Alexander Lukashenko declared today that he had signed the Covenant on the formation of common economic zone with great doubts concerning its future.

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The Dutch affiliate of the human rights organization Amnesty International addressed on September 19 Alexander Lukashenko with an open letter. The human rights defenders once again called on Alexander Lukashenko to tell truth about the political disappearances of Viktor Gonchar, Anatoly Krasovsky, Yuri Zakharenko and Dmitry Zavadsky.

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Presidents of the four states – Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan signed agreement on the formation of the common economic space. However, information about the destiny of the common economic space’s formation, which is attached to the agreement, being its integral component, is still quite contradictory. RIA “Novosti” reports that the presidents approved the concept. Meantime, the sources in the Russian delegation informed “Interfax” that the four countries still keep working on the third document on the economic zone’s formation, entitled the “Complex of basic measures”.

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Why does Russia sound so strict today? What can come out of the relations between Russia and Belarus in the future? “KP in Belarus” addressed experts for commentaries on the matter and received an astonishing system of coordinates – from zero to eternity.

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On September 19 the Belarusian Association of Journalists will organize the “Day of the Closed Newspapers” – an action of solidarity with the journalists and mass media outlets, which are exposed to increasingly strong pressure for executing their professional duties.

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Amnesty International is extremely concerned about the recent closures, and threats thereof, of several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) directly and indirectly engaged in the promotion and defence of human rights in Belarus. The closure of these NGOs, and threats thereof, which were in clear violation of Belarus` international human rights obligations, appear to have taken place in a context of increasing intolerance on the part of the Belarusian authorities of peaceful dissent within the country. In view of a whole series of official warnings issued to NGOs in 2003 by the Ministry of Justice, Amnesty International is concerned that the practice appears to amount to a deliberate pattern of obstruction, harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders and other representatives of civil society in Belarus. Similar concerns have recently been brought to the attention of the Belarusian authorities by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and have also been long-standing subjects of concern of various international human rights mechanisms (see below).

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Consideration of liquidation lawsuit, instituted against the “Lutskevich Brothers’ Foundation” will be held on September 22 in the Supreme court of Belarus. The Justice Ministry’s complaints over the organization’s activities follow its standard pattern: incompliance of legal address to the actual location of office, violation of the association’s status and of the presidential decree #2 of January 26, 1999. However, the main violation of statute is a their using twice the definition “Lutskevich Brothers’ Foundation” without putting a “public association” ahead of it.

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On September 31 at 11a.m. in the court of the Oktyabrsky district of Minsk (Dunina-Martsinkevicha str., 1) there will resume court hearings on the lawsuit, filed by the senior investigator for most important affairs of the Belarusian procuracy Tserakhovich V.K. against the “Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” and its special correspondent for the Gomel region Irina Makovetskaya. Mr.Tserakhovich disagrees with the publication of “BDG”, dedicated to the case of the professor of Gomel Medical Institute Bandazhevsky and pro-rector of the same institution Ravkov, reports BAJ.

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