International League for Human Rights - Belarus Update :: Charter'97 :: News

Vol. 9, No. 9
September 15 – September 29, 2005
Edited by Maria Kabalina and Olga Tarasov
International League for Human Rights

Table of Contents

I. Domestic
1. Belarus Nationalists Claim Responsibility for Recent Blasts (MosNews.Com)
2. Second Flower-Bed Bomb Blast Injures 46 in Belarus (Scotsman.com)
3. Aleksandr Lukashenko: Trade Unions Do Not Stand Against Belarus’ Authority (The National Centre of Legal Information)
4. Two Injured in Belarus Blast (MosNews.Com)

II. Regional
5. Top Officials From Ukraine, Belarus and Poland to Hold Three-Way Talks in Kyiv (Kyiv Post)
6. 69% of Poll Respondents Support Russia, Belarus Unification (Itar-Tass)
7. Belarus Rejects Ukraine`s Mediation Offer With EU (RFE/RL)
8. Sergei Martynov: Meeting Between Presidents of Belarus and Ukraine Can Be Held in Near Future (The National Centre of Legal Information)
9. Days Of Culture Of Belarus To Be Held In Armenia From September 30 To October 3, 2005 (Armeniadiaspora.com)
10. Russia, Belarus To Have No Common President in Near Future (Itar-Tass)
11. Russia, Belarus Join Forces To Fight Terrorism (RIA Novosti)

III. International
12. Symbolic Language for Belarus (Euro-reporters.com)
13. Ukraine, Belarus, Poland Step Up Tripartite Cooperation (Itar-Tass)
14. Belarus Hunts Terrorists on Its Borders with the Baltic Countries (Kommersant)
15. Belarus Sliding Into Totalitarian Rule says UN Envoy (Reuters AlertNet)
16. Belarus and Slovakia Agree on Reduced Visa Cost for Certain Categories of People (The National Centre of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus)
17. Belarus Wants More Active Role for Non-Aligned Movement (MosNews.Com)
18. Foreign Secret Services Taking Keen Interest in Belarus Ahead of Presidential Election: Official (People’s Daily Online)
19. Increasing Tensions Between Belarus and Poland (World Socialist Web Site)
20. EU Broadcasting Project Comes Under Fire (RFE/RL)
21. President of Belarus Returns Today From USA (The National Centre of Legal Information)
22. Belarus Leader Defends Saddam, Mourns Loss of USSR (NewKerala.com)

IV. Human Rights & Independent Media
23. October 16 – Day of Our Solidarity (Charter97)
24. Journalists Fined for Humorous Collages (BAJ)
25. Belarus: Second Massive Fine For Organizing Religious Worship (Forum 18)
26. Last Independent Daily Shut Down in Belarus (Khaleej Times)
27. In Belarus, Battle Lines Are Drawn but Revolution Is Still a Tough Sell (Los Angeles Times)
28. With Simple Tools, Activists in Belarus Build a Movement (Washington Post)
29. Belarus: False Dawn For Minsk Charismatic Church (Forum 18)
30. Lukashenko Criticizes U.S. `Unipolar` World Dominance (RFE/RL)
31. Courage and Professionalism: The Recipe for Survival of Belarusian Journalists (BAJ)

V. Business
32. Belarus Harvested 7.025 Mln tones Grains, a Minister Told Lukashenko (AgriMarket.Info)
33. IMF Takes Note of Belarus’ Economic Growth With Simultaneous Reduction in Inflation (The National Centre of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus)
34. Belarus President Says GDP To Grow 50% In 5 Years (RIA Novosti)

DOMESTIC

1. Belarus Nationalists Claim Responsibility for Recent Blasts
The Belarus Popular Liberation Army (BPLA) has claimed responsibility for two recent explosions in the northeastern city of Vitebsk, injuring 42, Belapan reported.

A statement e-mailed to the local news agency Sept. 29 said “that on 14 and 22 September 2005 the BPLA installed and set off explosive devices in Vitebsk”.

“The operation was aimed at achieving the BPLA’s political objectives. As of 29 September 2005, the BPLA has suffered no losses,” the statement said.

“Any attempt to use force to resolve the ’problem of the BPLA’ does not have any prospects. The problem can only be solved by meticulously fulfilling the demands outlined in the declaration announcing the establishment of the BPLA,” the group stresses.

The BPLA earlier assumed responsibility for rumors about the worsening radioactive situation and hoax bomb alerts at office buildings in Minsk and railway tracks.

The Belarusian Security Council does not regard the BPLA statement about its involvement in the Vitebsk bombings as “credible”. A source in the council told Belapan that normally perpetrators of such acts claim responsibility immediately rather than after a period of time.

The General Prosecutor’s Office said that the criminal case opened in relation to the bombing on Sept. 22 under Article 14 (an attempt to perpetrate a crime) and Part 2 Article 139 (murder) of the Penal Code had not been re-qualified.

About 40 people were injured when a home-made bomb went of in Vitebsk on the evening of Sept. 22. Two people were injured in an explosion in Vitebsk on Sept. 14.

Source: MosNews.Com, September 29, 2005; www.mosnews.com

2. Second Flower-Bed Bomb Blast Injures 46 in Belarus
Forty six people were wounded, four of them seriously, when a bomb hidden in a flower bed exploded beside an outdoor cafe in the Belarusian city of Vitebsk last night.

Duty officer Alexei Murzhankov, of the city`s department of the ministry, said that 25 of those injured in the blast were hospitalized and four were in intensive care.

Mr. Murzhankov said the explosion occurred just outside a city cafe. A Vitebsk resident, Anton Stepanishchev, said the cafe was a temporary, partially open-air structure of the sort often set up to attract customers in the summer.

The Interfax news agency reported that the explosive device was buried among flowers outside the cafe. It was the second such explosion in the town in nine days after a homemade bomb - a beer can stuffed with nails and metal scraps - was planted in a flower bed near a bus stop, injuring two people.

