The election committee N 20 of Chkalauski constituency of Vitsebsk refused to register an initiative group for nomination of Valery Schukin, famous human rights activist, member of the coalition “Free Belarus”. According to Valery Schukin, the justification for the denial is completely illegal. A formal excuse for the refusal was presence of a Russian Federation citizen having a Belarusian residence permit in the list of the initiative group members. “It is an absurd situation. According to the law, a person with a residence permit has a right to be nominated as a candidate in city or regional council, but at the same time, according to the Central Election Committee direction he cannot collect signatures. It is an idea of Yarmoshyna (head of the CEC), and it contradicts the Electoral Code. Secondly, how the authorities can do this for a Russian citizen, if they declare that we have one state, and citizens have equal rights? Thirdly, the initiative group must have no less than 10 people. I had 16 people, and the group should have been registered even if that Russian citizen was stricken off the list. However, members of the constituency committee refused to register my group for “violation of the CEC direction” told Valery Schukin to the press center of the Charter’97. The human rights watchdog is set to lodge a complaint to the Central election Committee.

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Constituency election committee № 53 from Northern District of Hrodna refused to register an initiative group for nomination of Valery Levaneuski, the National Strike Committee of Traders, and member of the coalition “Free Belarus”, as a candidate for parliamentary elections. The commission told that Valery Levaneuski has violated Article 65 of Electoral Code, as he had not submitted the list of initiative group members to the committee of the constituency. As we have informed, Valery Levaneuski has been placed to a Hrodna pre-trial detention center 105 days ago, for public insult of president Lukashenka.

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On August 12 in Zhlobin traffic police has detained a car of deputy head of Homiel branch of the United Civil Party, Uladzimer Katsora, who was driving from Minsk to Homiel. Traffic police told that the car had been stolen, and ordered U. Katsora drive to police station.

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Sergei Karaganov, head of Russia`s Council for Foreign and Defense Policies, warned that Minsk might face a cold spell in its relations with the Kremlin if Aleksandr Lukashenko ventured at a referendum on the possibility for him to run for reelection despite the constitutional two-term limit. While speaking at an August 5 government conference on the harvesting campaign, the Belarusian leader hinted at the possibility that such a referendum might be held this fall.

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Today the 24th Olympic Games start in Athens. More than 10 000 sportsmen from 202 countries are to take part in competitions. Belarus will be represented by 153 sportsmen in 23 sports. The athletes from Belarus were set a problem to win 25 medals. In Sydney, at the Olympics-2000, Belarusian sportsmen have won 17 medals: 3 golden, 3 silver and 11 bronze ones. However, this year the Olympic team of Belarus has already become world-famous without any sports records. The EU banned Belarusian sports and tourism minister, former Interior minister Yuri Sivakov, from Olympic Games in Athens because of suspected involvement in forced disappearances (murders) of Belarusian opposition leaders. Beside Yuri Sivakov, among those suspected of involvement in disappearances (murders) are Prosecutor General Viktar Shejman (Viktor Shejman), acting interior minister Uladzimer Navumau (Vladimir Naumov) and riot police commander Dzmitry Paulichenka (Dmitry Pavlichenko).

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Representatives of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will start monitoring Belarus` parliamentary election campaign on September 1, Heidi Smith, spokeswoman for the OSCE Office in Minsk, told BelaPAN.

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Former professors and students of the Yakub Kolas National Humanities Lyceum, closed last summer, plan to mark the beginning of the new academic year on September 1 by a meeting in front of the school’s former building on Kirova Street in Minsk. “We still regard that building as our own because the Belarusian Council of Ministers gave it to the school according to a legal procedure,” former Acting Principal Vladimir Kolos told BelaPAN. He described the decision to close the school as the government’s mistake that will be corrected sooner or later.

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Vol. 7, No.32 August 5-12, 2004 Edited by Nate Young International League for Human Rights

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Independent analysts fear that if the government grants the third GSM license to a company wholly owned by the state as suggested by Aleksandr Lukashenko, this may lead to a government monopoly over mobile phone services. While speaking at Wednesday`s government conference on the development of mobile telephony, the head of state said that awarding the license to a state-owned company would help keep profits within the economy. Mr. Lukashenko gave his government until September to look into the feasibility of establishing a state-owned cellular provider.

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Russia’s United Energy Systems resumed its electricity export to Belarus on August 12. Under a contract signed by the Belarusian State Energy Concern (Belenergo) and the Russian company’s subsidiary, Inter RAO EES, Belarus will import 2.5 billion kWh of electric power from Russia before January 1, 2005.

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