The Minister of internal affairs of Belarus Vladimir Naumov spoke against the cancellation of capital punishment in Belarus. This opinion, deems the Minister, is upheld not only by the Belarusian society but also by the inmates themselves. “People will never understand us should we cancel this punishment for the criminals,” – said the Minister. As you know, last year alone the courts passed 7 death penalty verdicts and sentenced to life imprisonments 40 people.

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The Ministry of healthcare is seriously worried over the lack of resources. Apart from the fact that they minimize the list of services, rendered for free, they are now also cutting down the expenditures’ articles, which aren’t associated with the medical assistance. In 2002 the saved state funds are to constitute 14,589bln rubles. This sum will be paid out of the clients’ pocket, reports “BDG”.

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On behalf of the employees of the regional oncology hospital the post offices received special requests to the citizens to donate money for medications and equipment. A month ago the regional hospital has some of its irradiation devices broken down and the patients from the whole of the Vitebsk region, who underwent post-operation treatment there, were told to leave home for a while.

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“The activities of the OSCE AMG in Belarus were focused on aiding opposition, which oftentimes bordered on the direct interference in the country’s interior affairs,” – said at his meeting with the “deputies” of the national assembly the head of the Belarusian KGB Leonid Erin. “Up until the year 2000 the OSCE AMG work was fine with us. However, after the USA exerted pressure on them, the OSCE observers’ position changed. They began portraying the political situation in Belarus in dark colors, dramatizing the human rights situation and freedom of speech in Belarus. Finally, AMG started sharing opposition’s views and even initiated consolidation in their ranks,” – declared Erin.

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A source close to the current OSCE Chairman-in-Office, a Portuguese diplomat on the conditions of full anonymity commented to the yusnews.info agency on the recent statements, voiced by the Belarusian Foreign Minister Mikhail Khvostov, concerning the conflict over the OSCE group in Minsk. As you remember, Mikhail Khvostov proposed to “put an end to the confrontation between Belarus and OSCE via the consideration of the Belarusian issue at the OSCE permanent Council”. The Portuguese diplomat noted that the issue had already been raised by the PC during the April 16 session in Vienna, shortly after Minsk denied prolongation of visa to the acting OSCE AMG head Michele Rivolier. Then the Chairman-in-Office called on the Belarusian authorities to immediately grant a visa to Rivolier, so that he could return to Minsk. But this never happened.

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On May 28 Alyaksandr Lukashenka listened a report of the Prosecutor General Viktar Sheiman. Sheiman informed the head of state about the results of a check that considered if the regulations guaranteeing salary payment on time. During the check the investigators found out the reasons of the indebtedness and punished the directors who infringed the law. 301 directors were officially warned about inadmissibility of such actions, 127 directors were disciplinary punished, 54 notifications and 64 orders were issued. Lukashenka demanded the Prosecutor General to “protect the citizens’ labor rights according to the law”.

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A process of foundation of new trade unions created by the initiative of the authorities is continues. The capital of the country is the leader in this process. As the BelaPAN has informed, a month ago, on April 25, qa new trade union organization of education workers has been established. Its creation has been preceded by consultations in the city executive committee, where vice heads the districts administrations and heads of the education departments were ordered to initiate formation of new trade unions. So-called “directors’ trade unions” are being created also at the plants and factories, including the large ones, like Minsk Automobile Plant. Another trade union structure that interested officials of Minsk executive committee was Belarusian Trade union of construction industry and building materials industry.

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Alexander Lukashenko and the Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma will meet on May 29 in Chernigov. RIA “Novosti” reported that the head of state’s press-secretary Natalya Petkevich said that during the forthcoming meeting the presidents will exchange opinions and discuss in detail the set of the problem issues, existing nowadays in the bilateral relations.

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The GDP of Belarus in the four month of this year has grown by 4.1% as compared to the same period of 2001. As it was said by vice-prime-minister Andrei Kabiakou on Tuesday at the sitting of the presidium of the government, the investment capital has grown by 7.8%, while the actual money profit of the population has grown by 19%. However he admitted “the planned growth pace was not secured in such important areas as agriculture and industrial production, goods, export volume and reduction of raw materials spent”.

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