Source: Scotsman.com; September 23, 2005; http://news.scotsman.com/

3. Aleksandr Lukashenko: Trade Unions Do Not Stand Against Belarus’ Authority
Trade unions have never been against the authority, government and the president of Belarus, head of state Aleksandr Lukashenko stated today at the 5th conference of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus /FTUB/.

The president considers the FTUB conference as an important event not only in the work of the body but also in the country’s development. According to him, the conference is completing report-back election trade union campaign and reviewing the results of the federation’s development and its prospects.

“The socio-economic stability of the country greatly depends on the constructive position of trade unions”, the Belarusian leader underlined.

Source: The National Centre of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus; September 20, 2005; http://law.by/work/Eng/

4. Two Injured in Belarus Blast
An explosive device went off in the center of Vitebsk on Wednesday evening, a spokesperson for local police authority told Interfax news agency.

The bomb was stuffed with nails and pieces of metal, the official said.

Two people — a senior pupil at a local school and a woman — were hospitalized with injuries.

Police have launched an investigation into the blast.

Belarus, the former Soviet republic ruled by authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko, is not involved in any territorial conflicts which could give grounds to assume the incident was a terrorist attack.

Source: MosNews.Com, September 15, 2005; www.mosnews.com

REGIONAL

5. Top Officials From Ukraine, Belarus and Poland to Hold Three-Way Talks in Kyiv
Ukraine`s new Security Council chief called Sept. 29 for an end to the international isolation of Belarus, praising the three-way talks between Ukraine, Poland and Belarus as a step in the right direction.

Anatoly Kinakh said that Ukraine would direct its efforts toward ensuring that Belarus, led by authoritarian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, is able to play a role international organizations, such as the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Kinakh`s comments about bringing Belarus out of isolation are in sharp contrast to the overwhelming view in Europe and the United States, which have treated Lukashenko like a pariah for his crackdown on human rights.

"We consider our dialogue ... an effort to not allow any attempt, even to this or that degree, to isolate Belarus," Kinakh, who was named this week to lead the Security and Defense Council, said during the talks, Ukraine`s Unian news agency reported.

Lukashenko, who has ruled since 1994, has quashed dissent, closed independent media and suppressed opposition parties. He has also come under criticism for his government`s crackdown on Belarus` small Polish minority.

Last week, Ukraine offered to help mediate with the European Union on behalf of Belarus, but Belarus rejected the offer.

The three-way talks on Sept. 29, which were hosted by Ukraine`s Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk, were held with the aim of improving border control between the neighboring states. Participating on behalf of Poland was National Security Bureau chief Jerzy Bar, and Security Council chief Gennady Neviglas came from Belarus. Later, Bar and Neviglas met with Kinakh.

The meetings were held amid worsening ties between Poland and Belarus.

Lukashenko has accused Poland of encouraging Belarus` Poles to help oust him in mass protests similar to those that ushered the pro-western opposition into power in Ukraine last fall.

About 500,000 ethnic Poles, or around 5 percent of the population, are concentrated in the west, near the Polish border.

Kinakh said the talks would help ensure that the people of all three neighboring states "better understand the processes underway in our countries," Unian reported. He said the countries should find ways to boost cooperation in the energy and transportation sphere.

The talks also focused on efforts to improve border safety and battle narcotics trafficking and illegal migration.

Since coming to power, Ukraine`s President Viktor Yushchenko has focused his attention on winning future membership in the EU and on maintaining ties with neighboring Russia, largely ignoring Belarus. Earlier this month, however, Yushchenko pledged to dispatch new Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov to Belarus and is currently arranging a summit with Lukashenko in what critics warn could signal a reversal of this country`s western aspirations.

Source: Kyiv Post; September 29 2005; http://www.kyivpost.com/

6. 69% of Poll Respondents Support Russia, Belarus Unification
Sixty-nine percent of respondents in a poll conducted by the National and International Security Foundation’s Sociological Research Center support the unification of Russia and Belarus.

The center polled 1,528 respondents older than 18 in 16 cities and towns of Russia on September 16-25, says the Foundation press release posted in the State Duma on Tuesday.

Twenty-seven percent of the respondents called for a Russia-Belarus federation, and the same number of respondents said that the Russian president should become the chief of the Russia-Belarus union.

Thirty-one percent of the respondents said that President Vladimir Putin is the staunchest supporter of the post-Soviet integration. Forty-seven percent described Belarus as the country friendliest to Russia.

Over one-third of the respondents said that the Russian integration policy on the post-Soviet space is efficient, and 28% said that the Russia-Belarus union has the best chances on the post-Soviet space.

Source: Itar-Tass; September 27, 2005; http://www.tass.ru/eng

7. Belarus Rejects Ukraine`s Mediation Offer With EU
Belarus today refused an offer of help from Ukraine for it to mediate between Belarus and the European Union amid a growing row.

Acting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk made the offer today in Kyiv after having talks with his Belarusian counterpart Siarhiej Martynov.

However, Martynov said that Belarus "doesn`t need outside help," saying: "[Belarus], as a sovereign state, will make its own decisions about processes taking place in its society and it does not need outside help, with all respect to brotherly Ukraine."

Ukraine`s offer comes as European officials criticize a recent crackdown on Belarus`s Polish minority. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko accuses Poland of working with the European Union and the United States to encourage Belarusian Poles to help oust him from power.

Source: Robert McMahon, RFE/RL, September 26, 2005; www.rferl.org

8. Sergei Martynov: Meeting Between Presidents of Belarus and Ukraine Can Be Held in Near Future
Issues on the forthcoming meeting between the presidents of Belarus and Ukraine were discussed today in Kiev. As BelTA has been informed in the foreign ministry of this republic, in the course of the talks between foreign minister of Belarus Sergei Martynov and his Ukrainian counterpart Boris Tarasiuk the sides agreed that in the near future (at the end of September – in early October) prime minister of Ukraine Yuri Ekhanurov will pay a visit to Belarus to prepare a meeting between two leaders Aleksandr Lukashenko and Viktor Yuschenko.

