Secret services are interested by the student of Minsk State Linguistic University, activist of the “Union of Belarusian Students” Hanna Krasnova. On June 20 before the exams a man came up to her. He said that he works for KGB. He started to ask her about her personal life. In particular, he was interested by her traineeship in Berlin in autumn, 2003- spring 2004, when Hanna Krasnova took part in the EU program “Youth” and perform social service in public sector as volunteer.
The Administrative Commission of the Polatsk Executive Committee warned June 21 head of the historical club “Vytoki” Mikhas’ Bautovich for spreading printing production without output.
Belarusian opposition activist, former deputy and leader of the parliamentary group “Respublika” Syarhei Skrabets, placed to Brest remand prison, continues hunger strike for 39th day. According to information of political prisoner’s wife Alyaksandra, since yesterday the politician started to drink juice a little. However, it is known that he is not going to take food. Skrabets started to drink juice because he expects a long journey to Minsk remand prison in connection with transfer of his case to Republican Prosecutor’s Office. The political prisoner, who according to information of the lawyer, has lost about 25 kilograms, has become very weak and fears not be able to live through the transfer, which could last for several days, as practice shows.
For the first time from the beginning of the conflict around the Union of Poles in Belarus Consul General of Poland in Brest Romuald Kunat gave an interview to the local journalists. Talking to a correspondent of the independent newspaper “Brestskiy Kur’er”, Romuald Kunat called “political” the claims that the Polish Embassy in Minsk and the Consulate in Brest interfere into the affairs of Belarus. The Polish Diplomat also stated that the representatives of the Brest department of the Union of Poles in Belarus are not engaged in politics.
On June 27 at 11 a.m. at the Supreme Economic Court (Valadarski Str., 8) the claim of the editorial office of the newspaper “Narodnaya Volya” to Information Ministry is to be adjudicated. The newspaper demands to declare invalid the warning to the newspaper.
A Minsk-Warsaw diplomatic clash in May over the Union of Poles in Belarus (SPB) took a new turn earlier this month after the Belarusian authorities deprived the SPB of the possibility to print its weekly, "Glos znad Niemna," and produced two bogus issues of the publication. Warsaw, which sponsors the activities of the SPB, has reportedly suspended financing "Glos znad Niemna," demanding that Minsk recognize the SPB new leadership elected during a congress in March as well as the new editorial staff of the weekly that was appointed after the congress. Some Polish minority activists in Belarus believe that Minsk`s recent steps against the SPB are being orchestrated by the KGB.
Today’s issue of the “Narodnaya Volya” informs its readers about violations of the rights of its journalists. Reporters of the newspaper were not granted accreditation at the press conference of the prosecutor general of Belarus Pyotr Miklashevich, scheduled for June 23.
On June 21 in the headquarters of the Belarusian popular Front a meeting of the initiative group for carrying out a city referendum of a “binding character” was held. About 100 persons, mostly representatives of the Belarusian Popular Front Party, the United Civil Party and the Party of Belarusian Communists have taken part in it. The issue of the referendum should be the question of returning names to two central avenues of Minsk, Skaryna and Masherau Avenues. On May 7 by the decree of Alyaksandr Lukashenka they were renamed Independence and Victor’s Avenues.
Young members of oppositional political parties and movements have carried out a protest against renaming of streets of Belarusian capital. This time it has been decided not to make a “live chain”, as riot police reacts to this form of protest quickly and squeezes people away to the yards, as far from passers-by as possible. Instead of that the young people handed out informational bulletins and leaflets to the passengers of the bus number 100 which goes along Skaryna Avenue.
Leaflets of “Zubr” movement with logo and contact information of the movement were distributed last weekend in Minsk region. The leaflets appeared in Fanipal, Dziarzhinsk and in Mar’yna Horka. Zubr activists distributed them in the most animated places - near shops, markets, on central streets and railway stations.
Lukashenka’s decree limiting foreign trips of state officials to two days was viewed as “he cannot go abroad himself, so he does not allow others to go”. What former colleagues could advise to state officials? This question was addressed by the UCP press service to famous Belarusian leaders.
