Belarusian Customs Officials Confiscate Goods to Sum Of Million Dollars Daily :: Charter'97 :: News

“For Lukashenka’s government the geographical position of his country is like a daily lottery prize, and for foreigners and carriers of cargo who are to pass through Belarus it is a nightmare. Every year the customs officers are ordered to fine more and confiscate more goods. And every year these orders are executed,” Polish magazine Forum states.

Then the magazine informs that every week Belarusian customs officers confiscate goods in the value of several million dollars, and it being known that the chairman of the customs committee of Belarus officially declares that the steady growth of the budgets’ income from customs transactions is one of the indicators of the Belarusian customs’ work.

Not only income is growing, but also the amount of the goods confiscated, the Forum notes. And the decision in the case of confiscation is practically impossible to contest.

The neighbors of Belarus are indignant of this situation. German Ambassador Helmut Frick told at one of the conferences in Minsk that the rise of the amount of seized goods belonging to German citizens causes serious tension in bilateral relations.

“In his turn Russian Ambassador Alexandr Blokhin said that the same, but in a less diplomatic manner,” the Forum wrote. “According to his words, systematic seizures of Russian goods are a deliberate policy of the Belarusian authorities. According to Blokhin’s estimation, in 2002 Belarusian customs officers seized Russian goods to the amount of 60 millions dollars”.

The Polish magazine also informs that besides getting income from the customs’ work, Lukashenka’s authorities also use this service in the struggle against opposition.

“In the last three years many well-known oppositionists, who went through the border, were detained by customs’ officers, and printed materials were confiscated. Last year customs officers even searched a deputy Uladzimir Parfyanovich, though MPs have a right of personal immunity. But the chairman of the State Customs Committee Alyaksandar Shpilewsky does not think that his subordinates violated law. Moreover, he confessed that he personally ordered to search the deputy,” the Forum wrote.