According to the head of the foreign political department of this republic, the concrete terms of the visit will depend on the terms of forming a new government in Ukraine.

Moreover, agreement on taking additional measures for finalizing several bilateral documents, which are planned to be signed in the course of the visit of the prime minister of Ukraine to Minsk, was reached in Kiev today as well, Sergei Martynov noted. Several documents on bilateral cooperation in the economic, political, intellectual and other spheres should be prepared for signing. These will be important agreements, for example, on taking mutual protective measures in the free trade between the two states.

Source: The National Centre of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus; September 26, 2005; http://law.by/work/Eng/

9. Days Of Culture Of Belarus To Be Held In Armenia From September 30 To October 3, 2005
From September 30 to October 3, 2005 Days of Culture of the Republic of Belarus will be held in Armenia, according to the Press Service of the Belarus Embassy in the RA. According to the press release, Days of Culture of the Republic of Belarus in Armenia will give opportunity to Armenians to join to the national Belarus culture, and will be a stimulus for further development of Armenian-Belarus cooperation.

The official opening of Days of Culture of the Republic of Belarus in Armenia will take place on September 30 in the National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet after Spendiaryan. The same day an exhibition of Belarus icons and national suits will be launched in the National Pictures Gallery. In the framework of the program Days of Belarus Film in "Moscow" movie theatre are expected. Four films will be shown to the Armenian audience: "Anastasia Slutskaya", "Dunechka", "Little Runaways" and "Deep stream". Belarus creative collectives will give performances in the regional centers of the republic, Artashat and Gyumri, during the Days of Culture of Belarus.

Source: Armeniadiaspora.com; September 20, 2005; http://www.armeniadiaspora.com

10. Russia, Belarus To Have No Common President in Near Future
The final wording of the Constitutional Act of the Belarus-Russian Union State will be agreed in Moscow at a meeting of the bilateral commission on October 20, said chairman of the State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Construction Vladimir Pligin, speaking at a news conference on Tuesday. He has just returned from Minsk where work is also in progress on the text of the document.

“The draft document which we have now, does not provide for forming an institute of a common president,” Pligin emphasized. “A mechanism of running the Union State will be more complicated.”

He did not preclude a chance that in future, the two union states will have possibly a single Constitution. However it is too early to speak about this. The treaty participants should forfeit, for instance, part of their sovereignty. There is a number of other “deep-rooted questions which cannot be resolved at one go”, Pligin emphasized.

Source: Itar-Tass; September 20 2005; http://www.tass.ru/eng/

11. Russia, Belarus Join Forces To Fight Terrorism
Special forces from the interior ministries of Russia and Belarus are holding joint antiterrorist exercises in the western Russian city of Smolensk, a Russian ministry spokesman said Thursday.
"The exercises, observed by Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and his CIS counterparts, are taking place in three stages," the spokesman said.

He said the scenario would have the officers release hostages from inside the building seized by terrorists. The terrorists would then be dealt with before the troops went after the remaining terrorists in the area.

The exercises involve the Russian units Rus, Vityaz, Peresvet, Rys, the Smolensk region special police forces and Belarusian Almaz and Interior Ministry troops.

Officers from the Cobra Austrian anti-terrorist unit are observing the exercises.

Source: RIA Novosti, September 15, 2005; http://en.rian.ru

INTERNATIONAL

12. Symbolic Language for Belarus
MEPs at the Strasbourg plenary session finally turned to Belarus. Answering their questions was not External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner - too busy elsewhere - but Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn. "Belarus is in clear breach of its international commitments under the OSCE and UN charters," said Rehn. "We have recently seen a worrying deterioration in the situation. The regime restricts human rights even more and is taking further steps against non-governmental organizations, undermining the rights of minorities, imprisoning citizens for political reasons and curtailing freedom of expression," the Commissioner argued.

"But what exactly has happened since the last resolution on Belarus that we adopted in July, just before the holidays?" asked Polish MEP Bogdan Klich. "After all, as the Commissioner rightly notes, events in Belarus are galloping ahead. The political situation is undergoing a radical change to the worse from month to month," said Klich.

"You may ask how the Commission has reacted. In response to the growing repression in Belarus we have increased our funding for democratization and human rights by transferring €2 million from the TACIS Programme to the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights Programme," said Rehn.

Other measures include opening, early next year, a Commission office in Minsk headed by a charg? d`affaires. The Commission has also quietly investigated alleged violations of trade union rights under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and extended an EU list of senior Belarus officials covered by a visa ban.

All this did not stop Polish MEP Konrad Szyma?ski from attacking a lack of effective EU financing: "We need an effective financing system for democratic forces and it is difficult to imagine such a system without a specific human rights instrument that should be as flexible as possible, rapid and effective in transferring support in unfavorable legal conditions," argued Szyma?ski.

"This year we have already signed 27 small contracts with NGOs worth EUR 3 million. One of the most significant developments in our assistance is our support for independent broadcasting," countered Rehn. "In response to the suggestions from this Parliament and elsewhere, starting from 1 November we shall fund a daily radio news programme."

The program, to be broadcast by Deutsche Welle from 1 November, quickly came in for criticism for being only in Russian. "It was a mistake to support radio and television programs in Russian. We cannot take part in the russification of Belarus that has been decreed by Lukashenko. European money must be earmarked for radio and television in the Belarus language," Polish MEP Bogus?aw Sonik told Rehn.

"Why do we support broadcasting in both Russian and Belarusian? There is one simple fact which we have to take into account: 65% of the Belarusian population speaks Russian at home, while 5% speak Belarusian at home," said Rehn. "This is precisely the reason why we have opted for broadcasting in both languages, Russian and Belarusian: Russian for pragmatic reasons – that is what most people speak every day; Belarusian for symbolic reasons – this is the language that heralds a new free Belarus."

