Babrujsk dweller Lubou Sankevich continues hunger strike in Minsk for the sixth day. Minsk authorities allowed her to hold pickets every day until July 4 at Bangalore Square in Minsk.
On June 21 at 8 a.m. a police tour of duty came to the private apartment of Andrei Pachobut, a well-known Hrodna journalist, editor-in-chief of the Polish language magazine “Magazyn Polski”. A journalist and civil society activist was taken to police department of the micro district Dzevyatouka. Andrei Pachobut had been summoned to that police department on Monday, however, the writ had not been handed to him personally, as required by law.
The court of Borisov city considered the doings of the Administrative commission, which decreed Ales Malchanau, the activist of movement ZUBR, to pay a fine of 3 basic units, illegal and decreed to abolish the sentence.
Yanis Chuchman is accused of acting on behalf of a non-registered organization when May 5 he held an action of solidarity with the detained during the Charnobyl Way unfolding a poster “Freedom to Political Prisoners!” And the article in a private newspaper “Vitsiebski Kur’er” where the action was described incited the case.
Undoubtedly, a purposeful campaign on the destruction of the only daily private newspaper “Narodnaya Volia” is being mounted today. Last week the Minsk Leninski Court redressed the claim of Liberal-Democratic Party of Belarus leader Siargey Haidukevich to “Narodnaya Volia”. The newspaper must pay to Siargey Haidukevich the compensation for moral damages of BR 100 mln. Euramost.org addressed experts for comments.
Hrodna authorities have not authorized celebration of Ivan Kupala Fesival on June 25. This holiday, called the night of the feast of St. John the Baptist by the Poles, was celebrated by the Union of Poles in Belarus every year in the center of the city on Nioman bank. It is the first time when the celebration is banned. The authorities refer to the fact that construction works are carried out at the back of the river.
Today at 6 p.m. opposition representatives are top gather in the center of Minsk to express their protest against streets renaming in the Belarusian capital. Since May 11 people are coming out in the streets of Minsk every week, and collect signatures with a demand to reverse illegal renaming of Skaryna and Masherau Avenues.
Administration of registration and licensing of the Minsk Municipal Executive Committee refuses to register changes in the Statute of the “Dzien’pres” enterprise that edits “Dien” newspaper. The changes concern a new juridical address, presented by the capital Polish House. Officials regard the rent agreement of the “Dzien’pres” enterprise and the newspaper as fraudulent.
Belarusian opposition activist, former Deputy and “Republic” group leader Siargey Skrabets can be transferred from Brest to Minsk, deems the politician prisoner’s lawyer Mikhail Khomich. Siargey Skrabets has been hunger striking in the Brest investigatory isolation ward for 38 days. The oppositionist is remonstrating against the arrest and sentences set towards him regarded by him as groundless. The former Parliamentarian is accused on 2 articles of the Criminal Code - crime preparation and bribery.
[Presenter] The Belarusian opposition is talking of an iron curtain and political persecution, while President Lukashenka talks of the economy and study. Viktor Kuzmin reports on the Belarusian president`s latest initiatives for officials and students.
A forgotten minority in a neglected country, the 500,000-odd Poles living in benighted, autocratic Belarus have rarely troubled the outside world. Until now. Alexander Lukashenka, the country`s erratic leader, has made the Poles into new targets for his intolerance of internal dissent and outside interference.
The single candidate scenario currently pursued by the Belarusian opposition is a dead end, a prominent opposition figure and former minister of agriculture, Vasil Lyavonaw, has said in an interview with a Belarusian daily. He stressed that if the 2006 presidential elections were conducted under the current rules, they would be nothing more than a farce and the opposition should not play along. He said President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has monopolized the mass media and the political parties are too unpopular to hope to make a successful presidential bid. Instead of the formal selection of a single candidate by the parties Lyavonaw urged dialogue on an election strategy among opposition politicians. The following is the text of the interview with Lyavonaw by Dzmitryy Zayats entitled "Change rather than elections should be regarded as the ultimate objective" and published by the Belarusian newspaper Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta on 17 June:
The question of nominating a single candidate from the opposition forces to face Alexander Lukashenka in the prospective 2006 presidential election has elicited serious debate in Belarus. Plainly there is a lack of consensus about the procedure and the choice of potential candidates.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday sharply criticized Egypt and Saudi Arabia for democratic failings, mounting a direct challenge to autocratic U.S. allies in the Middle East and calling on governments in the region to embrace "certain basic rights for all their citizens."
RIA Novosti - According to the results of a survey made public today, people in the former Soviet republics share the disappointment in integration processes of those people in the Western Europe who recently voted against the European Union Constitution.
The USA and the EU stated that they intend to promote democracy in Belarus, and confirmed their solidarity with the advocates of democracy in Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and other countries of the world. “The European Union and the United States believe that the spread of accountable and representative government, the rule of law, and respect for human rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are a strategic priority as well as a moral necessity,” reads the joint statement by the EU and the US, adopted at the summit USA-EU at the White House.
Navagrudak officials gave their consent to establishing in the town a museum of noted scientist in the scope of astronautics Barys Kit. As Belarusian writer Volga Ipatava told BelaPAN, Navagrudak authorities made this decision after a meeting with Assistant Professor of the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, Candidate of philological science Lidziya Savik - a well-known researcher of the Belarusian Diaspora’s literature including works by B. Kit.
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