Siargey Skrabets has been hunger striking behind bars of the investigative isolation ward for 39 days already. The oppositionist, former deputy and the “Republic” group leader is protesting against his arrest and accusations charged against him which he regards groundless. The former Parliamentarian is charged on two articles of the Criminal Code - crime preparation and bribery.
The Minsk Municipal Court will examine the criminal case of the charge brought by Belarusian opposition leaders Mikola Statkievich and Paval Seviarynets regarding the appeal. The date of the trial is set to June 28, 10.00 a.m. to the address: Minsk, Dunina-Martsinkevicha Street -1. If the Municipal Court justifies the decision of the Central court, the sentence will come into force.
The Ukrainian youth organization “National Alliance” addressed the Interior Minister of Ukraine asking to debar all involved in the breaches of rights of the youth in Belarus from entering Ukraine. It is stated in the declaration of the public organization that in Belarus within one year before the Presidential election the practice of expelling students because of their political views has been reinforced significantly. The last example of the repressions exercised by the Belarusian powers was the expulsion form a Zhodzina technical secondary school “Malady Front” activist Siargey Murashka for his participation in the action “Charnobylski Way - 2005”.
Within the last two weeks the meaning of the Belarusian powers’ motions regarding the possible imposing of the visa regime with Georgia has not still been elucidated. A formal reason that has provoked a storm of emotions - a flow of the undesirable for Moscow Georgians who use Belarus as a channel of penetration into Russia, - has not disappeared, but the storm subsided and still there is a matter to be pondered over. A “BDG” correspondent is talking to initiator of Georgia’s reply - announcing Aliaxandar Lukashenka persona non grata - Deputy of the Georgian Parliament Konstantin Gabashvili:
The European Movement International condemns the new and massive wave of fundamental rights violations in Belarus and calls for civil and political support for the establishment of freedom and democracy in that country.
A regular summit of the Eurasian Economic Community takes place in Moscow today. Russian President Vladimir will chair the meeting of the group, which brings together Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in a bid to strengthen economic cooperation. Armenian President Robert Kocharian will also attend today`s gathering as an observer. According to ITAR-TASS, today`s meeting will focus on monetary policy within the group as well as prospects for a customs union.
"Tell me who your enemy is and I will tell you who you are." This phrase could be easily applied to the results of the recent Levada Center poll of which states are seen as Russia`s enemies and which as friends. The results of the poll of 1,600 Russian adults were given wide coverage in Russian media, but it will take some time to analyze them because the new list of enemies is a bombshell. Respondents named Latvia (49%), Lithuania (42%), Georgia (38%) and Estonia (32%) as Russia`s greatest enemies, while the list of friends includes Belarus (46%), Germany (23%), Kazakhstan (20%), India (16%), and France (13%).
Today marks two years since the death of the remarkable Belarusian writer Vasil Bykau. Today’s Belarus needs him very much. “In a non-free, totalitarian time many people think that to stoop to conformism, to compromise with one’s conscience it’s not for long, and that everything could be corrected later. It’s a great delusion. A person, who has bartered away his freedom once, becomes a prisoner forever”. These words were said by Vasil Bykau shortly before his death in exile. Today many people will come to the grave of the great writer in Uskhodniya cemetery in Minsk.
The structure of the Belarusian territorial defence is based on the principals of the partisan movement, said the assistant head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Belarus of the scientific work Yury Partnou.
The second round of the ministerial political consultations between Belarus and the Syrian Arab Republic was held in Damascus. During the talks the Belarusian delegation was headed by deputy foreign minister Viktor Gaisenok; the Syrian one – by deputy head of the foreign political department Ahmad Arnus.
Several hundred people still choose to live in the contaminated villages that dot the 30-kilometer exclusion zone surrounding the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. Despite the health risks still posed by radioactivity, 20 years after the world`s worst civilian nuclear accident, the elderly villagers say the connection to their native land is too strong. RFE/RL visited the exclusion zone, near the border with Belarus, and spoke with some of those who have decided to live their lives in a haunted land.
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