Wednesday night independent newspaper “Pagonya” faced legal action under art.367/1 of the Criminal Code – slandering the president. The criminal action was instituted by deputy prosecutor of the region Vladimir Anisko. Police confiscated all computers, along with 10,750 copies of the paper’s special issue, which was in the stage of printing. The overall print run was supposed to be 88 thousand copies. The seized special issue was dedicated to the election campaign in Belarus.

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Presidential elections in Belarus will hit on Sunday. “Polit.Ru” got grab of an exclusive interview of the unique opposition candidate Vladimir Goncharik, which had never seen light in any independent newspaper owing to the “complex political climate in the country”, as its authors put it. Most likely, though, the interview hadn’t been published as far as the paper’s editorial board considered it a potential source of tensions between them and authorities. Anyway, no matter what these reasons might be, the fact itself explicitly manifests what kind of relations with press the Belarusian state apparatus builds.

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The activities of the OSCE Advisory-Monitoring Group’s head ambassador Hans-Georg Wieck “are utterly destructive and subvert confidence to OSCE”, said Belarusian Foreign Minister Mikhail Khvostov during his Sept. 6 Minsk press-conference. According to Khvostov, “Wieck’s activities must be terminated, for they are of clearly counterproductive character for the organization”. The Minister called on the OSCE leadership to think over the new candidate for the AMG head in Belarus.

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Chairman of the Belarusian state television Valery Skvortsov passed away overnight September 5-6. According to preliminary information, the man died from sudden heart attack. Medics diagnosed him as suffering from bad aneurysm of aorta. As you remember Valery Skvortsov was appointed head of the BT company less than two months ago – on July 17. The successor of Viktor Chikin, former communist secretary and head of the Belarusian Soviet Union of Writers, has worked until his appointment as BT chair in the main department for public and political information of the executive council of Russia and Belarus union.

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After the triumphant victory of Belarusian national soccer squad over Poland in World Cup Qualifier, the fans noticed a funny coincidence, which already transformed into a tendency. When Alexander Lukashenko and his henchmen attend soccer games, the Belarusians are usually defeated. But whenever Lukashenko isn’t seen at the stadium, Belarusian athletes celebrate victory. And what victory!

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September 8, 9 and 10 will be days-off for the country’s main alma mater, decided the leadership of the Belarusian State University. They explain their decision by the alleged need to render assistance in the fields to the students’ relatives and parents.

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Over 60% Russians believe that Russian media lack objectivity in highlighting the coarse of the presidential campaign in Belarus. Only 40,2% of Russians are aware that September 9 there’ll be presidential elections in Belarus. 42,7% of them have no idea about the forthcoming ballot in Belarus, whereas 17,1% couldn’t answer the question. Such are the results of the representational survey, conducted in late August in 19 Russian towns by the Center of sociological research of the Foundation for the national and international security.

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The index of consumer prices in Belarus in January-July 2001, according to the CIS Committee for statistics, rose in Azerbaijan by 1,7%, Armenia – 3,3%, Belarus – 73,5%, Georgia – 6,0%, Kazakhstan – 9,1%, Kyrgizia – 8,7%, Moldova – 13,0%, Russia – 13,2%, Tajikistan – 50,0%, Ukraine – 15,8%. No data on Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan is available.

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Co-proprietor of the concert agency MST (Germany) Skumet Subbotka, director of the German firm Falcone-Musik-Vezlag-Management-Production Falko Richter and reporter from the Hamburg weekly Die Woche Dirk Browns, who had worked for an extended period in Belarus, said at their briefing in Gomel that they intend to carry out a grandiose “Chernobyl” project – organize in the regional center, which suffered most from the fall-out, a concert of mega-stars of the Western music, including Madonna, Sting, U-2 and R.E.M.

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There exists no such Moscow center “Independent political expertise”. “Analytical message “White Stork Operation” on the ostensibly plotted overthrow of Lukashenko had been prepared by the Security Council and published in “Sovietskaya Belorussiya”. Russian newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” states in today’s issue that its reporter phoned “SB” and under an alias of a journalist from the pro-communist newspaper “Rabochaya Tribuna” learnt that no such institute exists in reality. The “SB” editorial board told him that the materials emanated directly from the Security Council.

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The self-planned visit of the Udmurtiya governor of Russia Mr.Volkov to Belarus won’t take place until after the ballot. According to the Moscow media, the Kremlin grew particularly displeased with Volkov’s initiative to go and support Lukashenko. So the governor, who depends on his Moscow chefs, was ordered to delay his trip.

