Lydia Polfer, the Foreign Minister of Luxemburg, who currently presides in the Council of Europe, said during her speech before the PACE delegates that in the conflict between Belarus and OSCE she will surely uphold the OSCE and AMG. “There can be no bargaining in the issue,” – said Mrs.Pifer: “and OSCE agrees with that viewpoint.” The woman stressed that all CoE members are also part of the OSCE, so Belarus must not count on CoE’s acting against OSCE. Moreover, such escalation of tensions will negatively effect Belarus’ relations with both the CoE and other European organizations.

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“The court’s verdict, passed against the journalists of “Pagonya” is an example of the serious deterioration of the freedom of press situation in Belarus,” – said at the June 25 session of the PACE Political Committee special rapporteur for Belarus Wolfgang Berendt. He suggested that the Committee speed up the formation of an independent commission on investigating into the disappearance cases, which could also hold an expertise into Dmitry Zavadsky’s case files.

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“Why meeting people, who fail to keep their promises? I have met with the “national assembly’s” delegation three times. Its representatives manifested readiness to cooperate with the Council of Europe. However, they never did what they said they would,” – said the CoE secretary general Walter Shwimmer during his meeting with the delegation of the Consultative Council of opposition political parties on June 25 in Strasbourg during the third part of the ordinary PACE session. The secretary once again proved the necessity to have Minsk fulfill certain conditions before they start looking into the restoration of Belarus’ status at CoE.

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The Norwegian Human Rights Committee and PEN Center addressed Alexander Lukashenko, Minister of information Mikhail Podgainy and prosecutor general Viktor Sheiman, raising alarm over the recent crackdown on free press. Following read the full text of the letter:

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The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Freimut Duve, is deeply concerned about a criminal court sentence of two Belarusian journalists, Nikolai Markevich and Pavel Mozheiko, for allegedly having insulted President Aleksandr Lukashenko during last September’s presidential campaign.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s conviction of Mikola Markevich and Paval Mazheika, both of the independent weekly newspaper Pahonya.

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The Belarusian Association of Journalists protests the verdict, passed against the journalists of the closed newspaper “Pagonya” Nikolai Markevich and Pavel Mozheiko. The statement, circulated by BAJ, reads that Belarus remains the only dictatorial state in Europe, where media outlets are being politically persecuted, whereas the journalists get sentenced for their professional activities. BAJ warns that today’s repressions, unleashed against journalists, may spread tomorrow to the rest of the society.

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Delegation of relatives of the disappeared Belarusian politicians set off for Moscow to hold meetings there with heads of the State Duma factions. The delegates include Zinaida Gonchar, Irina Krasovskaya, Olga Zavadskaya, Svetlana Zavadskaya, Tatyana Leonovich-Klimova, Julia Chigir. The delegation is being accompanied by the chairman of the United Civil Party Anatoly Lebedko and a group of Belarusian journalists.

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“The government of USA is alarmed by the draft law, currently being considered in the Belarusian parliament,” – reads the US embassy’s statement, circulated on June 25 in Belarus: “One could get an impression that the goal of the law is to hamper the activities of religious groups, which the Belarusian government refers to as “untraditional” confessions, which clearly contradicts the international principles of religious freedom and human rights. We are calling on the parliament and the government of Belarus to do their best in order to ensure that the draft law on religion provides to all Belarusian citizens, regardless of their faith, equal rights in accordance with the international norms of religious freedom”.

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Belarusian Finance Ministry, experiencing serious budget deficit, intends to step up on July 1 a bunch of measures in order to raise the amount of funds, received from the population. Internal borrowings remain the main source of filling the budget of Belarus, as far as the foreign investors want to have nothing in common with Belarus, which doesn’t cooperate with the International Monetary Fund, reports Reuters.

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Ready goods reserves at the Belarusian warehouses amounted on June 1 to 75% (May rise constituted 1,2%), Reuter quotes the government’s press-secretary Ivan Znatkevich as saying. “At the session of the Cabinet’s Presidium the Belarusian prime Minister drew the government’s attention to the negative tendency of increasing products reserves at the companies’ storehouses,” – noted Znatkevich.

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