On December 5 the Sovietsky district court of Minsk finished consideration of Zinaida Gonchar’s plea on recognizing her husband – acting chairman of the 13th Supreme Soviet Viktor Gonchar – as missing without trace since September 17, 1999.

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On December 10th the planet marks another anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Belarus, having ratified the document, bound itself with a commitment to “contribute to the universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms”. That commitment finds reflection on paper alone, though. Among the most dreadful crimes of Europe’s last dictator are the abductions of opposition politicians, journalists and businessmen. Ahead of the Human Rights Day mothers, wives and children of the missing public figures of Belarus called on the country’s citizens with a request to help them find out the destiny of their loved ones. Relatives of the repressed Belarusians urge their countrymen to come on December 10 at 12 o’clock to the Oktyabrskaya square of Minsk and join the rally, commemorating the Human Rights Day’s eve.

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The U.S. Embassy Minsk has been requested to issue the following statement dictated by Congressman Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania: «I categorically refute the December 4 press release issued by Belarusian President Lukashenko. I am appalled that anyone would take such blatant action and put out such outrageous lies. Many of the statements in the press release concerning alleged agreement on the part of the delegation had been proposed to them but were categorically rejected. The delegation went to Minsk in good faith and what they have seen is the lowest form of politics».

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Belarusian authorities didn’t issue entry visas to the former observer over last year’s presidential elections in Belarus from the ODIHR OSCE mission Adrian Mararu of Romania and representative of the Czech human rights organization “People in Need” Robert Bah. Bah and Mararu intended to come to Minsk to engage in the conference “International standards of democratic elections and the Belarusian electoral legislation”.

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Two months ago “Narodnaya Volya” published two remarkable documents from the Police Academy. Two orders on enrolling students to the commercial department of the Academy. Both documents look almost the same at the first glance. There was one date, one number of issue and both were signed by a then headmaster of the Academy, police general-major Apanasevich. However, in one of the documents there were thirty three names more than in the other.

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“The coming of American congressmen is untimely and the goal is unclear, especially in light of the US decision to impose travel ban on Lukashenko and his officials after the EU’s example. Lukashenko will try to misuse this visit in order to get OSCE entangled into some void negotiations or make the OSCE presence in Belarus only decorative. That’s his habitual tactics – winning time under the cover of negotiations. OSCE must require the immediate fulfillment of all Belarus’ legal commitments, including on the OSCE mission’s mandate in Minsk,” – commented Charter’97 international coordinator Andrei Sannikov on the US congressmen’s coming to Minsk.

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The Fund of the state property of Belarus changed the conditions of sale of the Belarusian portion of “Slavneft” shares, RBK was told at the Belarusian currency stock exchange. In particular, the Fund of the state property of Belarus postponed the deadline for payment on the transaction from 5th to 11th of December 2002.

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