Source: David Ferguson, Euro-reporters.com; September 29, 2005; http://euro-reporters.com

13. Ukraine, Belarus, Poland Step Up Tripartite Cooperation
Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland step up cooperation in a tripartite format. With this end in view, Ukraine`s Minister of Foreign Affairs Boris Tarasyuk, Jerzy Bar, Chairman of Poland`s National Security Bureau, and Gennady Neviglas, State Secretary of the National Security Council of Belarus, meet here on Thursday.

Vassily Filipchuk, Head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry press service, has told Itar-Tass, "The upcoming meeting will mark the beginning of interaction aimed at developing problem-solving contacts in the region".

The sides are planning to discuss matters concerning the development of trans-border cooperation, efforts to ensure the safety of borders within the context of counteraction to such threats as transnational crime, the trafficking of narcotics, and illegal migration. Some aspects of humanitarian cooperation among the three countries are also on the agenda of the three-sided meeting.

Source: Itar-Tass; September 29, 2005; http://www.tass.ru/eng/

14. Belarus Hunts Terrorists on Its Borders with the Baltic Countries
Friendship of the Nations

The “Northwest Strategic Command forces command staff exercises” began in Belarus near the borders with Lithuania and Latvia yesterday. About 4500 troops and 50 pieces of armored equipment are involved. The Belarusian military will work on the interaction of strategic command organs and military units “in the organization and implementation of the antiterrorist struggle.”

Military units from the Northwestern Strategic Command, the 103rd Independent Mobile Guard Brigade, territorial defense department organs, including district defense staffs and subdivisions of territorial forces of the Verkhnedvincky District of Vitebsk Region (on the border with Latvia) and the Vileisky District of Minsk Region (near the border with Lithuania), subdivisions of the 5th Independent Special Forces Brigade, an Air Force helicopter detachment and air defense forces.

Those forces will work out actions against illegal armed formations and paratroopers. The 103rd Brigade and 38th Special Forces Brigade will be the illegal paratroopers. The exercises will last until October 2.

The choice of location for the exercises is not chance. Belarus wants to show heightened military activity on its borders with the Baltic countries. Last Monday, the 15-day draft season began in Vitebsk and Minsk Regions, which both border on Baltic countries. Defense of military and state objects and military management organs is being developed. Belarusian Minister of Defense Leonid Maltsev stated at a meeting of officers of the Grodno Military Garrison (near the Lithuanian and Polish borders) that “an information war is being waged against Belarus” and, therefore, Belarus and Russia should stand up to potential threats from NATO with military might.

“The armed forces of our state in alliance with the armed forces of Russia should guarantee a level of battle readiness and have the military might so that no one was tempted to threaten us,” Maltsev said. His statement coincided with a statement by Baltic Fleet commander Adm. Vladimir Valuev that Russia and Belarus plan to form a united system of air defense in the Western areas. “A system of information exchange already exists and the system for the use of aerodromes and raising forces and means from the republic of Belarus will depend on future agreement on the level of the ministries of defense of both countries,” Valuev said.

According to the Belarusian defense Ministry, Rosoboroneksport, the Russian state arms exporter, and that ministry signed a contract on September 10 for the delivery of S-300SP antiballistic missile complexes to Minsk. That, the military says, will significantly raise the effectiveness of the Belarusian air defense and Air Force and the unified air defense system of all the CIS countries.

Source: Yury Viktorovich, Kommersant; September 27, 2005; http://www.kommersant.com/

15. Belarus Sliding Into Totalitarian Rule says UN Envoy
A United Nations human rights investigator on Friday warned that Belarus was sliding into totalitarian rule and said he saw little hope that presidential elections due in 2006 would be free and fair.

Adrian Severin, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Belarus, called on the international community to present a united front to press for change to enable the people of Belarus to gain access to impartial information from the outside world.

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, isolated by the West for a poor record on human rights and media freedom, is running for a third term in 2006.

"I see signs of attempts at creating a state official ideology," Severin told Reuters in an interview.
"This means a transition from authoritarian to a totalitarian regime," he said in Vilnius, where he was attending a conference on Belarus in Lithuania. "It is not just about controlling goods, but about controlling minds and souls."

Severin, due to present a report to the UN on Belarus in April next year, said the international community was divided on what to do about the ex-Soviet state of 10 million people. It has been called by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "the last true dictatorship in the centre of Europe."

The U.N. envoy said he held out little hope that the 2006 presidential vote would be democratic.
"There are no signs that elections will be freer and fairer," he said.

Lukashenko, a close ally of neighbor Russia, has been in office for 12 years. The veteran leader won overwhelming support in a referendum last year to enable him to prolong his stay in power. Western countries have denounced the poll as rigged.

Severin, whose requests to visit Belarus have been denied, said his new UN report would detail no improvements there.

Senior opposition politician Vincuk Viachorka, chairman of the Belarus Popular Front Party, told Reuters there was no chance that Lukashenko would be unseated in the 2006 poll.

"Lukashenko`s power is a typical example of an individual directly supported from abroad, from Russia," said Viachorka, who was attending the same conference in Lithuania.

In Belarus, President Lukashenko on Friday vowed to enforce additional security measures after a bomb blast wounded 40 people outside a cafe in a town northeast of the capital Minsk.

Source: Darius James Ross, Reuters AlertNet; September 23, 2005; http://www.alertnet.org/

16. Belarus and Slovakia Agree on Reduced Visa Cost for Certain Categories of People
At the bilateral consular consultations held in Minsk Belarus and Slovakia agreed on the mutual reduction of the visa cost for certain categories of people. The Belarusian delegation was headed by head of the consular agency of the foreign ministry Vasiliy Zhlutko, the Slovak – by director of the foreign ministry’s consular department Liubomir Bystritskiy.

