Center of youth initiatives "Kontur" goes shut :: Charter'97 :: News

On July 31 the Vitebsk regional court decided to liquidate the public association “Center of youth initiatives “Kontur”. The association became well known in the course of mobilization campaign at the presidential elections 2001.

The official root-cause for bringing the suit was the fact that from the August 2000 the governing organ of this association couldn’t be reached at its juridical address. The association also was accused of having violated the presidential decree from 12 March 2001 #8 on tax legislation: according to law-enforcers, the association got foreign gratuitous help without having special permission for that, BelaPAN reported.

As deemed by ‘Kontur”’s coordinator Sergey Srebro, the liquidation of the organization is closely connected with “Kontur” informative activity. “

“The authorities have decided to kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand they liquidate the organization that is the resource center in our region and helps to develop the so-called “third sector” in the region. On the other hand we are the founders of the independent newspaper “Vitsebskaja trybuna”. So, liquidating the next in turn public organization they stop issuing another independent edition.” – underscored Srebro.