Threats to Close Union of Writers :: Charter'97 :: News

Early in September the Union of Belarusian Writers received a written notice dated 30 August from the Ministry of Justice. The authorities threaten to take the organization to court and close it. The Ministry of Justice has four complaints: the sign board on the building has not been changed, the seal of the organization does not comply with the legislative requirements, some members of the UBW are foreigners which is against the present legislature; the Union of Writers has not sent the statute of the organization to the Ministry of Justice, informs “Nasha Niva”.

The leader of the organization Ales Pashkevich took these complaints in his stride: “We informed the Ministry of Justice about the sign board: at the moment the Union has no money to change it. Our seal was approved by the officials of this very Ministry”.

The other complaints are more complicated: the original of the UBW statute is lost, though there is a copy which was issued together with the original in 1999. The question of the membership of our foreign friends was discussed by the Rada which ruled the following: we have no moral right to eliminate these people from the organization. The Union leader is confident that the organization is right morally and innocent legally: “Why do we have to turn out the people who became members of the organization before this act was passed? At present we do not grant membership to new foreigners though Belarusian-speaking writers from the Ukraine ask us for it”.

The Union of Writers remains one of those few organizations that are consistent in fighting for their independence from supporters of Lukashenka.