“He dedicated whole of his life to work. He didn’t see anyone neither at home nor at work and now they put him in prison. They charge him with such weird things. My husband is the most honest person in the world, but they made a public enemy out of him,” – said wife of the recently arrested “Atlant” director Leonid Kalugin Ludmila Kalugina in her interview to the “Belorusskaya Gazeta”.

---

The fact that Europe recognized as counter-productive the politics of isolating Belarus does not mean that the European community will no longer demand that we satisfy their requirements, said November 26 during the meeting with the chair of the “house of representatives” Vadim Popov head of the OSCE PA working group Uta Zapf.

---

Today the leaders of the Belarusian Association of Journalists hosted a lunch for the OSCE PA working group members Uta Zapf and Urban Allin. BAJ president Janna Litvina, vice-president Andrei Bastunets and other journalists characterized the situation around mass media as the one falling behind the freedom of speech standards. BAJ representatives cited numerous examples of how the authorities exerted pressure on independent media.

---

Certain staff changes occurred in the special working group for Belarus of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, BelaPAN was told November 26 by the member of the OSCE PA Secretariat Paul Legendre, who is in Minsk right now and accompanies the delegation people. According to him, among those who left the group are Adrian Severin – OSCE PA chair, Kimmo Killunen – deputy OSCE PA chair and Nino Burdjanidze, recently elected speaker of Georgian parliament. Thus, the group now contains of its head Uta Zapf (Germany), Urban Allin (Sweden) and Igor Ostash (Ukraine), who are now joined by Portuguese MP Antonio Raish and head of Latvian MPs in OSCE PA Helena Demakava.

---

“Soyuz-info” reports that Alexander Lukashenko’s scheduled meeting with the leading representatives of Russian media won’t take place. It was expected that during his coming to Moscow, the Belarusian president would engage in the programs “Hero of the Day”, “Vesti”, give an interview to the “Mayak” radio-station and hold a meeting with the editors of leading Russian newspapers. However, they got his program changed, so Alexander Lukashenko will only take part in the “Podrobnosti” program.

---

In accordance with the Cabinet’s ruling of December 1 the minimal size of the country’s salary would constitute 10 thousand Belarusian rubles. The rise will touch upon the staff of the organizations, financed through the budget or living on state subsidies. Those who belong to this category will receive 19,500 rubles a month, while the rest – 18-20 thousand.

---

The major problems, faced by the Mogilev regional company “Oblgas”, are debts and barter transactions. Since early this year the consumers owed to the company around 18mln rubles. Since autumn “Oblgas” has been getting 10% of payments for their services in cash. Most clients pay through barter operations.

---

International conference “Belarus after the elections: need for changes (economics, politics, safety, identity)” took place in the International Education Center of Minsk on November 23-25. The organizers of the forum were the analytical center “Strategy”, Freidrich Ebert’s foundation, German-Belarusian society for Eastern Europe. The international conference attracted politicians, academics, businessmen from Belarus, Germany, representatives of the international organizations and foreign diplomats, accredited in Minsk. The conference was also visited by the new head of the OSCE PA working group for Belarus Uta Zapf. Among the forum participants was also head of the OSCE Advisory-Monitoring Group Hans-Georg Wieck, who announced his soon resignation as chief of OSCE AMG on the second day of the event. The Supreme representative of the EU for foreign policy Haviere Solana sent his greetings to the delegates of the forum. Solana declared that Belarus would necessarily join the democratic Europe sooner or later.

---

Hans-Georg Wieck, the head of the OSCE Advisory and Monitoring Group in Belarus leaves Belarus before the end of this year. He said it for the first time at the reception in the International Educational Center in Minsk on November 24. Ambassador Wieck stated that the decision not to stay in Belarus for a second term is his personal choice and he was not influenced by A.Lukashenka’s numerous accusations of AMG OSCE and of him personally. According to extremely harsh statements on Belarusian authorities Wieck leaves Minsk totally frustrated. Ambassador Wieck voiced his very harsh position towards the presidential elections in Belarus, and said that the official result of the vote should be regarded carefully, as in reality the authorities created a system of manipulation. And today the head of the AMG OSCE mission cannot tell the actual results of the presidential vote in Belarus, as not a single independent monitor has been allowed to observe the vote count: “Due to advance in the manner of carrying out election under a firm state control, the process of the falsification ceased to be visible, with the exception of the distance between the tables for votes count, at which the monitors were placed in virtually all voting stations”.

---

Former Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Chigir deems that arrest and coming trial of the director general of the “Atlant” company Leonid Kalugin is an ordinary action, aimed at intimidating heads of large enterprises. “I believe, the result of the investigation will be pretty much the same as in the case of the director of the Belarus metallurgic plant Feoktistov, whom they released after having held for a few months in pre-trial confinement,” – said Chigir. Former official doesn’t rule out the possibility that such harsh measures were caused by Kalugin’s run for the presidency earlier this year.

---

The first visit of the PA OSCE special working group on Belarus’ delegation was to the Consultative Council of the Opposition Parties on November 25. There were the chairwoman Uta Zapf (Germany) and the member of the group Urban Alin (Sweden) among the delegates. According to Uta Zapf, the aim of the visit is examination of the actual situation in Belarus. “We are to give an evaluation of the situation after two and a half months after the vote”, -- the head of the delegation said. She also reminded that in February 2002 the session of the PA OSCE Permanent Council is to come to pass. This committee is to a large extend to determine status of delegations to the PA OSCE. You must remember that today the conception of an empty seat for Belarus prevails – according to the Permanent Council, the 13th Supreme Soviet power had expired, and the house of representatives was not elected democratically.

---

On November 24, 1996 Alexander Lukashenko held his referendum. Through it he forcefully changed the Constitution, disbanded the parliament, arbitrarily prolonged his presidential term and concentrated in his hands sweeping powers. At that time not everyone from the Cabinet supported the coup. Almost immediately three officials filed in resignations – Prime Minister Mikhail Chigir, Minister of Labor Alexander Sosnov and deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Sannikov. Following you may read an interview with all three, which we publish on the eve of that sad anniversary.

---

As said by Belarusian Helsinki Committee chair Tatsiana Protska, adoption of the new law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations” would unavoidably provoke religious enmity and intolerance. She said it in Minsk on November 23 in the Palace of Trade Unions during the round table organized by press-service of the Belarusian Union of the Christians of Evangelic Faith. “This totalitarian law does not envisage individual freedom of a person, as it grants the right to practice only for a group of twenty and more citizens. The law is contradictory”, Protska said.

---

“The arrival of Russian investments into Belarus will never alter the macro-economic situation here,” said November 25 the representative of the European Institute of the Russian Academy of sciences Arkady Moshes during the discussion at the international conference “Belarus after the election: need for changes”. The academic explained his point by claiming that the potential Russian capital will operate in Belarus under the conditions, imposed by the ruling regime. The same is true, he said, of the incoming German capital. If the economy here were normal, everything would be different too, said Moshes.

---

In order to fulfill the “Union TV” program Russia and Belarus will allot the credit, worth 100mln rubles, said on Friday the state secretary of the Russian-Belarus union Pavel Borodin in Voronezh. The official took part in the meeting, dedicated to the fulfillment of this interstate program, which attracts two Voronezh plants “Velt” and “Videophone”. Borodin also underscored that in order to successfully accomplish the project, ratified by the union’s executive committee on December 9, 1998 (a manufacture of 6-8mln domestic televisions a year), they need a credit line for 32mln dollars.

---