Charter'97 :: News :: 06/12/2001

A.Lukashenka warned Prosecutor General Viktar Sheiman and Chairman of the State Control Committee Anatol Tozik about personal responsibility for establishing order in the bank sphere of the country: “There will be no forgiveness for those who become fat on people’s money and are of no help for the people and the state”, -- he said.

Former head of the Belarusian national railway Viktor Rakhmanko learnt on December 5 the official charges brought against him. BELTA reports from the press-center of the country’s procuracy that the man is indicted for the abuse of authority and large-scale embezzlement. Criminal action against the high official was initiated by the prosecutor general of Belarus on November 21, 2001. The following day Lukashenko dismissed Rakhmanko from the post he occupied. Today he found a replacement for him – Vassily Gapeev has been appointed acting head of the Belarusian railway. Previously he used to work as director of the Minsk railroad.

A.Lukashenka criticized the head of Belarusbank N.Jarmachuk for the “miserable liquidity of the bank, especially in roubles”. “Money are wasted for credits impossible to return in currency, and at the same time they give loans to their employees, bigger than in private banks”, -- Lukashenka said. He compared the situation in Belarusbank with situation in the Belarusian Railway. Recently the Belarusian Railway head was charged with power abuse.

Mogilev court finished hearings of a lawsuit, opened against Vladimir Goncharik’s initiative group members – Viktor Yasukevich and Tamara Levskaya, who are accused of insubordination to police commands. The jury punished both of them with a five minimal wage fine. Therefore, the court fully satisfied the demands of the plaintiffs.

“Belarusfilm” scenarist Ruslan Zgolich was arrested and placed into the pre-trial confinement in Minsk. The man is charged with stealing the videotape with the unfinished version of the “Guests” movie, which he is a director of. The company’s leadership contacted police over the disappearance of the tape. BelaPAN reports that Zgolich was detained at 3.40p.m. December 5 near the studio and taken to the Pervomaisky district police station. There they held him in custody for a few hours. The law-enforcers demanded that he return them the tape and at approximately 9p.m. they began filling out detention documents. Afterwards, Zgolich was delivered to the pre-trial ward.

Belarusian authorities are set to introduce the Unique book of records for legal entities and entrepreneurs. According to the government’s ruling, the Justice Ministry will be in charge of the initiative, said at today’s press-conference head of the Ministry Viktor Golovanov. The problem of the Unique records book has been subject of hot disputes in Belarus for a long time. The opponents of this measure feared the potential repeated re-registration of companies. As you remember, recently the country has seen numerous such procedures. And each time, being enforced by Lukashenko, it had a destructive impact on the national economy development, which was recognized today even by Minister Golovanov: “I believe, the state had enough of re-registrations. They negatively affect the companies. During the last such campaign one third of businesses failed to pass the procedure.”

Narofominsk city court called a break in the process on general Lev Rokhlin’s assassination, which has been caused by his wife Tamara Rokhlina’s (key suspect of murder) heart attack. Meantime, the chairman of the All-Russian officers’ assembly Vladislav Achalov declared that he would definitely come to court as a witness, as soon as he is mailed a subpoena. As you remember, Rokhlina is planning to invite Lukashenko to give his testimony in court too.

When I prepared this article for publication, I asked one of the deputy chairman of the Minsk regional Court, if the judges are answerable for accusative verdict to an innocent person. “Yes, they are. They punished by scruples”.
On March 29, 1998 in Slutsk men drank. They drank heavily, as it is customary here. During the booze-up people came and go, different places were changed. When none of the main characters, V.Maroz, went out to a porch, he saw his acquaintance A. Nikifarau lying by a neighboring house, where bust took place several hours earlier.

Fulfillment of court rulings remains the most vulnerable spot in the whole judiciary system of Belarus, said at the recent press-conference head of the Justice Ministry Viktor Golovanov. Such situation, he stressed, is explained by the economic instability. The activities of the court officers are for the most part hindered by the inability of both legal and physical entities to pay on the basis of court verdicts.

In January-October 2001 the trade import of the Republic of Belarus fell by 7,6% and constituted 6,5bln dollars, “EXPRESS” agency was told in the country’s Foreign Ministry. Imports from CIS states dropped by 6%. In total there have been imported from these countries commodity worth 4,6bln dollars, which is 71,2% of the overall volume of Belarusian import. Russia’s share reduced by 4,5%, reaching 4,3bln dollars. Import from the faraway countries suffered the most serious decline, decreasing by 11,4%. According to the FM data, in January-October 2001 these countries imported into Belarus commodity, costing 1,9bln dollars.

Over 11 months of this year the structural subdivisions of the “Belenergo” concern carried out more than 22 thousand raids on the energy thieves. BELTA correspondent was told by the head of the energy control department Viktor Zhitkevich that there had been composed over 16 thousand acts on energy misappropriation for 2,9 bln rubles. The stolen heat energy over this period cost around 284 mln rubles.

