The United States ambassador Stephan M. Minikes to the Special Permanent Council read out his speech before the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on September 25, 2002 in Vienna. Following comes an excerpt on Belarus:

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Parliamentarians of the United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine, Lithuania, Russia signed the appeal to the Belarusian authorities to cancel the articles of the Criminal code, which are being used to annihilate journalists and politicians of Belarus.

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The Belarusian Orthodox Church of the Moscow eparchy “hopes that the Council of the Republic will support the decision of the lower chamber and pass in course of the forthcoming autumn session the Law “On the freedom of faith and religious organizations”, said in an interview to “Blagovest-info” archbishop of Belarus Filaret.

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In October Minsk streets will have to be cleaned by the citizens. BelaPAN was told by the Minsk city hall that they will hold an action on cleaning the city and preparing the inventory, sand and salt for the winter period. There will be no organized subbotniks in October as such, but schoolchildren will all the same be attracted to the event. After October ends, the head of the Minsk city hall Mikhail Pavlov will check the condition, in which the city dwells.

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There’s a remarkable politician in Belarus: chairman of the Liberal-Democratic party Sergei Gaidukevich. He is a vivid personality in many senses, whose tempo and stubbornness the real Zhirinovsky could envy. The man twice ran for the presidency, but both times to no avail. Nonetheless, he, just as other opposition leaders, has little weight on the political scale. Gaidukevich doesn’t mix with other politicians and never joins any opposition unions and coalitions. More than that, he even hints at his ideological closeness to Lukashenko. He never changes his mind but through the years has been sticking to one and the same political route. He keeps up active contacts with Russian liberal democrats and personally Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Moreover, he is a friend to the European Liberal National and pays regular visits to Iraq, rendezvousing with Saddam Hussein and his close encirclement. But nobody could foresee that Gaidukevich would be given access to the “holy of holies” of the Belarusian economy.

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Editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Narodnaya Volya” Iosif Seredich is convinced that his newspaper will exist, regardless of any regime’s attempts to annihilate the free periodical. He said this commenting on yesterday’s statement, voiced by the FTU chairman Kozik about his intention to sue the paper in court. Kozik declared at the meeting with journalists on September 25 that he would forward to the Minister of information a request to stop issuing the newspaper, which is allegedly discrediting FTU and its members.

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In the ancient Persia they used to behead the messengers who brought in bad news. Since then things became somewhat more civilized. Sociologists, who voice negative statistics about the authorities, may only be deprived of a possibility to do professional business. Latest NISEPI poll produced unsatisfactory results for the Belarusian authorities. Two main figures are circulating around the state press. First, Lukashenko’s rating fell to 27% (in April – 30,9%, last October – 46%). Secondly, only 15,5% Belarusians are ready to vote for Lukashenko’s prolongation of term.

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The Minister of foreign affairs of Great Britain Jack Stro presented today his report on human rights violations in the world. The report reads that “the worst human rights situation of all can be observed in Iraq, where they apply capital punishment, violence and tortures”, reports AP.

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Salary payment indebtedness in the country rose by August 31 this year to 88,6bln rubles, while its monthly growth constituted 18,6bln. BELTA correspondent in the Ministry of economy reported that the highest salary debt is accumulated in the agricultural organizations, equaling to 74% of the total size of unpaid wages.

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Index of consumer prices on all goods and services rose in August this year, as compared with last December, by 23%. Meantime, the consumer goods became 16,8% costlier, while the non-consumer – 16,5%. BELTA correspondent reports from the Ministry of statistics and analysis that the payment for the public utilities grew over the period by 117%, for electricity – 56,3%, water supplies – 71,8%, technical maintenance of the living space – by 423%.

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