Minsk, 15 August. The United States sees a "number of troubling signs" that next month’s presidential election in Belarus will not be free and fair, said Elizabeth Jones, US assistant secretary for European affairs, in an exclusive interview with BelaPAN.

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Belarusian Association of Journalists addressed with an open letter the prosecutor of the Grodno region Vassily Litvinov and KGB chief for the same region Nikolai Svorob, drawing their attention to the arbitrariness of their structures’ laying pressure on mass media outlets.

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The inventory making and confiscation of the equipment in the editorial office of independent newspaper “Kutsejna” were carried out in Orsha on August 14 by the group of law-enforcers, Gennady Zverkovich, the deputy head of the Committee for Financial investigations, Alexander Grischenko, a senior inspector of the same institution, and a district inspector Andrey Viliugin. Other men in civilian clothes refused to tell their names regardless of numerous requests by the newspaper’s editor Viktor Andreev, reporters and human rights defenders present. No documents sanctioning the break-in to the apartment were produced.

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Ludmila Karpenko and Irina Krasovskaya visited Brest on August 14. According to the wives of the deceased opposition leader Gennady Karpenko and missing businessman Anatoly Krasovsky, their trips around the country pursue one goal: to make the nation ponder what’s going on in their homeland. “We consider ourselves a force, which can have certain impact on people. We are glad that women are getting united and become more active,” – said Ludmila Karpenko.

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The draw on the partition of air-time between four candidates for the presidency Sergei Gaidukevich, Vladimir Goncharik, Syamon Domash and Alexander Lukashenko took place on August 15 at the Central Electoral Commission’s session. The procedure attracted heads of the candidates’ headquarters. According to the CEC ruling each candidate has the right for two free-of-charge 30-minute addresses on Belarusian radio and two – on state TV. None of the speeches will be live.

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Inflation in Belarus in July 2001 amounted to 1,6%, whereas from the beginning of the year – to 24,4%, Interfax was told in the Ministry of statistics. The level of inflation in July reached the lowest point since August 1997. The average monthly inflation rate in January-July corresponded to 3,17%. Meantime, the amount of money in circulation in July rose by 2,6% (12,4% in June), while the amount of cash reduced by 4,4% (in June rose by 27,9%). Consumer prices in June went 2,1% up.

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With a few weeks delay the Foreign Ministry of Belarus has finally forwarded invitations to the observers from the OSCE Bureau for democratic institutions and human rights, who will monitor the Sept.9 presidential ballot. As you know, a fortnight ago the government in breach of its international commitments denied entry visas to a group of ODIHR observers, who planned to commence their work on August 1. Most influential international structures condemned such a delay – OSCE, US State Dept., EU and PACE.

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Unprecedented in its cruelness harassment of the picketers, demanding to shed light on the whereabouts of the kidnapped renowned Belarusians, took place on August 14 in Mogilev. The activists of the ZUBR resistance movement had just unfurled portraits of Yuri Zakharenko, Anatoly Krasovsky, Viktor Gonchar and Dmitry Zavadsky, when they were attacked by the riot police militiamen, who brutally beat them. They even beat up an elderly resident of Mogilev, a handicapped person of the 2nd group of disability, who was standing near the place of occurrence. They hit his head against the asphalt and dragged his body along the pavement. They deliberately dislocated the arm of one picketer. They took the guy by his head and started beating it on the trunk of their car. Afterwards, they detained 17 activists, loaded all into the bus and delivered for further clarification to the town police stations. A few hours later ZUBRs were let go.

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The hunger-strike of four Bobruisk women, demanding reinstatement at their jobs and provision with living space, has been lasting for three days now. Negotiations with the Committee of state control of Mogilev region bore no worthwhile result. The women were offered to wait until September, when the issue may possibly be dealt with. However, the ladies do not give up their intentions and sit at the square opposite the city hall, calling on the authorities to fulfill their claims. Despite police threats they intend to continue the strike until their demands are satisfied.

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In course of his arrest in the Zhodino prison, Supreme Soviet deputy, journalist and human rights defender Valery Schukin was thrice reprimanded for alleged breach of internal norms of conduct – for insubordination to police orders, refusal to shave clean his long beard and writing of texts overnight. Yesterday, says Radio Svaboda, there occurred an incident, which angered the prison authorities – police guards found half a razor blade in Schukin’s cell. For all these violations a 60-year old Valery Schukin has perfect chances of getting moved to the penalty isolator.

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This relates to the individuals, whom the Belarusian regime invites into our country in capacity of “international observers” to watch over the presidential elections. Following yester year’s scenario of elections into the “house of representatives” the authorities named “observers” according to their will a few dozen foreigners, although it is only the OSCE structures that are entitled to do the real monitoring work – ODIHR and some other. Our acquaintances in the Central Electoral Commission of Belarus told us the names of those, who would be seeking Lukashenko’s legitimization the coming fall. These people will be coming to Belarus and try to reassure the world that the regime doesn’t violate human rights or freedom of expression etc. The list is being updated – see our daily news.

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Following a four-hour long search the operatives of the Gomel KGB department confiscated from the chair of the regional public association “Civil initiatives” Viktor Kornienko 6 computers, floppy discs, 3 printers, X-machine, a scanner and a duplicator.

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On the day of presidential elections the parallel count of votes will be carried out at approximately 500 polling stations, said members of the “Independent observation” at the August 14 press-conference in Minsk. Head of the public association “Vesna” Ales Belyatsky reported that the number of independent observers, supposed to engage in the calculation of votes, is constantly going uphill and is now reaching 15 thousand. They intend to ensure fairness and transparency of the elections at six and a half thousand polling stations. “Our observers on the territory of Belarus must cover 85-90% of the constituencies. We don’t set any revolutionary goals before us, but rather work within the framework of the law,” – said Belyatsky.

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On August 14 there were established new wholesale prices on oil products, supplied by the Belneftehim monopolist, and retail prices on oil products, sold via the concern’s gasoline stations’ network. Prices on fundamental petroleum goods rose by 2,35%. In general, since the time of the last price-increase (July 24, 2001), the prices went 5% uphill.

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Russia intends to earmark for Belarus in 2002 a credit worth 40-70 million dollars to sustain the rate of the national currency, said the Vice-Premier of Russian Federation, the Minister of Finance Aleksei Kudrin on Tuesday to the journalists. He underscored that the allocation of the loan is envisaged in the draft budget project for the year 2002, drawn by the Ministry of Finance in the section dealing with crediting CIS states.

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The major objective of the Belarusian army reformation for the next 10 years is the creation of the territorial defense troops. Head of the operative department of the General Staff of Belarusian army Petr Tikhonovsky said that this will ensure the safety of the country’s regions.

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