A bag full of grenades was found on the verge of Mogilev. Inside the bag there were twenty F-1 grenades, all in good combat order. This model was in wide use during the Second World War. The sappers, who arrived at the place of the incident, destroyed the deadly finding in a safe place. Now the law-enforcers are investigating into who had brought the thing to Mogilev.

A.Lukashenka expressed his extreme dissatisfaction with the work of the bank system of the country, RIA Novosti correspondent informs. At a consultation on the bank system improvement Lukashenka said that about $300 mln today are “problematical credits without any prospect of return”. Hence he demanded law-enforcing agencies of Belarus to take measures against those who gave and received such credits. The major part of the credits, according to Lukashenka, “sank abroad”. The money should be returned to the country”, -- Lukashenka emphasized. The purpose of the consultation was to consider the Conception of bank system improvement for 2002-2010. However, Lukashenka observed, “to begin with, order should be established in concrete banks, including the National Bank”. “Today’s meeting is a prelude to a serious consultation with bankers, which is scheduled for this year”, -- concluded Lukashenka.

Criminal proceedings were initiated against ex-director of the joint stock company BATE (Borisov plant of electrical equipment) Nikolai BUSEL. As one of the Borisov newspapers reported “He’s indicted for the abuse of power and large-scale embezzlement (16mln rubles over the period December 1991 – March 2001)”. In March this year, when mass inspections rocked the company, Nikolai Busel filed in his resignation. He learnt about the criminal proceedings, instituted against him, only from the newspaper pages.

Yesterday the prosecutor general of Belarus Viktor Sheiman reported to Alexander Lukashenko about the results of work, accomplished by the procuracy during the last week. Viktor Sheiman informed Lukashenko about the fulfillment of his directives on strengthening the oversight over the protection of property and financial discipline at the companies that are part of the “Belptizeprom” concern. According to the state inspection, carried out by the procuracy and other law-enforcement and controlling bodies, there have been instituted 122 criminal actions, opened 34 lawsuits, 8 people were dismissed from the occupied posts. The Minister of agriculture and foodstuff and director general of the “Belptizeprom” were notified on the matter.

Polish authorities officially registered the public organization “The Union of the Belarusian political refugees in Poland”. According to the Union members in Poland, registration of such an organization testifies to the fact that the Polish authorities officially recognize that there’s a politically motivated persecution in Belarus. The Union of fugitives was set up in Poland in February this year and unites Belarusian nationals, who had to leave the country and plead for political asylum in Poland. Today there are 20 people in the organization. These are mostly young activists of the Belarusian political parties in opposition.

Investigators of the Minsk region started interrogations of the witnesses on criminal case instituted in connection with destruction of a memorial sign, a so-called ‘Clinton’s bench’ in Kurapaty. They came to the Belarusian Popular Front headquarters and questioned Paval Sevyarynets, the Youth Front leader, and several Popular Front members. The police was interested in the opinion of the Kurapaty defenders about the barbaric action. It is worth mentioning that the action was brought three months after the destruction of the memorial.

Zheleznodorozhny district court of Gomel opened hearings on the decree#8 violation (on some measures, regulating foreign aid use) by the chair of the local youth organization “Gart” Sergei Odinets. According to the district tax inspection, which ruled to consider Odinets’ case, his computers contained information on preparations for the presidential elections, in particular, on the independent observation, on running the agitation campaign and ZUBR movement’s activities.

A meeting of the Polish young people with the leaders of Belarusian youth parties and non-state organizations was held in Warsaw. ZUBR and the Youth Front leaders participated as well. The audience, mostly Polish students, were interested in the modern political situation in Belarus and asked about the influence of the youth oppositional organizations. According to Belarusian guests, their organization’s popularity grows, meaning that the existing regime has no chances for support of the young.

The leadership ordered the builders to lay pipes under the surface in the direction of the Kuropaty memorial. Earlier the workers and the activists agreed that the drain-pipe system must be installed in a way that the sewage waters flow towards the Tsna lake, rather than to the Kuropaty. However, yesterday evening the workers’ leadership arrived at the place and commanded to lay another piece of a pipe in the direction of the Kuropaty camp. The volunteers are now readying for an action of protest and claim that they won’t allow to make a swamp out of Kuropaty.

The editor of the recently closed independent newspaper from Grodno “Pahonya” Nikolai Markevich was summoned to the court of the Leninsky district of Grodno on December 5. There they were supposed to hold hearings of his administrative case – for running an unsanctioned picket in this regional center Nov.19 – against the closure of “Pahonya” (art.167-1 part 2). Previously two newspaper correspondents Pavel Mozheiko and Andrei Pisalnik were administratively reprimanded for picketing.

The editorial board of the newspaper of the Belarus-Russia Parliamentary Assembly “Soyuznoye Veche”, being a legal entity of the Russian Federations, intends to file a lawsuit against the Standing Committee of the Union’s Cabinet for the lack of budget resources, earmarked for the paper, reports RIA “Novosti” with a reference to the press-service of the PA secretariat. “This may lead to both the administrative and criminal responsibility of the official,” – replied the press-service people.