US senator George Vainovich became sixth senator, who cosponsored the Bill on democracy in Belarus, currently considered by the US Congress. Radio Svaboda reports that the man greeted the participants of the conference “Restoration of democracy in Belarus”, held in Cleveland, and supported the Act. Vainovich developed tense relations with the Belarusian encirclement and used to be the governor of Ohio for a long time in the past.
On May 3 ZUBR activists from Borisov came to the historic place of the town to erect a cross in memory of people who were killed there in the year 1933. That day turned 70 years since the so-called “hungry riot”, which rocked the Soviet country. The nation was enraged by the disastrous economic policy of the commies and took to the streets.
On May 3 the “Civil initiatives” association received response to their inquiry “On the results of examination into the statutory activities of the Grodno regional association “Civil initiatives”. The document, signed by the chief specialist of the Department of justice of Gomel Strizhneva and consultant Morozova, contains a list of arbitrary and unclear allegations on some vague violations of statute activities and legislation.
Instead they produced the Smargon special issue of the Minsk newspaper “Chas+TV”. The newspaper “Chas+TV” is registered by the Foundation for the regional press development. Smargon special issue saw print on Saturday. Now they get it distributed with a print run of 5050 copies. According to the “Novaya Gazeta Smargoni” founder Romuald Ulan, the subscribers are astonished that instead of the regular newspaper they are getting a totally different edition, which is a purely commercial project, containing no news but rather announcements, ads and TV schedule.
In advance of the May 3 observance of World Press Freedom Day, United States Helsinki Commission Co-Chairman Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) today expressed optimism over the abolition of criminal defamation and insult laws.
The new Iraqi authorities will cooperate with all countries for the exception of France and Belarus, which, as claimed by the Iraqi politician, assisted Hussein’s regime, providing it with military aid. One of the Iraqi leaders in opposition Ayad Allyavi said this in an interview to the newspaper “Vremya Novostei”.
International human rights organization “Reporters without Frontiers” published their annual report on the freedom of press in 2002 in 156 countries of the world and blacklisted 42 main enemies of press worldwide. Alexander Lukashenko is there on the list again, alongside with another five state leaders of the former USSR republics: Putin (Russia), Kuchma (Ukraine), Nazarbaev (Kazakhstan), Niyazov (Turkmenistan), Karimov (Uzbekistan), as well as the rulers of Zimbabwe, Togo, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Cuba, Israel, leaders of the Chechnya mafia, Spanish ETA and Islamic terrorist groupings.
Today marks the forth anniversary since the abduction of the former Interior Minister of Belarus, general Yuri Zakharenko. The general was kidnapped from his house on May 7, 1999 evening. The witnesses, found by the public commission for investigation, claim that he had been carried away in an unknown direction by a few plain-clothed men. General’s opposition activities, as founder of the Union of Officers, presented real threat to the regime. Today Minsk will host at 6p.m. a “Chain of those who care” action in his memory in the Oktyabrskaya square.
Executive council of the directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) assumes that Belarus’ current economic policy contradicts the plans of rigid fixation of the Belarusian and Russian rubles. That’s one of the conclusions, contained in the informational report for the public, disseminated upon the outcomes of the IMF council’s consideration of their annual report on the economic situation in Belarus, reports BelaPAN. In particular, the directors underscored that the country’s macroeconomic policy must be carried out in compliance with the currency exchange regime and that the exchange rate must be competitive enough at the moment of its fixation to the Russian ruble. In this connection most IMF directors consented that at the moment the Belarusian ruble rate is made artificially too high, urging the government to speedily curb the inflation.
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