Committee for the civil affairs of the Vitebsk regional court left in effect the ruling of the Polotsk district and Poltsk town courts on the eviction of the famous journalist, oppositionist and human rights advocate Valery Schukin from the dormitory of the Polotsk agro-technical college, where he was assigned for the past seven years. Schukin directly associates his eviction with his political activism, especially his nomination as candidate for the local council in the Polotsk town hall.

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Forum of the European youth “European Way” ended in Kiev. Its participants – ZUBR coordinators Vladimir Kobets and Dmitry Borodko – returned from the Ukrainian capital. The forum’s organizer was the youth coalition “Our Ukraine”. According to Kobets, in Kiev they actively discussed the issue of the democratic forces’ consolidation in Belarus and Ukraine. The reason for that were the parliamentary elections, which will take place in both countries in 2004.

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“Narodnaya Volya” journalist Alexander Silich’s summons to the national procuracy has become known to all, for the world haven’t seen anything like that before: a newspaper reporter gets persecuted for the Laugh Day joke. After the first summons Silich was again invited to the procuracy to receive official reprimand from the deputy Prosecutor General of Belarus N.M.Kupriyanov.

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Russian human rights watchdog organizations “Information-legal center “Memorial””, “Legal defense” and the “Center of civil initiatives’ support “Open society”” addressed the country’s prosecutor general Viktor Sheiman with a plea to carry out “complete and impartial investigation” into the disappearances of the renowned politicians and journalist Dmitry Zavadsky.

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Last days’ events testify to the cool-down in relations between the official Minsk and Moscow. Upon Russia’s initiative, the June 2-3 session of the parliamentary assembly of the “union” will be put off. Official Minsk sources claim that they haven’t yet received any official telegram on the matter. Meantime, the head of the parliamentary assembly’s representation in Belarus Nikolai Kontsevoi heard nothing of the postponement. “This isn’t related to the acuteness of relations or any other problems. It is purely a technical issue,” – he says.

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Around two thousand engaged in a sanctioned meeting of protest “No to nation’s impoverishment!”, held on May 22 evening in the “50 Years of October” park of Minsk.

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These days Prague hosts OSCE economic forum in Europe on the issues of drug trafficking and illicit arms sale. “Radio Svaboda” correspondent Ron Synovits during the war in Iraq found a fax, which can testify to the negotiations between the Belarusian enterprise – Borisov military plant and Saddam Hussein’s regime concerning the arms supplies and training of the Iraqi military technicians in Belarus in 2001. This document was officially passed over by the “Radio Svaboda” for the OSCE consideration.

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Grodno infection hospital hospitalized 75 patients, sick with meningitis. “Interfax” quotes chairman of the town’s emergency epidemic commission Valentin Leonov as saying on Friday that “mostly these were kids, aged 4-12, and also six adults.” They were preliminarily diagnosed with virus meningitis. Specialists of the National center for hygiene and epidemics, currently working in Grodno, already confirmed the diagnosis of certain patients.

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