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Editorial crew of the independent Baranovichi newspaper “Shug” addressed the public over the intensified harassment of the freedom of speech and increasingly strong hindrances to the free information flow. “We, the staff journalists of the “Shug” newspaper, departments of advertising, accounting and technical personnel want to work freely, without any pressure from anyone and objectively; within the framework of the law and universally recognized moral right to express one’s viewpoint, as concerns the ongoing situation developments,” – declared the journalists.

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The presidential election in Belarus this year is carried out with violations of civil rights – the guarantee of the inviolability of person, of civil freedoms, of the right to change the rule. The attitude of the state towards international investigations of human rights violations is not as it should be in a civilized state.

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Unique candidate from wide public coalition Vladimir Goncharik addressed the leaders of the electoral commissions with call not to hinder the independent observation and comply with the Constitution, Belarus Electoral Law and international legal norms of holding free and fair elections. “I’m ready to obey the will of the nation, no matter what it is. But only the choice of the NATION. It is in your power to spare the will of the voters from arbitrariness,” – said Vladimir Goncharik.

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ARTICLE 19, international campaign for the freedom of expression, is circulating today its report “The Mechanism of repressions: updated information on presidential elections”. Before the presidential race the report reveals the large-scale clampdown of the authorities on free media with the purpose to ensure Alexander Lukashenko’s reelection. “The government of Belarus demonstrates total disregard for the nation through censoring the press and suppressing the alternative views. The international community should join efforts in order to denounce the unwillingness of Belarus to keep to the basic norms of the freedom of expression and exert serious pressure on the Belarusian government in order to improve the situation,” – said Andrew Paddefatt, ARTICLE 19 executive director.

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September 5 KGB Center for information and public relations said it had successfully finished investigation into the criminal case on charges of espionage, brought against the Italian national Anjelo Antonio Piu. Mr.Piu, an owner and director of the foreign company “Anirsavida”, was arrested by the Belarusian security services on April 18 this year. For over four months KGB officers kept secret both the name of the suspect and his nationality. Perhaps they didn’t reveal this fact until due time in order to manifest to the voters the “malicious nature” of the West before election date.

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Yesterday Russian NTV channel televised an interview with the head of the confinement center#1 Oleg Alkaev. The former prison administrator once again confirmed the involvement of Belarusian authorities in abductions and assassinations of Viktor Gonchar, Anatoly Krasovsky, Yuri Zakharenko and Dmitry Zavadsky. Alkaev, one of the authors of the scandalous rapport, told the multi-million TV audience that the “execution” gun was handed out from the prison upon personal order of former Interior Minister Yuri Sivakov right before the vanishings of opposition people.

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On September 7 on the eve of Viktor Gonchar’s birthday the United Civil Party within the framework of “Want to know the truth” campaign will hold an action “Chain of those who care” right by the president’s residence (Karl Marx str., 38). The action will start at 12.00. Same day UCP activists will carry out another action in Gonchar’s native town Lida – at 5-6p.m.

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Statement with claim to review the issue of registration cancellation of candidate Lukashenko for violations of legislation was forwarded to the Central Electoral Committee by Valentina Polevikova – head of Vladimir Goncharik’s election crew. The statement reads that local authorities also joined in the illicit agitation methods, circulating hundreds thousand copies of propagandistic literature.

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Alexander Lukashenko continues to actively use the administrative resource in the election campaign. The chief department of the public-political information of the presidential Administration mailed via BELTA channels a special instruction to the editors of local newspapers. The officials tell the editors to reprint in their next issues another laudatory publication about Lukashenko. In particular, the regional newspapers will have to republish from the “Sovietskaya Belorussiya” an article “President’s program – nation’s program”.

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Deputy chairperson of the Brest regional commission on presidential elections and head of the Brest district council Konstantin Bobko, using his official authority, called on the local authorities to uphold at the ballot the acting president Alexander Lukashenko, telling them to act in capacity of his agitators. By his actions, reports “Independent Observation” initiative, Konstantin Bobko infringed on art.37/1 of the Electoral Law. As a state official he had absolutely no right to electioneer for or against any particular candidate.

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Should Alexander Lukashenko retain power, Belarus will turn into a transit colony of the West for the transportation of goods eastwards and the transportation colony of the East to deliver commodity westward, says former Belarusian ambassador in Latvia, Estonia and Finland, former nominee for the president Mikhail Marinich, whose article was published in Sept. 5 issue of the “Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta”.

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