“According to our information, 53% of the Belarusian companies are bankrupt, but they keep getting the loans. Only 6% of them manufacture goods, still competitive at the world market. The country ranks 142nd as to the level of investment attractiveness. Either we have real changes or our borders go shut one by one, a few more political figures disappear off the street, the screws are put on and the people’s dissatisfaction reaches its apex, so I don’t exclude the Romanian variant,” – said in an interview to the Russian newspaper “Izvestia” leader of the United Civil Party of Belarus Anatoly Lebedko. Read an interview with the man on our site.

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The Presidium of the 13th Supreme Soviet made a statement “On the Presidential Elections and Supreme Soviet Successor”. Asserting that the main result of the presidential campaign was mass falsification of the people’s will, and that the authorities go on with the repression of the opponents of the regime and of the independent mass media, taking into account that the international community has found the presidential elections not democratic and failing to meet international standards, and also the fact that a tangible threat to Belarusian independence still exists, the Supreme Soviet states that it is the last democratically elected parliament in Belarus. That is why the only lawful successor of the 13th Supreme Soviet could be a legislative body elected according to international norms and standards, as a result of people’s free choice and not after an electoral farce. In this relation the Supreme Soviet warns that signing and ratification of any treaties or agreements restricting or liquidating independence of Belarus by the structures and officials elected in a undemocratic way and with violation of the law, are of no legal value.

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Chair of the Working Group for Belarus of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will be on a visit to Minsk on November 25-27. FM reports that the purpose of the visit will be the “study and evaluation of the situation in Belarus following the presidential elections, examination of the current activities of the Belarusian National Assembly in light of the problem of Belarus’ representation in OSCE PA.” At the same time the delegation of the PACE Political Council started preparations for a journey to Minsk. Decision to send it to the country has been passed at the PACE PC meeting in Vilnius. The parliamentarians’ key visit’s goal is to seek ways for a possible dialogue. At this stage it’s too premature to tell whether or not the dialogue will be a success. A lot will depend on the issues that will be raised for discussion.

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The question of returning to Belarus a “special guest status” will be dealt with at the plenary of the PACE Political Committee in December 2001 in Paris. This was announced during their Nov.19-20 Vilnius session. Within the session’s framework there was held a meeting on the relations between PACE and the Republic of Belarus.

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Former Peruvian Minister of Economy Horkhe Kamet spoke of the loss of $40mln in a 1997 deal with Russia and Belarus from whom Peru purchased MiG-29 fighter jets. Kamet shared this data at the meeting of the parliamentary corruption-fighting commission. In 1997-1998, when Kamet was a Minister, the former Peruvian air force commander requested from the Ministry the means to buy six MiGs, $30mln worth each. Later they only bought from Moscow three crafts, $42mln each. Therefore, concludes the ex-Minister, at least $40mln disappeared.

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Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas, who paid a one-day visit to Sweden, was welcomed on Wednesday in the royal residence by the Swedish king Karl Gustav XVI. After his meeting with His Highness Brazauskas talked to the chair of the Swedish parliament Brigita Dal. Among other issues the sides discussed further EU policy in relation to Belarus. Both politicians came to a conclusion that both EU member-states and Belarus’ neighboring countries must pay greater attention to the democratization of Belarus.

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An official delegation of the Republic of Zimbabwe headed by Ms. Joyce Mujuru, Agriculture Ministe visits Belarus on November 16-25, 2001. The delegation gets acquainted with the export potential of Belarus. In particular, the delegation stopped at the Motorcycle and Bicycle Plant, Tractor Building Plant, Minsk Automobile plant, BelAZ, Refrigerator plant. A.Lukashenka by the meeting with the delegation forwarded an official invitation to Zimbabwe president R.Mugabe to visit Belarus at any time suiting him.

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In the Grodno eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church the local bishop Arthemy and some high-ranking clergymen demand urgent confession of apostasy from a priest of the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church from the Pogranichny village father Yan Spasouk. However, father Spasouk admits only one sin – he joined the national renaissance movement too late.

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Tomorrow the eighth movie festival “Listapad” of CIS and Baltic states will start in Minsk. The agenda includes 17 films, only one of them being Belarusian. There’ll also be one Armenian, Latvian, Georgian, Kyrgizian, Uzbekistani and Ukrainian films. The remainder 9 movies will be Russian. The event will be held under Alexander Lukashenko’s personal patronage, so the journalists’ access to the festival will be strictly limited. The festival will last until November 28.