As a BelTA correspondent was told by head of the department on planning and analysis of the foreign ministry’s consular agency of Belarus Igor Sekreta, the decision on mutual reduction of the visa cost would enter into force after all necessary state procedures and would be confirmed by the exchanged diplomatic notes.

According to him, the sides agreed that Belarus will legalize its succession in respect of the treaty between the USSR and the Czechoslovak Socialistic Republic on legal assistance and legal relations in civil, family and criminal cases signed in Moscow on August 12, 1982.

As for the agreement on readmission proposed by Slovakia, the sides agreed to continue the work on the draft after Belarus signs similar agreement with the Russian Federation.

The sides discussed the consequences of the Slovak Republic’s joining the EU and its future accession to the Schengen agreement and also their impact on the relations between Belarus and Slovakia in consular issues. The sides exchanged the opinions on other consular issues of mutual interest, Igor Sekreta concluded.

Source: The National Centre of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus; September 22, 2005; http://law.by/work/Eng/

17. Belarus Wants More Active Role for Non-Aligned Movement
Belarus would like to see a more active role for the Non-Aligned Movement in the U.N.’s decision making, Belarus’ Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a meeting of the Non-Aligned states in New York, the minister was quoted by the Rosbalt web agency as saying the movement should work out a special proposal aimed at the activation of its role in negotiations and decision making within the United Nations.

The foreign ministers of Malaysia, South African Republic, Morocco, Syria, Sudan and North Korea supported Martynov’s proposal.

The minister also quoted a U.N. initiative of Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko to acknowledge the diversity of ways of progressive development and the Belarus initiative to oppose the trafficking of people.

Source: MosNews.Com, September 22, 2005; www.mosnews.com

18. Foreign Secret Services Taking Keen Interest in Belarus Ahead of Presidential Election: Official
Foreign secret services are taking a keen interest in Belarus ahead of the presidential election next year, the Itar-Tass news agency quoted the head of the country`s security agency as saying on Sunday.

"We see many secret services are carrying out very aggressive and hysterical work against our state," Stepan Sukhorenko, head of the State Security Committee, told reporters on Saturday.
Representatives of various foreign foundations are active in the country, Sukhorenko said. "Many in the West cannot live in peace with the course pursued by the Belarusian president."

Belarusian secret services may unveil results of the work to expose spies and bust the attempts to recruit Belarusian citizens, he said.

The fight against organized crime, corruption and terrorism remain priorities for the country`s secret services, the security chief said. Source: Xinhua

Source: People’s Daily Online; September 19, 2005; http://english.people.com.cn/200509/19/eng20050919_209184.html

19. Increasing Tensions Between Belarus and Poland
On August 25, the press department of Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka announced that Belka had recently led a discussion with the prime ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine about the possibilities of overthrowing Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko. The previous week, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski had held similar talks with the presidents of Ukraine, Georgia and Lithuania on the Ukrainian peninsula of Krim.

These unconcealed Polish threats against Belarus have been preceded by a series of diplomatic conflicts between the two countries. In May, Lukashenko sacked the recently elected head of the “Union of Poles in Belarus” (ZPB), Andzelika Borys, replacing him with former chairman Tadeusz Krukowski. With 25,000 members, the ZPB is the largest non-governmental organization in Belarus. In contrast to Borys, Krukowski believes in keeping out of the country’s political debates.

At the end of July, the conflict escalated and both countries recalled their ambassadors. Lukashenko had 20 leading members of the ZPD arrested. On August 28, the ZPD elected a government supporter, Jozef Lucznik, as its new chairman. The election, however, was conducted behind closed doors. Belarus police had cordoned off large areas surrounding the voting place and prevented some delegates from voting. After the results were announced, the Polish government refused to acknowledge Lucznik as the new chairman.

Even before this episode, and in particular after the so-called “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine last year, politicians and the media in Poland have campaigned heavily against the president of Belarus. Hardly a day has gone by without a report in the media about the “last dictator in Europe.” In recent weeks, Kwasniewski, Belka and foreign minister Adam Rotfeld have been at pains to gain the support of the European Union (EU). Rotfeld told the Polish public broadcast network: “It’s good that the EU takes an interest in many of the world’s countries, like Burma, East Timor, various African regions, Burkino Faso and the Sudan. However, it would also be a start if they considered Belarus too.”

The Polish government has long been an active supporter of the Belarus opposition. On August 15, Belka allocated 950,000 zloty (234,000 euros) in an attempt to finance a Polish radio broadcaster in Belarus. State technical employees are presently working on resolving outstanding technical issues to allow broadcasts to commence. Some oppositions groups, such as various anti-Russian outfits and the extreme nationalist “White Russian People’s Front,” partly coordinate their work from within Poland. A large proportion of the opposition’s newspapers and leaflets are being printed in Polish print shops.

If Belka is now talking about a possible overthrow of Lukashenko, his words are to be taken seriously. Concrete plans have already been drawn up for a putsch in Belarus in the same style as the “rose revolution” in Georgia and the “orange revolution” in Ukraine. All of these “colored revolutions” have been organised according to a similar model: a lost election is disputed with various claims of irregularities which are then carefully promoted in the media and channeled into demonstrations, combined with international pressure, thus compelling the incumbent ruler to stand down.

A significant role has been played in these events by various youth organizations that led the protests in these countries. In Georgia it was “Kmara,” in Ukraine “Pora” and in Belarus the opposition movement is being led by the “Zubr” (bison) group. The members of all of these groups were educated by the Serbian organization Otpor, which organized the overthrow of Serbian President Milosevic in 2000 with direct support from the US. These opposition organizations are financed through a network of various foundations, such as the National Democratic Institute, which is chaired by the former US secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, and the International Renaissance Foundation (IRF), which obtains funding directly from the US State Department and other Western nations.

