Belarus is a tiny peaceful country. However, it may fight back the aggressor if he dares attack. Our main force isn’t the army, but rather the nation, which can render most serious blow to the aggressor in a partisan war. That’s how one can briefly describe the current concept of the territorial defense under which they have been reforming our military forces for three previous years. On June 4 this concept was voiced before the journalists by the leadership of the Western contingent of forces, deployed in Grodno.

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On June 13 the Prime Minister of Belarus Gennady Novitsky and the archbishop of Belarus Filaret will sign a cooperation agreement between the Republic of Belarus and the Belarusian Orthodox Church, BelaPAN was told by the Prime Minister’s press-secretary Nikolai Tolstik.

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Alexander Lukashenko must “cease the increasingly strong harassment of journalists”, said the president of the Universal editors’ forum Gloria Brown Anderson, speaking at the 56th Universal newspaper congress in Dublin (Ireland) on June 9.

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On May 19-20, 2003 the regional court of Gomel considered the case of the Gomel regional organization the “Circle of dynamic youth”, which protested against the justice department’s denial of state registration to them. In course of a year and 19 days since the moment of the registration plea’s submission, the justice department was seeking hard for reasons to deny them accreditation. As a result, they found fault with the organization’s statute, although their claims sounded trumped-up and incompetent.

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The Russian side regretfully perceives the dissatisfaction of the international community over the freedom of speech violations that are commonplace in Belarus. “We regret so many complaints concerning freedom of speech abuses in Belarus, voiced by the international community, which are mostly grounded,” – said first deputy head of the Ministry of press of Russia Mikhail Seslavinsky at the 10th Universal forum of editor-in-chiefs, opened on Monday in Dublin.

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Rise in the payment for the registration of mass media outlets and newspapers in particular is yet another manifestation of the economic pressure exertion on free media and the freedom of speech. Such an opinion was shared in an interview to BelaPAN by the chairman of the executive committee of the National association “Alternative-XXI” Sergei Balykin, commenting on the Belarusian government’s ruling to levy fares for mass media registration.

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Local tax on pasturing horses was imposed on peasants in the “Druzhba” collective husbandry of the Brest region. This decision became a stumbling bloc between the ordinary villages and the directors of their collective farm.

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