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Independent Trade Union of Belarus is set to forward a complaint to the Ministry of Social Protection against actions of the administration of the Minsk industrial complex “Kamvol” Ltd. As the press-service of the Independent Trade Union of Belarus informs, the executive manager of this enterprise ordered to introduce a new system of working time summing. It means that they are to work on weekend and with one-time payment. The administration of the Independent Trade Union regards it a gross violation of the Regulations on Labor and filed a complaint to the City Labor inspection.

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Speaking at the November 21 meeting of the executive council chairman of the Gomel city hall Leonid Barabanov stressed that the number of individuals, willing to build new apartments, goes downhill. According to Barabanov, reports BelaPAN, due to the lack of the budget finances this year the city build 15-16 thousand square meters of living space less than the year before. The city mayor underscored that the shortage of means for the building purposes could be seen from the very beginning, so in order to fulfill the plan they needed to attract to cooperation individuals. In one of the city’s biggest districts – Zhelesnodorozhny – over 6 thousand are queuing for apartments. Some of them joined the line as far back as in late 70ies. According to the city hall officials, those who’ve been waiting that long usually have no resources in order to build apartments out of their own pocket.

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Time is running away since the so-called referendum, when the Belarusian people were offered a new version of the Constitution. In future its doubtful legal provisions served as a basis for the dismissal of the Parliament – the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Belarus. Simultaneously with that ceased to exist the first country’s Constitutional court. Not everyone knows that the main event in the Belarusian history occurred overnight November 21-22, 1996. Although there was no bloodshed in Minsk that night, its consequences can be equated to those of the “Bartholomew” night in Paris, when in August 1572 Catholics brutally massacred Huguenots. So what happened five years ago on a freezing November 22 day?

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Trial over Ignatovich, who among all is accused of Public Russian TV cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky’s abduction, more and more clearly shows that the Belarussian branch of RNE (Russian National Unity) enjoys support of influential circles of the Belarusian government. According to one of the attorneys, otherwise it would not be possible to found the organization, where one people are busy with propaganda, others train members and coordinate public actions, and the whole institution is ruled by a collective body of 7-10 so-called “comrades-in-arms”.

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Recently “a high level of political relations” between Belarus and Iran was achieved, and “active efforts are taken to make them more dynamic”, – Belarusian Prime Minister Hennadz Navitski said, addressing the head of the diplomatic mission of the Muslim Republic of Iran Mohammad Musa Khashemi Golpaegani. A number of measures on the highest level are planned for this aim: a visit of the Foreign Minister of Belarus to Iran, as well as visits of the President and the chairman of the Parliament of Iran to Belarus.

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On November 19 in Hrodna ZUBR activists, together with the members of the Youth of the United Civil Party and the Young Front held a picket in support of the independent newspaper Pahonia. Pahonia’s staff, the team of the Birzha Novostej newspaper, as well as some passers-by, concerned by the latest events, joined the young demonstrators.

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Belarusian Helsinki Committee claims the there appeared in the budget a provision, which contradicts the existing legislation, namely the appointment of the Russian Orthodox Church as the one, that receives state’s donations, which may provoke imbalance of the religious equality in the Republic of Belarus with all the ensuing consequences.

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Budget commission of the “house of representatives” accomplished its work on November 21 over the “deputies’” amendments into the country’s 2002 draft project. Overall, around 100 suggestions had been submitted to the commission. Most of them have as their primary goal the enlargement of the budget expenditures and mostly deal with the redistribution of means between the budget articles. At the same time, the deputies proposed to exclude the Belarusian Patriotic Youth Union from the state budget agenda. Expectedly, next year this organization will be financed out of Lukashenko’s reserve fund.

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Upon the ruling of the Pinsk town court the non-state newspaper “Provintsialka” needs to pay to the chairman of the Pinsk town hall Vassily Shust 1mln. BLR in moral reimbursement. This verdict has never been appealed against and thus entered into legal force. In his lawsuit Vassily Shust estimated the moral damage, inflicted on him, at 3mln. rubles. The basis for instituting proceedings was the publication in “Provintsialka” of an article by Aleksei Dikovitsky “Pinsk directors ordered to rig elections and promise 100 bucks wages”. The article saw print days before the presidential ballot. After the elections Vassily Shust turned to court, claiming that they defamed him.

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Observers from the public association “Mogilev human rights center” carried out the monitoring of the judiciary processes in Mogilev courts. At 456 court hearings they registered 585 violations in 301 (66%) sessions. The monitoring was held during two months of the current year. The volunteers had to set up a service of public monitoring of the judicial processes, examine the real condition of courts and help reduce the amount of violations by judges during the preparation and implementation of court hearings.

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