An activist of Barysau branch of Zubr movement Alyaksandr Gigel has received an answer to his complaint to illegal actions of the police. Alyaksandr and three more Zubr activists were detained by police on July 31 during a match of the national football tournament between amateur teams “The Independence Cup”. Policemen detained young guys for carrying white-red-white flags for marking corners. Zubr activists were charged with an unsanctioned demonstration for that.
A new analytical article by Mikalay Statkevich is placed at the site of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Narodnaya Hramada) www.bsdpng.info. It is called “A Basic Resource” and is devoted to the problem of moral leadership of opposition inside the protesting majority. The article has been written in the corrective facility of an open type number 2 in Baranavichy, where M.Statkevich serves a term for organizing protest rallies.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka said that his country would like Fidel Castro to go on a visit to Belarus. On Monday at the meeting with Cuban Ambassador to Belarus Felix Carballo, Lukashenka said: “If he (Fidel Castro) visits Europe some time and combines his arrival with a visit to Belarus, we will be happy to receive him as a very close and kind man”.
Supporters of Anzelika Borys (Anzhelika Boris) will contest the legitimacy of the repeat 6th convention of the Union of Belarusian Poles (UBP) that was held in Volkovysk, Grodno region, on August 27.
In April, here in Lithuania`s capital, Prof Anatoly Mikhailov sat around a table with Condoleezza Rice and Javier Solana, as they pledged their support for efforts to oust president Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian leader of his native Belarus.
Prof Mikhailov left the meeting convinced he had the backing of the US Secretary of State and EU foreign policy chief to reopen his European Humanities University (EHU), which Mr Lukashenko shut down last year as a likely hive of dissent.
Now, the wiry academic is interviewing the first batch of would-be students for his university-in-exile, young Belarusians who have defied their president to travel to Vilnius, the new home of the EHU.
Jozef Zych, deputy speaker of the Sejm (Poland`s lower parliamentary house), plans to be on a visit to Belarus between September 20 and 23, reported Radio Polonia.
Dr. Zych, a member of the Polish People`s Party, has accepted an invitation from Nikolai Cherginets, chairman of the international affairs committee of the Council of the Republic (upper chamber of the Belarusian National Assembly), and Pavel Latushko, the Belarusian ambassador to Poland, Radio Polonia said.
Anzelika Borys (Anzhelika Boris), the ousted leader of the Union of Belarusian Poles (UBP), expressed her satisfaction with her visit to the European Parliament while speaking at a news conference held on September 9 in the office of the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza in Warsaw on her return from Strasbourg.
Experts with the pro-government Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB) have inspected a number of privately held enterprises, concluding that their occupational safety standards are way lower than at companies having grassroots FTUB organizations, the Federation`s press office said.
Political prisoner, leader of the “Young Front” Paval Sevyarynets who serves a two-year sentence of personal restrain in the village Malae Sitna (Polatsk region, Vitsebsk voblast) has received an answer from the commandant’s office in the settlement of Vetryna concerning attending church services. The thing is that there is no Orthodox Churches within 20 kilometres from the village, and leaving Malae Sitna and railway station Alyoshcha is banned for Paval Sevyarynets.
Vitsebsk oppositionists were fined almost 4 million for congratulating with the Day of Belarusian Military Glory. On September 8 at 11 a.m. activists of the Conservative Christian Party Belarusian Popular Front Uladzimir Khamajda and entrepreneur Syarhei Mirkushou went to the streets of Vitsebsk with white-red-white flags and bid colourful slogans.
The Ministry of Justice demanded from the Union of Belarusian Writers to exclude the people who live abroad, threatening to liquidate the organization otherwise. Among the foreign members there are the professor of Warsaw University Alexaner Barsczeaski, literature critic from Moscow Alexey Kavka, poet and journalist from Poltava Inna Snarskaya, scientist from St. Petersburg Valentin Grytskevich, etc. All of them write in Belarusian. Some of them joined the Union of Writers during the Soviet rule.
At 11 a.m. on 8 September the members of Vitsiebsk branch of Conservative Christian Party BPF Uladzimir Plieshchanka and Aliaksandr Salauian, the oppositional activist Barys Khamaida and the redundant Siarhiei Mikushou went out in Lenin Street with the following posters: “Today is the Day of Belarus Military Glory”, “On 8 September 1514 30 000 Belarusian soldiers won over 80 000 Moscow army”, “Hats off to Belarusian Heroes!”, “That’s how one should defend the independence of fatherland!”. Vitsiebsk citizens paid interest to the posters, whereas the riot squad police detained the picketers and took them to a court, together with white-red-white flag and the posters as evidence. Judge Hrabianchuk postponed the trial to 12 September.
The Steering Committee of the Congress of Democratic Forces has not received a written confirmation and guarantees that the Congress can be held in Belarus. As we have informed, oppositional organizations of Belarus planned to elect a single candidate for the next-year presidential elections.
Payments to the state budget to a political prisoner, leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Narodnaya Hramada) Mikola Statkevich have been increased. Now he is to pay 50% of his military pension to the state. According to the oppositional politician, the authorities have done that intentionally, to worsen his financial condition. To his mind, a series of measures has been elaborated for insulting his honour and dignity. The oppositionist has been sentenced to two years of corrective labour for organizing street protests against rigged elections results on October 18 and 19.
The Minsk Executive Committee has deprived New Life Church of its land and the accompanying building according to the Resolution dated August 17, 2005. As it said in the Minsk Executive Committee.s decision, the Resolution was made due to the usage of the building not for it directed purpose. This became known August 29, 2005. The next step of the authorities will be purchasing the cow shed. The administrator of New Life Church, Vasiliy Yurevich commented that: «The church considers this decision to be illegal and will take this matter to court in the near future. We are going to fight for the land that God gave us».
The European Union will pump more cash into broadcasts to Belarus to promote democracy, media freedom and human rights among the ex-Soviet state`s 10 million people, the EU executive Commission said on Friday.
An authoritative scientific report commissioned by the United Nations has found that the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in rural Ukraine - the worst nuclear accident in history - caused far less health and environmental damage than originally feared. The findings offer clues for coping with a major release of radiation from a nuclear plant, whether caused by terrorists or by an accident.
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