The recent events of the political life of the country are forcing me to make several critical comments concerning the leaders of oppositional parties and movements. I would like to look into the matter and ask some questions. To my mind, I have a moral right for that.

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Uta Zapf, head of the Working Group on Belarus in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, plans to visit Minsk in early February, Ms. Zapf’s spokesman, Oliver Meier, told BelaPAN. The German MP plans to meet with government officials, opposition leaders and representatives of non-governmental organizations to discuss a statement by the parliamentary faction of the German Social Democratic Party (GSDP) over the harsh prison sentence imposed on Belarus’ prominent politician Mikhail Marinich in late December, according to the spokesman.

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Belarusian political prisoner Mikhail Marynich, sentenced to 5 years of medium-security colony on December 30, 2004, has become a grandfather. Today a son of Pavel Marynich, a son of Mikhail Marynich, was born. The parents decided to call him Zakhar. We congratulate Mikhail Marynich and his family and wish him to be released as soon as possible and to see his grandson.

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Today Alyaksandar Lukashenka has congratulated Viktor Yushchenko with being elected a President of Ukraine. “In Belarus You are known as a conspicuous statesman and experienced politician,” he wrote in the address. “I hope that You would promote development of Belarusian-Ukrainian cooperation and good neighborly relationship between our countries”.

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The heads of four delegations of the European Parliament on relations with eastern neighbors of the United Europe during a special meeting called upon the leadership of the European Union to activate the support to the democratic process in Belarus. “We want to use maximum of the Ukrainian experience for support of democratic processes in the countries of the former Soviet Union,” told the head of the delegation of the European Parliament for relations with Belarus Bogdan Klich.

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On January 30 representatives of the Belarusian diaspora in Belgium will organize a rally in support of Belarusian political prisoner Mikhail Marynich. On December 30, 2004 fromer Minister of Foreign Economic Relations, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Belarus Mikhail Marynich was sentanced to 5 years of medium-security colony and confiscation of property by the court of Minsk district. At preesnt he is kept in the remand prison of the Internal Affairs department of Minsk executive committee.

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Former Minister and Ambassador, Mikhail Marynich, is kept in the remand prison of the Internal Affairs Ministry in Valadarski Street in Minsk. On January 19 the prisoner was visited by his elder son Pavel Marynich. “He is not crushed down, he is concentrated. He told that absolutely all charges against him are trumped-up, and they prove that the regime is afraid of him,” he told to Radio Svaboda about his conversation with his father. Mikhail Marynich told that he would continue struggle for democracy establishment in Belarus, and expressed thankfulness to all who supports him.

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In the evening of 18 January Homel Tsentralny Borough Court ruled to make oral admonition to the correspondent of Narodnaya Volia newspaper in Homel region Iryna Makavetskaya for violation of article # 166 of the Code of Administrative Violations – disrespect to court. The journalist thinks that the punishment is relatively mild because the authorities don’t want a scandal around the events where the law machinery demonstrated its dark side.

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The head of the housing exploitation service of Hrodna Anatol Litvin demands from four public organizations, including BPF “Adradzhenne” and historical and cultural club “Pahonia” to leave the premises in Karl Marx street, 11 because of the emergency state of the building and also informs that the housing services have no free rooms for lending to these organizations.

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On 17 January in Vitsebsk the police detained the vice-head of United Civil Party Alena Zaleskaya to Vitsebsk Kastrychnitski Borough Board of Internal Affairs (BBIA). There the police composed a protocol and confiscated several copies of the newspaper. She didn’t manage to convince them that the newspaper was issued officially and she didn’t violate anything. The policemen said they would pass the documents to court which would define whether she was guilty.

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The requirement that all governmental agencies, enterprises and organizations should have a book for suggestions and proposals is above all aimed at protecting the rights of common people, Aleksandr Lukashenko said while speaking at Wednesday`s government conference on preparations for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Soviet Union`s victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-45 Great Patriotic War.

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The Belarusian education minister has called for stepping up ideological work at universities and making the campaign “reach out to each student and lecturer.”

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The pro-government Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB) has denied accusations by independent trade union leaders Aleksandr Bukhvostov and Gennady Fedynich that it persistently violates trade union rights.

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