“On the eve of the presidential elections the authorities would try to do everything possible to suppress the remnants of freedom in the country. The official warnings of the Prosecutor’s office to journalists, battery of the Zubrs, searches in the apartments of oppositional youth in Vitsebsk prove that. During the searches policemen are interested not by explosives, but by contacts of the oppositionists. It is obvious that the authorities are getting ready for “The Night of the Long Knives” before the elections, when ‘oppositionally-minded’ people are to be interned, so that they would not be able to come to the square, so that we would not have our “majdan”. But it is useless, it is impossible to intimidate freethinking people,” said the well-known human rights activist and journalist, a member of the Council of Civil Initiatives “Free Belarus” Valery Schukin, commenting on the issuing of the official warning to the special correspondent of the Russian “Novaya Gazeta” in Belarus, Iryna Khalip, issued by the Prosecutor’s office of Belarus.

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Observers give critical opinion about prospective of political dialogue between Belarusian and Ukrainian governments. In spite of meeting of presidents of this states and agreements between ministers of foreign affairs of Belarus and Ukraine concerning visit of Ukrainian prime-minister to Belarus Minsk and Kiev demonstrate opposite vision of political and economic strategy, observers say.

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Workers of the Interior Affairs Department are to provide preservation of order on October 1-2 at the territory near the House of Culture “MAZ”. It is said in the letter of the Interior Affairs Minister Uladzimir Navumau, received by the United Civil Party, the press service of the UCP informs.

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The European Parliament is scheduled to discuss, among issues, the situation in Belarus on September 28 and adopt a resolution on the subject.

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Belarusian politicians said Poland is likely to take a tougher stance on Belarus following center-right parties` victory in the Sunday`s parliamentary elections. According to early returns, the Law and Justice party gained 27.9 percent and its ally Civic Platform received 24.7 percent of the vote.

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Stanislav Shushkevich, leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada (BSDH), said he would like a single opposition candidate in Belarus` 2006 presidential election to be like Ukraine`s leader Viktor Yushchenko.

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The Belarusian Party of Communists (BPC) will continue to be involved in common pro-democratic efforts irrespective of who will be selected to be opposition groups` single candidate for the 2006 presidential race. A decision to this effect was made at a plenary meeting of the BPC Central Committee held in Minsk on September 25.

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Ukrainian acting Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk says Ukraine is prepared to act as a mediator between Belarus and the Council of Europe and the European Union. "The European Union is prepared for [Ukraine to act as a mediator] also," Tarasiuk said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday, commenting on his meeting with Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov.

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Viktor Sheiman, head of the Presidential Administration, described cooperation with China as Belarus` foreign-policy priority. While receiving a top-ranking Chinese official on Monday, the Belarusian official emphasized the level of the bilateral relationship and expressed gratitude to the Chinese leadership for supporting Belarus in the international arena, official information sources reported.

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In the next few days issue of the only daily independent newspaper of Belarus, “Narodnaya Volya”, can be stopped. The editor-in-chief, founder and publisher of the newspaper, Iosif Syaredzich, told about it to the BelaPAN agency. As said by him, this situation has followed after the decision of the court of Lenin district of Minsk in the action of the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Syarhei Hajdukevich. On June 14 a sentence was passed in that case. The court partially satisfied the demand of the plaintiff and made the newspaper pay 100 mln Br as a compensation for moral damages caused by one of the articles. Minsk city court dismissed cassation appeal to this verdict.

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Ukraine offered Sept. 25 to help mediate between Belarus and the European Union amid growing European criticism over the recent crackdown on Belarus` Polish minority. "We are prepared to act in the role as a friendly side," acting Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk said after talks with his Belarusian counterpart, Sergei Martynov.

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Entrepreneur Mikalai Autukhovich and an unemployed woman, Natallya Nyaborskaya, are on a hunger strike in Vaukavysk. Nobody has asked about the state of health of Mikalai Autukhovich for the six days of the hunger strike, except for his colleagues. The city authorities are referring to their preoccupation with the celebration of the 1000 anniversary of Vaukavysk. The position of the local hospital is as following: when a person feels bad, he is to address for help himself. Natallya Nyaborskaya went on hunger strike on September 23, she has vertigo, and she is afraid of losing consciousness.

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Editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper “Zgoda” Alyaksei Karol and his assistant Alyaksandr Sdzvizhkou are fined 100 basic units each (about USD 1,200). This verdict has been passed by the court of Pershamajski district of Minsk. The court punished the leaders of the independent newspaper for “dissemination of knowingly false information”.

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On September 26 in the in the first part of the day the work of the independent trade unions movement’s site www.praca-by.info was paralyzed. As said by experts, the site has been exposed to hacker’s attack. For several hours the visitors of the site could see a blood-red tail of a scorpion against a black background. The hackers have left a message that the names of some html-files were changed.

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There has been information that Belarusian administration may attempt to create some difficulties for the Congress. Officials are telling that soon there may come out another decree of Lukashenka or resolution of the Council of Ministers declaring that the day of Congress (October 1) would be a working day.

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In Minsk a regiment of special police started work, which includes parts of the former riot police of the capital. This regiment is subordinated to the head of Minsk police General Anatol Kuliashou, the regiment commander is Iury Padabed, who earlier was in charge of the Minsk riot police and himself took part in the dispersal of many opposition-led actions, for which he was banned entry to the EU countries.

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From 19 till 30 September 2005 Warsaw hosts a traditional annual OSCE conference that considers the commitments devoted to the human dimension in 2005.

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Restrictions on freedom of assembly and association in Uzbekistan, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan were criticized September 20 by Julie Finley, U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

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The Foreign Ministers of Ukraine and Belarus, Borys Tarasyuk and Sergey Martynov paraphed a consular convention on September 26.

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Work has begun at the United Nations to create a new Human Rights Council. It would replace the Geneva-based Human Rights Commission, which has seen its credibility damaged as notorious rights abusers have gained membership. At this month`s U.N. summit, world leaders agreed that re-creating the human rights body should be a priority, but the outlook for real human rights reform is uncertain.

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A senior Chinese party leader said here Monday China is ready to further strengthen the close exchanges and cooperation with Belarus on government supervision, and further promote the relations between the two nations.

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A well-known oppositional politician, former deputy and the leader of the parliamentary group “Respublika” Syarhei Skrabets was transferred from Minks remand prison to a prison hospital. On September 26 Radio Svaboda was informed about that by the lawyer of the former deputy, Aleh Dubavets. State of health of Syarhei Skrabets, who is on the second hunger strike for the third week, has made doctors from the remand prison in Valadarski Street to send him to prison hospital.

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