Since 1996 Belarus has been ranked among the world’s top ten exporters of weapons. In 2000 Belarus sold arms worth 498mln dollars, taking the sixth place among the exporters of weaponry worldwide. This year the authoritative western agencies, referring to the CIA and the European experts’ data, reported about the supplies of Belarusian ammunition to the countries which relate to global terrorism. According to them, a significant part of the Belarusian arms cargo is shipped to Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan, Angola, Sierra-Leone, Congo and Ethiopia. Lukashenko has numerously called these regimes friendly ones. In one of its latest issues the Russian periodical “Sovershenno sekretno” (“Strictly confidential” – Russian) declares that the Iraqi, Iranian, Sudanese, Libyan and Pakistani regimes had been backing Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organization Al Qaeda throughout its short history. Read further on our site the material “In Al Qaeda’s web”, published by the Russian newspaper “Sovershenno sekretno”.

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Information about political assassinations, tortures, arbitrary arrests, biased trial, freedom of speech, peaceful assemblies and organizations, faith, as well as citizens’ rights to change the government, government’s attitude toward international and non-state investigation into the possible human rights violations in Belarus in 2001 – are all presented in the monitoring, authored by the Charter’97 organizing committee member Ludmila Gryaznova.

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While the presidents of Russia and Belarus were debating in Moscow on the poignant problems and perspectives of the “union state”, the Belarusian sociological service “Zerkalo” carried out a poll in order to find out how the Belarusian nationals like the idea of merging with Russia. It turned out that over the last year the number of respondents, supportive of the integration of two countries, contracted by 10%. The future will show whether this fall in the popularity among the Belarusian citizens may grow into a permanent tendency. Today the analysts note that Russian politicians are becoming more critical on the matter.

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“I don’t think there’ll be any moves forward in the idea of creating a union state,” – said Russian State Duma deputy Grygory Tomchin to the IA “Rosbalt” correspondent, commenting on the results of the last session of the Supreme State Council of Russia and Belarus. According to the MP, “Russia and Belarus follow different patters of political and economic development.” So Tomchin believes that that there will be undertaken an effort to “convince Belarus to walk in our footsteps.” “For as long as Belarusians go in the opposite direction to ours, no merger will ever be a possibility,” – said the deputy.

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At the December 28 extracurricular plenum of the Federation of trade unions of Belarus they discussed only one purely organizational issue. As far as Vladimir Goncharik had been elected deputy chair of the Universal Confederation of Trade Unions, uniting the leading national trade union organizations of all CIS states, the plenum’s participants elected a new FTU leader – Frants Vitko. His candidacy was supported by 169 out of the 180 present Council’s members. Frants Vitko thanked everybody for entrusting to him the job and defined his position as of a newly elected leader: the program of activities, adopted at the 3rd FTU congress must be implemented.

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In a short time Russian government is to transfer a state credit equal to $30 million for account of the Belarusian Ministry of Finance. As the information agency “Rosbalt” informs, it was stated at a press conference on Friday, December 28 by the head of the Belarusian Finance Ministry Mikalai Korbut.

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Unemployment is menacing to the staff of the Navapolatsk plant of protein and vitamin concentrates. The plant is stopped. On the eve of the New Year 570 people of its staff has not received even their November salary. The last year’s situation, when the plant had worked only 4 months, repeats, BelaPAN informs.

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Heavy economic plight is witnessed at the Novopolotsk plant “Izmeritel” . For another month the company has been not operating to its full capacity – only four days a week. Many workers haven’t seen any October money yet. The average one falls far short of meeting the minimal consumer budget requirements. Trade unions dues aren’t properly transferred. At the trade union’s committee session they drafted letters to the Ministry of industry and the Novopolotsk town hall with a proposal to reanimate the company’s poor performance. Similar letters will be dispatched to the country’s supreme leadership with demands to preserve the previous system of transferring trade union dues.

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In November this year there happened a fall in the size of the salaries, paid to the workers and civil servants. According to the Ministry of statistics and analysis, the wages decreased over the last month by 0,6% (from 151,210 to 150,247 rubles). Meantime, the consumer prices rose by 4,6% and the US dollar market rate – by 3,2%. In currency equivalent the salary dropped all the way from 99,81 to 96,08 dollars, which is a 3,7% difference. Lower wages had been observed only in June – 92,65 dollars. In July it constituted 100,05 dollars, in August – 102,80, in September – 98,82. In ruble equivalent it turned out below the August level (150,854).

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The index of consumer’s prices in Belarus for all goods and services in November this year as compared to November 2000 increased by 45.5 percent. Water supply increased by more than 118 percent, public transport services by more than 85.5 percent, municipal economy serviced went up by 91.5 percent.

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