On December 6 in the court of the Central district of Homiel the administrative case of Iryna Makavetskaya, the “Narodnaya Volya” correspondent in Homiel region is to be heard. The court of the Chyhunachny district of Homiel has drawn up a report against her, charging her with contempt of court. The reporter can be fined up to 10 basic units, or sentenced to an administrative arrest for 15 days. Today she wanted to attend one of the open courts, but the judge had not allowed her to do so. When the journalist refused to obey, the judge called in police.
Leonid Kuchma and Vladimir Putin are against revote in the run-off of the presidential elections in Ukraine, told presidents of Russia and Ukraine at the meeting in the airport Vnukovo-2.
Belarus’ Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov is expected to attend a December 6-7 meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Sofia. The Belarusian official will use the occasion to call for changing methods and practices employed by observers of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in monitoring elections, Ruslan Yesin, spokesman for the Belarusian foreign ministry, told reporters on Thursday.
Independent experts have slammed the pro-government trade union federation’s plans to make all private companies open grassroots union organizations as running counter to international and domestic laws. The Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB) plans to come up with a draft legislation that would require all private employers whose companies lack labor union organizations to pay three percent of their payroll to the FTUB, the organization`s press office reported. Another measure currently in the pipeline would allow the FTUB to oversee whether employers comply with labor laws even if there are no union members among the staff.
Iryna Makavetskaya, staff correspondent of the independent newspaper “Narodnaya Volya” in Homiel region, can be made accountable, for she wanted to attend an open court. She should be charged with contempt of court.
As Radio Svaboda informs, leader of the oppositional parties of Belarus are considering the decision of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine as a step towards the democracy victory in the country. Mikola Statkevich, coordinator of the European coalition “Free Belarus”, leader of “Narodnaya Hramada” believes that street demonstrations obviously influenced the decision of the parliament, but mainly there were economical reasons.
Cable television operators in Brest stopped rebroadcast of three Polish TV channels. It was made on the requirement of the Information Ministry of Belarus, which believes that to watch television of the neighboring country is possible only after receiving an authorization.
On December 1 in the center of Brussels members of the Belarusian community took an active part in the picket in support of democratic forces in Ukraine. At the Schumann roundabout in Brussels, where the buildings of influential European and world organizations are situated, white-red-white flags were hoisted together with Ukrainian flags.
The Yanukovych government has been dismissed today and there are no doubts about that. The statement was made by Victor Yushchenko at the rally in Maidan Nezalezhnosti. “The lack of confidence in the government causes its dismissal. It is article 115 of the Constitution of Ukraine and that’s it,” said he commenting on the decision of the Verkhovna Rada to give the vote of no confidence to the Cabinet of Ministers. Yushchenko called the event “a unique victory” and stressed that it was completely legitimate. “This is the final decision, which cannot be appealed at the Constitutional or the Supreme Court,” said he.
Reporters Without Borders protested to the information ministry after it slapped a three-month ban on independent weekly Birzha Informatsii, over an article for which its editor and co-founder Elena Rovbetskaya has already been fined.
The Lithuanian Seimas (parliament) will cooperate with the new Belarusian National Assembly provided it is democratically orientated, Seimas President Arturas Paulauskas told a group of Belarusian reporters in Vilnius on December 1.
Aleksandr Lukashenko told the newly appointed head of the Presidential Administration, Viktor Sheiman, to focus his efforts into increasing stability in the country and ensuring better controllability of the government system at all levels, the Belarusian leader’s press office said.
Aleksandr Yaroshuk, chairman of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions, have left for Japan to take part in the 18th congress of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) scheduled to take place in Miyazaki between December 5 and 10.
Aleksandr Lukashenko called for developing domestic tourist attractions to reduce outgoing tourism and encourage Belarusians to spend their money inside the country. Official reports suggest that Belarusian tourists bring out of the country a total of $1 billion annually but the true figure is twice or thrice as much, the Belarusian leader said at Thursday’s government conference. “We bring out much more money, thus supporting the infrastructure and economy of other countries. I would like this money to remain in our country,” official information sources quoted him as saying.
Children devastated by the Chernobyl disaster have been banned from visiting Gosport - because their country`s president says the trips corrupt their minds. In an extraordinary rant President Aleksandra Lukashenko, president of Belarus in the former Soviet Union, said children were being over-indulged and their minds ruined by trips to the West.
As of January 1, 2005, the IMF is to withdraw its permanent representative in Belarus.
The IMF Belarussian rep office will be served by local personnel only. In 1995, the IMF stopped issuing Belarus loans due to the discrepancy between the Belarussian government`s economic policy and IMF recommendations. Between 1992 and 1995, Belarus received $270 million in IMF loans.
Counsellor-envoy of the Belarus embassy to Russia on trade and economic issues Valeriy Sadokho was quoted as saying that the trade turnover between Belarus and Moscow will amount to more than $5bln in 2004, up by around 25% versus 2003, TorgRus.Com reported.
Aleksandr Lukashenko has tasked Pyotr Prokopovich, head of the National Bank of Belarus (NBB), with keeping next year’s inflation rate at a level of 8 to 10 percent, the Belarusian leader’s press office said.
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