A possible colored revolution in Belarus is being planned for the middle of next year, when the next presidential election is to be held, and supposedly will take on the symbol of the blue cornflower. Whether it pans out the way its organizers foresee, however, remains to be seen. Lukashenko is relatively secure in office and the opposition is divided into various antagonist groups. What is certain, though, is that the Polish government will play a significant role in an attempted regime change.

Polish politicians already played a decisive role during the orange revolution in Ukraine. Without the massive support from the Polish government for Victor Yushchenko, the power struggle in Ukraine would hardly have been as quick and smooth.

Belka had already issued warnings several weeks before the Ukrainian presidential elections about possible election rigging and had threatened the government. A few days after the election, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski traveled to Kiev as the government’s official observer. Before departing, he spoke to both US President George Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schr?der and developed a “three-point plan,” the content of which largely coincided with demands of the Ukrainian opposition.

Kwasniewski used all his powers to prevent serious resistance against the toppling of incumbent President Viktor Yanukovich. On November 26, when 60,000 miners from the country’s east made their way to Kiev to confront supporters of the orange revolution, Kwasniewski mustered all his diplomatic weight to prevent their arrival. After the demonstration was stopped, two of the three demands of the marchers were met on that same evening.

Two roundtable discussions were held, where the opposition laid out its demands. Kwasniewski played a decisive role here as well. After the second roundtable, Yushchenko and Kwasniewski spoke together to demonstrators in front of the Mariinski Palace. Yushchenko declared: “Without the Polish president, no solution would have been possible, or it would have been only a modest one.”

Yushchenko was not the only one pleased with Kwasniewski’s intervention. During a telephone conference with Kwasniewski, US President Bush said: “Aleksander, you did so well with the Ukraine, do you have a bit of time for the Sudan?” The United States had long been campaigning for regime change in Ukraine.

Geo-strategical interests

The weakening of Russia’s influence in Ukraine constituted an important step in reducing Russia’s geo-strategic role in Eurasia. “Without Ukraine,” wrote the American intelligence group Stratfor, which has close ties to the US intelligence services, “Russia is doomed to a painful slide into geopolitical obsolescence and ultimately, perhaps even non-existence.” The United States views Russia as a direct competitor over the strategically important oil reserves in the Caspian Sea region, and therefore is determined that Russian influence, dating back to the Soviet era, has to be weakened.

The calculated intervention of the Polish government opened the back door for the US in Ukraine. Poland aims to play a similar role with its current threats against Belarus. Here too, what is at stake are global geo-strategical interests and not the concerns of the Polish minority in Belarus or the democratic rights of that country’s population in general.
Belarus is the last ex-Soviet republic that retains close connections to Moscow. Russia accounts for over 68 percent of its imports and 50 percent of exports. Two of the most important gas pipelines from Russia to Germany, whose capacity of 42 billion cubic metres per year accounts for most of Germany’s gas imports, run through Belarus: the Jamal and the Northern Lights pipelines.

If Belarus were to distance itself from Moscow and seek closer ties to the West, this would have catastrophic consequences for Russia’s economy. Russia’s economic and political weight in Europe as a whole would be dramatically reduced. At the same time, trade possibilities for “new Europe,” that is, those Eastern European countries that stand closest to the US, would increase outside of Russia. Both are considered important aims of American foreign policy.

It is therefore no surprise that the United States has supported the pro-West opposition for years, both financially and logistically. In the 2001 presidential election in Belarus, private and government organizations and foundations from the US and other Western countries handed out, according to the German daily Junge Welt, $40 million to the election campaign of opposition candidate Vladimir Gontscharik.

According to official figures from Belarus, $24 million have already flowed from US coffers into the pockets of the opposition for the 2006 election. Although difficult to confirm, the Russian newspaper Rian Novosti reported that most of the opposition groups and media are financed from the US.

One can find numerous web sites of organizations that have connections to the Otpor group and its partners, including those who support the opposition in Belarus. Many of these groups, such as the “Students for Global Democracy” (SfGD), have close connections to government and semi-government organizations in the US. The SfGD is currently collecting donations for its “Bell Campaign” to fund the Belarus opposition.

The Belarus offshoot of Otpor, Zubr, whose motto is “Honour, Motherland, Freedom,” also has close ties to the US. In April of this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met personally with representatives of the group in the Lithuanian city of Vilnius. Rice explained that the meeting served to help the organization achieve more freedom. She said the president of Belarus should understand that his behavior was being monitored very closely. Representatives of the opposition then declared that, according to their assessment, irregularities would occur in next year’s election and that they are already planning demonstrations.

US President Bush has made it clear on many occasions that he would welcome a change in government in Belarus.

The role of Poland

As with the Iraq war and the power struggle in Ukraine, the Polish ruling elite is taking on the role of a US pawn in Europe, helping Washington pursue its aims.

Behind this policy are vital interests of the Polish state itself. Poland can only play a leading role in Eastern Europe and on the continent as a whole by achieving independence from Germany and “old Europe” on one side, and Russia on the other. Economically, Poland is closely tied to the EU: it accounts for 75 percent of Polish exports and 60 percent of its imports. At the same time, Poland is dependent on Russian gas and oil for its energy supplies.

The prospect of an alliance between Russia and Germany, for which German Chancellor Gerhard Schr?der has been campaigning for years, is viewed critically within Poland. The Polish weekly magazine Wprost referred to the recent agreement between Russia and Germany to build a gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea, in a none-too-subtle reference to the Stalin-Hitler Pact of 1939, as the “Schr?der-Putin Pact.” The ruling elite in Poland fears that it will once more be ground between these two great powers.

The Baltic Sea pipeline is to channel Russian gas directly to Germany. By 2010 it will export up to 55 billion cubic metres of gas to the EU every year. The construction of this pipeline will largely cut off Poland from Russian gas, which is currently pumped into and through the country using the Jamal pipeline. Sejm Jan Rokita, a leading member of the opposition, said: “The pipeline through the Baltic Sea will cause injury to the common interests of the EU and individual states.”

