The negotiations about the new economic program for Belarus which the International Monetary Fund would support, will start only in case if Belarusian government reconsider some estimated indices for 2002, BelaPAN was informed by the permanent representative of Lithuania in Belarus Marc Horton.

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The 22nd Session of the CIS Council of Ministers of the Interior Affairs was held on Wednesday in Minsk in the Palace of Republic. In the beginning of the session Armenian Minister of the Interior Arif Arutiunyan quitted the position of the CMIA, and Belarusian Interior Minister Uladzimer Navumau took the office. Behind closed doors the members of the CMIA discussed problems of cooperation in their work. A new “Directive on Common Procedure on International Persons Search in the CIS” was adopted.

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Executive committee of the largest Russian trade union – Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia – at their last assembly ruled to picket Belarusian Embassy in Moscow and to hand over a declaration of protest against violations of trade unions’ rights in Belarus to the government and Alyaxandar Lukashenka.

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Homel dwellers are not receiving compensation for living and working in the area of regular dosimeter control , any longer. This payment was called “coffin money”. The sum was constantly shrinking, and finally it had become ridiculous – less than a thousand BYB for one person (less than 0.6 USD). They were of no consequence to family budget. But annulment of a tiny advantage is viewed by Homel residents as a sign that the authorities soon officially declare their city an “uncontaminated zone”, and not a zone of regular dosimeter control with contamination from 1 to 5 Curie per km2. And it means that free meals and free summer rest for schoolchildren will be cancelled.

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A wife of the politician, a deputy chairman of the 13th Supreme Soviet, who disappeared more than two years ago, has written an open letter to Alyaxandar Lukashenka. Zinaida Hanchar is indignant that the authorities silence the fact of the disappearance of Hanchar. She also states that she is confident that he was abducted for political reasons. “You realized that you cannot defeat my husband in open contest, and so you abduced him”, -- Zinaida Hanchar writes.

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Two last witnesses in the case of the abduction of the cameraman of the Russian TV channel ORT were interrogated in court. It means that the court examination of this episode is finished. The responsibility of the Ihnatovich’s group for this crime was not proved, one of the attorneys present at the proceedings believes.

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An examination of complaint by the administration manufacturing complex “Belaruskalij” against trade union of this enterprise has started in Minsk Regional Court. The administration requires to declare unauthorized a five-minute strike planned for February 1. The decision to carry out this strike was made by thousands of workers at a meeting on January 11 in Salihorsk. The administration also offers to punish leaders of trade union Leanid Zaitsau and Mikalai Novik.

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While in Moscow collective board of the Russian and Belarusian Foreign Affairs Ministries declare priority of the Russians and Belarusians’ rights defense in third countries, Ukraine is occupied by the problem of transportation of dead body of Belarusian pilot who died in car crash on January 15 in Burundi. First there was an information that the deceased had Ukranian citizenship. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry does not know about this accident, although Belarus has an embassy in South African Republic.

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