The UN Commission for Iraq keeps pending approval the Belarusian contracts for $300mln, said Alexander Lukashenko. Belarusian export to Iraq in 2001 amounted to over $26mln, while for January-March – $11,5mln. According to Lukashenko, Belarus “could significantly help reanimate constructive relations. Oil will be cheaper and the problems will be less in number”. He also said that the West is so interested in Iraq because of oil. “I know for certain that there’s no nuclear weapons in Iraq, so does Russia,” – said the Belarusian leader.

---

Head of the International Monetary Fund Thomas Richardson called on the Belarusian authorities to give up the mechanism of direct crediting of the state budget at the expense of the National Bank. There a close link between the fiscal credit policy and the state budget policy, says the head of the IMF. As far as the budget policy in Belarus isn’t strict enough, this finds expression in the insufficient strictness of the crediting policy.

---

The president, as the head of state, needs strong powerful trade unions in order to rest on them and consolidate the Belarusian society, said Alexander Lukashenko, speaking might become part of the state system, for they have no right to criticize the government. This right, according to Lukashenko, belongs to one person – the president.

---

Correspondent of the German newspaper “Handelsblatt” Matias Brutman asked the Belarusian leader about political disappearances in Belarus, provoking both his irritation and direct threats.

---

At the recent press-conference Alexander Lukashenko twice called the UCP leader Anatoly Lebedko and leader of the Union of right forces of Russia Boris Nemtsov “sick people”. “Narodnaya Volya” inquired from the UCP leader about his attitude to the incident:

---

Leader of the Union of right-wing forces, which is represented by a faction in the Russian State Duma, Boris Nemtsov won’t file a lawsuit against Alexander Lukashenko, who called him during the last press-conference in Minsk a “sick person”.

---

The Leninsky district court of Minsk considered the case of Mikhail Tarasuk, Dmitry Filipovich and Georgy Solomenik, who held on September 16 – a day when Gonchar and Krasovsky went missing – a picket opposite Lukashenko’s administration. The picketers were all reprimanded. They were found guilty of holding an unsanctioned action.

---

Belarus remains the only CIS state with which Russia preserves a negative migration ratio.

---

Bundestag deputy and counselor of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly for Belarus Wolfgang Berendt disseminated on September 18 through media channels a statement, concerning the judicial verdict against the “Rabochy” editor Viktor Ivashkevich. The statement reads that the punishment swiftly came upon the heads of the free journalists. Something, for which the German paper would at best get a reprimand, turned out a disaster for Belarusian reporters. The editor of “Rabochy” was sentenced to two years of freedom restriction for alleged insult of the incumbent. At the same time, the jurors overlooked the fact that the state did its best in order to prevent the publication from penetrating to the audience.

---

Director of the National Bank of Belarus Petr Prokopovich spoke against the allocation of the only emission center of the “union state” in Moscow, reports RIA “Novosti”. On Wednesday evening Prokopovich told in BT air that if this happened, the National Bank would be stripped of some of its functions.

---

Billion ruble losses, occurred in operations with the purchase of trade union property, are the main charge against the former Federation of trade unions’ leadership. These facts were mentioned at the September 18 extra-curricular organization’s congress. The delegates intend to insert changes into the FTU statute, its board and even name.

---

Police finished investigation proceedings on the case of the former head of the Belarusian railroad Viktor Rakhmanko. He was charged with 15 crimes, including embezzlement, power abuse, bribery, illicit hunting etc. Five of his accomplices from the railroad and some other institutions will also be drawn to responsibility. At the moment Rakhmanko remains under house arrest.

---

Editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Rabochy” Viktor Ivashkevich, recently sentenced to two years of freedom restriction, has been made an honored member of the British and Belarusian PEN-Centers. BelaPAN quotes first vice-president of the Belarusian PEN-center Andrei Synko as saying that the British PEN-center wishes Ivashkevich a lot of courage before the trials, through which he will have to go, and protests against the freedom of speech violations in Belarus.

---

Head of the Belarusian delegation at the 57th UN General Assembly session in New York Mikhail Khostov held a round of negotiations with the delegates from Bahrain. In course of the meeting, says the FM press-secretary Pavel Latushko, the sides discussed the possible official visit to this country by Alexander Lukashenko. Preliminarily, this will happen in late October this year. During his visit Lukashenko will sign with the Bahraini agreements on trade, investments and absence of double taxation. This will be Lukashenko’s first visit to the Kingdom Bahrain.

---

Some types of insurance in Belarus will be exclusively state ones, said director general of the “SK RECO-Garantiya” Sergei Sarkisov. According to him, they already decided that the border and voluntary medical insurances would be sole prerogatives of the state companies. Moreover, they drafted a project on amending the presidential decree, which will from now on impose state control over the car insurance business.

---