Another problem confronting Poland’s energy supplies is the oil pipeline from the Ukrainian Black Sea port in Odessa to the Polish-Ukrainian border city of Brody. The pipeline was built to transport oil from Kazakhstan through the Black Sea directly to Europe and therefore to bypass Russian territory. Initially, the pipeline was planned to reach the northern Polish harbour city of Danzig, and would have allowed Poland to overcome its dependence on Russian oil. After the completion of the Odessa-Brody section of the pipeline, Russia increased pressure and finally managed to use the pipeline to pump its own oil for export in the opposite direction. With the change of government in Ukraine, Poland has achieved an important victory in this dispute.

These developments make clear that both the perspective espoused by German Chancellor Schr?der and others—that an alliance between Russia and a united Europe can stand up to the United States—and the project of uniting Europe itself on a capitalist basis are doomed to fail as a result of the continent’s own internal contradictions.

Source: Marius Heuser, World Socialist Web Site; September 17, 2005; http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/sep2005/bela-s17.shtml

20. EU Broadcasting Project Comes Under Fire
European Parliament deputies representing mostly new member states on 14 September attacked plans announced by the European Commission to fund independent radio and television broadcasts to Belarus. Deputies complained at a meeting of the European Parliament`s Foreign Affairs Committee that the funds were insufficient, the tendering rules discriminate against countries bordering Belarus, and too much emphasis is being put on the use of Russian language in the putative broadcasts.

Many members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were particularly scathing about the commission`s perceived preference for Russian over Belarusian as the main language for the planned broadcasts.

Former Lithuanian President Vytatutas Landsbergis was one of a number of MEPs from former communist countries who warned the commission it risks complicity in Russia`s longstanding ambitions to "Russify" its neighbors. Landsbergis demanded assurances Belarusian will feature alongside Russian in broadcasts to Belarus.

"I would like to be sure that [the] formula `Russian and Belarusian` - at least - is not to be interpreted as `Russian or Belarusian,`" Landsbergis said. "Or, in turn, that it is [not interpreted to be] an issue to be decided by Deutsche Welle."

Deutsche Welle last month became the first media company to be awarded a commission contract to broadcast to Belarus. The commission first said broadcasts would use Russian, with the possibility of Belarusian being added at a later, unspecified date.

Some Western European MEPs pointed out that more than 60 percent of the population of Belarus considers itself ethnically Russian. Their appeals to pragmatism were drowned by protestations from representatives of smaller, Eastern European member states.

Toomas Hendrik Ilves, an Estonian and a vice chairman of the parliament`s Foreign Affairs Committee, noted that indigenous languages, not Russian, had served as the main vehicles for democratic change in Eastern Europe. He also appealed to the national awareness of smaller Western European countries.

"Imagine if in this parliament we said `Well, all the Slovaks understand Czech, all the Danes understand Swedish, all the Portuguese understand Spanish, and all the Dutch understand German`? What would be the reaction here?" Ilves asked. "We can say, of course, `All the Belarusians understand Russian,` but what does that mean for the people you are talking to?"

Most speakers also dismissed the 2 million euros ($2.4 million) earmarked by the commission for two years` TV and radio broadcasts as by far insufficient. The commission`s tendering rules, requiring applying media organizations to demonstrate an annual turnover of 3 million euros, were described as designed to exclude companies from neighboring Poland and Lithuania.

The strategy also appears to sideline the 500,000 ethnic Belarusians living in Poland and the three Baltic States, who a number of MEPs said would be best-placed to reach out to their compatriots.

Polish MEPs were particularly scathing in their judgments of the commission`s performance. They accused the EU`s executive of dragging its feet, pointing out Polish parliamentarians had been spearheading demands for action for over a year.

Ilves, a former director of RFE/RL`s Estonian Service, also warned that the 2 million-euro budget for television and radio broadcasts stretched over two years would allow for "minuscule"
amounts of programming.

A number of MEPs also attacked current EU funding rules that require it to clear assistance with the government of the country targeted. Edward Mcmillan Scott, a leading British conservative MEP, was among those suggesting the EU must overhaul the system to allow it to finance organizations that may be illegitimate in the eyes of regime`s such as President Aleksandr Lukashenko`s.

"TACIS [the main EU aid program for the former Soviet Union] must be flanked by an external fund for Belarus that is managed and disbursed by the commission with assistance from a small number of interested member states," McMillan Scott said. "Such a fund needs to operate outside the strict guidelines of the commission. The purpose and mission of the fund would be to offer fast and flexible support to Belarusian democratic forces and NGOs that fall outside the parameters of current EU regulations and often have to operate on an illegal basis inside the country."

A representative of the European Commission, Hugues Mingarelli, present at the debate, offered a defense of its record and assured the MEPs of its continuing commitment to promote reforms in Belarus. However, he did not address the criticism offered by MEPs in any detail beyond saying that it is "a fact that today more people in Belarus speak Russian than Belarusian."

Source: Ahto Lobjakas, RFE/RL, September 16, 2005; www.rferl.org

21. President of Belarus Returns Today From USA
The president of Belarus has returned today morning from the United States of America to Minsk. In New York Aleksandr Lukashenko has made a speech at a special plenary sitting of the 60th session of the UN General Assembly. The president spoke about the Belarusian position on urgent global issues.

The president attracted summiteers’ attention to the negative consequences of the present unipolar world and stated that only diversity of ways to progress can ensure stability in the world. “Freedom to choose the way of development is the main condition for democratic establishment. I hope that the great and mighty will realize that. As finely a unipolar world will turn against them. If we agree with each other we will make principles of multipolarity, variety and freedom of choice a reality and will reflect them in the UN documents we should be guided by. We will protect the world from terrorists, women and children from slavery”, Aleksandr Lukashenko is convinced.

