The court of the Hrodna region has upheld the verdict to the founder of the “Novaya Gazeta Smorgoni” Ramuald Ulan. It means that within the next days he is to be sent in one of the correctional labour facility of Belarus.
The Belarusian consulate in Bialystok refused to issue a visa to Yauhen Vapa (Eugeniusz Wappa), the editor-in-chief of the weekly of the Belarusians in Poland, the “Niva” (The Field), and the chairman of the Association of the Belarusians in Poland. “I see it as recognition of the role the “Niva” plays in the life of all Belarusians. We are trying by different means, through articles, to touch upon different aspects of life, including events in Belarus,” commented Yauhen Vapa the accident to Radio Svaboda.
On January 27 mourning ceremonies on the 60th anniversary of the biggest Nazi death camp at Auschwitz (Oswiecim) liberation took place. This camp was situated at the territory of Poland occupied by the Nazis during the Second World War. Among the leaders personally invited to the ceremony there were presidents of Russia, Ukraine, leaders of other countries. The Belarusian delegation was headed by the chairman of the “council of republic” of the national assembly Henadz Navitski. 28 Belarusian citizens, former prisoners of the death camp, came with him to Oswiecim. Why Alyaksandar Lukashenka had not arrived to the mourning ceremony?
A memorandum on the promotion of democracy in Belarus was under discussion at Thursday’s meeting of the Sub-Committee on Belarus of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE). The document was authored by Lithuanian MP Jonas Cekuolis, who handed over the rotating chairmanship of the Sub-Committee on Belarus to Andres Herkel of Estonia on January 25.
The memorandum outlines a plan of PACE actions aimed at supporting Belarus’ pro-democracy forces.
On January 27 in Minsk a former director of Minsk plant of October Revolution Mikhail Kryvamaz was detained. He is known as one of the founders of the Civil Party of Belarus leaded by Vasil Shlyndzikau, and as a member of the Belarusian Association “Delovaya Initsiativa” (“Business Initiative”, BADI), headed by Mikhail Marynich.
Sooner or later anti-Russian sentiments to gain a foothold in Belarus. As the “Rosbalt” correspondent informs, Egor Gaidar told about it at the conference of the “Open Russia”, commenting on the relations between Russia and Belarus. “I do not like the policy of Russia towards Belarus,” he said.
Cypriot MP Christos Pourgourides, a member of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) told BelaPAN on Thursday that he would continue demanding additional sanctions against the Belarusian authorities despite a negative answer to his proposal from the Council of Europe`s Committee of Ministers.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis expressed hope that democracy will triumph in Belarus in the end. “The stance of Lithuania on Belarus, as well as that of the European Union and the United States, is very clear; specific work is being done to encourage the democratization of that country," the minister said in an interview with the Lithuanian weekly Ekstra.
The Belarusian government chose to skip the World Economic Forum in Davos, as the event would not help the country develop economic ties, Andrei Savinykh, spokesman for the Belarusian foreign ministry, told BelaPAN on Thursday. The event addresses “issues of a rather general nature,” he explained.
The draft law “About National State-public associations” has been included into the agenda of the spring session of the Chamber of Representatives. The draft which was elaborated on Lukashenka’s errand provides establishment of pseudo-public structures, controlled and financed by the authorities.
The leader of the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) has lashed out at the government for what he called “deliberately isolating the Belarusian system of higher education” from European standards and trends.
Eberhard Heyken, head of the OSCE Office in Minsk, concluded his two-day visit to Gomel on Wednesday with a meeting with representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Viktor Yushchenko supporters are determined to export the orange revolution to the CIS countries and to the USA, the internet-source POMARANCH.INFO informs. As the site informs, yesterday the “letters of freedom” were sent from the Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) to Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Russia. The organizers put orange ribbons into envelopes, and the addressees were the leaders of these states. “In each of these countries the government started to forget about its calling to serve people. Numerous violations of human rights are known, and at the same time the people’s democratic opposition longing changes exists,” the internet-source informs.
Aleksandr Lukashenko on Friday reiterated his opposition to what he called “the recent experiments” in the system of Belarusian higher education and suggested returning to Soviet-era standards, official information sources reported.
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko has said measures need to be beefed up to prevent human trafficking. "Transnational criminal organizations have stepped up their activities in post-Soviet space and want to confront us with all kinds of crimes, which our country has never known before - drug dealing, the export of women and children for sexual exploitation and so on," Lukashenko said at a meeting on the prevention of human trafficking on Thursday.
Belarus will buy small oil companies in Russia, the head of the Belarussian state-owned petrochemical company Belneftekhim, Brosnislav Sivy, said. Currently, the Belarussian company Yukola extracts about 15,000 tonnes of oil a month in the Saratov region of Russia. It plans to increase extraction to two million tonnes a year.
The leader of the opposition in Belarus, Vladimir Parfenovich, has said the country`s government has approved and is enforcing a program under which a nuclear power plant will be built in Belarus as soon as possible, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes.
Belarus’ first-ever channel targeting foreign viewers will go on the air on February 1. As the press office of the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company (BSTRC) told BelaPAN, the channel, named Belarus-TV, will be available abroad via a satellite, Intelsat 904.
The authorities of Brest-Kobryn Orthodox eparchy don’t allow to believers of Ruzhany settlement to establish one more religious parish. The believers and the priest whom they invited are pressurized by the law machinery.
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