko was born in the Republic of Komi and is no Belarus native. Businessman Alexander Baturo submitted his documents too late.

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Last week private press “Plutos-Market” in breach of the contract had to cease publishing the newspaper “Provintsialka”, distributed in Pinsk with a print run of 5000 copies. Else the State Committee for Press chair Mikhail Podgainy threatened to deprive the company’s director general Igor Vishnevsky of his license for publishing activities.

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Former Belarus procuracy detectives – Oleg Sluchek and Dmitry Petrushkevich – may shortly face legal action for divulging the investigation’s secrets. As you remember, these two investigators informed the world about the existence of a death squadron, operating in Belarus. The country’s procuracy is currently studying all their newspaper interviews and photo copies of documents from the files of the missing ORT cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky’s case, disseminated via the Internet, along with video-records of an interview, an excerpt of which was televised by NTV.

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Former procuracy investigators Dmitry Petrushkevich and Oleg Sluchek received political refuge in the United States, BelaPAN quoted Oleg Volchek (president of the “Legal Aid to the Population”) as saying. The man pledged that the two arrived there a few days ago and on June 21 one of the leading American channels broadcast their interview.

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The United States notes the fact that Belarus has set September 9, 2001 as a firm date for presidential elections. We view these elections as an important opportunity for Belarus to reverse the process of self-imposed isolation and to begin to restore its proper place in the Euro-Atlantic community. The United States has consistently supported democratic development in Belarus, and is prepared to work with Belarusians of all political groupings, both bilaterally and through the OSCE, to promote free and fair elections. Key to an open electoral campaign and process are the criteria set forth by the OSCE last year and Belarus` Copenhagen Document commitments. These criteria include an end to the climate of fear, equal access to the state media for all candidates, respect for freedom of assembly, as well as transparency and fairness in registration of candidates and functioning of electoral commissions.

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Unprecedented pressure in terms of insolence and arbitrariness was exerted on ZUBR youth activists in Minsk. On June 18 police major Mistukevich and three unidentified civilians broke into the students’ dorm of the technological university and launched an unsanctioned search in the room, where ZUBR youth activists are staying.

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One of such protests was held in a tiny town of Bykhov. ZUBRs commenced their activity here on June 12, passing out the special issues of “Nasha Svaboda”. Same night in one of the town’s residential areas they distributed stickers. On June 13-14 the action covered the whole town. They also gave out the papers in Zhlobin-Mogilev diesel train. The rallies attracted not only local youths – students and schoolchildren – but also their parents.

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Recently the Belarusian Helsinki Committee received numerous complaints over the flagrant violations of Constitution, Electoral Code and the Law on local authorities. The senders point at lack of transparency and democracy in the formation of territorial election commissions and facts of pressuring individuals into withdrawing their signatures from commissions’ lists.

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Plea with a request to register the initiative group of a Minsk businessman Alexander Baturo was received yesterday via mail by the CEC folks. The application will be dealt with at the CEC session today. Its chairwoman Lydia Ermoshina, however, shared the members’ opinion – to deny registration. Such their position is explained by the legislative rules, which require that concomitant documents be posted to CEC at least 85 days prior to the date of ballot.

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A two-day visit to Lebanon by the Belarusian Prime Minister Vladimir Ermoshin will be largely dedicated to the development of trade and economic bilateral relations.

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A day prior to meeting Alexander Lukashenko Russian president Vladimir Putin met in Moscow deputy director of the International Monetary Fund Stanley Fisher, with whom he discussed Russia’s financial relations with CIS states, Belarus included, reports a reliable source from the Kremlin.

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