In this case the UN will become an organization of truly United Nations, Aleksandr Lukashenko added. “This is the main point of the UN reform, but not just enlarging the Security Council”, the president added.

In New York Aleksandr Lukashenko considered development of bilateral relations with the presidents of Iran and Iraq.

The president talked a lot to mass media during the visit. The main topics of his interviews were Belarusian vision of the UN reform, cooperation between Belarus and this international institution, country’s position in respect to the UN Security Council extension, president’s impressions and forecasts of the summit results.

Belarus, according to the president, is quite satisfied with its participation and membership in the United Nations Organization. This country has its representatives in 14 UN agencies. The republic is a member of over 50 specialized UN establishments. By 2010 the UN will implement several projects in this republic to the amount of USD 33 million including in the sphere of education and liquidation of consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe.

Speaking about the UN activities on the whole, Aleksandr Lukashenko said that the Organization should be independent from the mighty of this world.

Belarus confirmed its readiness to make a contribution to tackling one of the main challenges facing today’s world - terrorism - by signing the International Convention for Suppression of Nuclear Terrorism. This country has initially supported drafting of the document.

“Belarus is deeply concerned about the spread of terrorism. It is a barbaric attempt on life, peace and order on the planet. And decisive steps should be taken in this sphere”, the head of state underlined in the course of a signing ceremony of the International Nuclear Terrorism Convention.

By signing the Nuclear Terrorism Convention Belarus becomes a participating state of all anti-terror international agreements signed within the UNO framework, Aleksandr Lukashenko added. Today only one-third of UN participating states assumed these cooperation commitments. The president is convinced that today the UN states should focus on suppressing nuclear terrorism, which is the main objective of the nation’s commonwealth.

Source: The National Centre of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus; September 16, 2005; http://law.by/work/Eng/

22. Lukashenko Criticizes U.S. `Unipolar` World Dominance
UnitBelarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has blamed the United States for causing global instability and manipulating the United Nations. Lukashenko told the UN summit that Washington is using a campaign on democracy and human rights to try to dominate other states.

The Belarusian president told world leaders the global balance has been disturbed since the collapse of the Soviet Union 15 years ago.

Lukashenko made it clear he holds the United States responsible for major disruptions to world order and seeking to maintain a unipolar world. He said U.S. foreign policy is aimed at undermining governments, a reflection of his concern at the recent democratization of former Soviet states.

"If there are no conflicts -- they are invented. If there are no pretexts for intervention -- imaginary ones are created. A very convenient justification has been found to do this -- democracy and human rights. Moreover these terms are not used sincerely -- as a power of the people and the dignity of the nation -- but they are used as the U.S. government sees it fitting," Lukashenko said.

Lukashenko said Belarus should be allowed to develop itself through "our own traditions."

The Belarusian president`s speech was similar in many ways to the address yesterday of Zimbabwe`s leader, Robert Mugabe. Both countries have been called "outposts of tyranny" by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and face increasing criticism from European states for crackdowns on human rights and political dissent.

They have responded by criticizing their accusers as meddling hypocrites.

Lukashenko said, for example, that U.S. actions in Iraq and its war on terror should be open to greater scrutiny. "Where are these weapons? They do not exist but Iraq is drowned in blood, torn apart, people are brought to the limits of desperation," he said. "Where is the open, independent, under the UN supervision court trial over the Guantanamo prisoners? How many are they and who are they?"

Lukashenko later signed a convention on suppressing acts of nuclear terrorism. He said in his General Assembly speech that Belarus voluntarily gave up its nuclear arms after the collapse of the Soviet Union and does not cause trouble for neighboring states.

Speaking at the treaty-signing session, he again warned against interference from major powers. "Combating terrorism universally must not serve as a cloak to cover selfish goals of certain countries. The banner of fight against terrorism must by no means be used as a pretext for interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states," Lukashenko said.

Lukashenko faces presidential polls next year. His government has been tightening controls on independent institutions following popular movements that removed governments in Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan.

Source: Robert McMahon, RFE/RL, September 15, 2005; www.rferl.org
HUMAN RIGHTS & INDEPENDENT MEDIA

23. October 16 – Day of Our Solidarity
Representatives of civil society of Belarus have offered to announce October 16, 2005 a Day on of Solidarity with Belarusian political prisoners, disappeared oppositionists, their families, independent journalists, with everybody who fight for freedom and democracy in Belarus. At a press-conference in Minsk the leader of the civil initiative “We Remember”, member of the “Free Belarus” Iryna Krasouskaya, a coordinator of the Zubr movement Mikita Sasim and a well-known journalist Iryna Khalip called upon the Belarusians to switch off the light in their apartments for 15 minutes on October 16, at 8 p.m. and to put a burning candle to their window boards as a solidarity sign. “We all shall light candles, think, pray for the disappeared, political prisoners and their families. We are to imagine Belarus in which we could live. Maybe everything would start with that. Dark cities, dark windows, where only burning candles are seen. This could become a mirror for us to see that we are many,” Iryna Khalip said.

Iryna Khalip explained what a Solidarity Day is:

“They are trying to intimidate and isolate us. I have heard dozens of variants of answers to the question “Why haven’t you come to the square?” over the last year. The most common answers are: all protesters are dispersed, beaten up, and I have only one life and health, I can be fired from job, expelled from university, my business can be liquidated. It is often heard that we are in minority, so what’s the use of all that?.. In reality we are a majority long ago. We just do not have such a mirror into which we could see everything and realize that we are many,” the journalist said. “It is really so that little people dare to take to the streets. And it is senseless to appeal to the people that are afraid today, to change everything immediately and to take to the streets. It is not realistic. If a person has come to a gym for the first time, he won’t lift a 100-kilogram weight. He should start with a lighter weight, with a pair of dumbbells. Then the next time we would be able to do more, and eventually we would be afraid no more and realize that we are a majority. We shall take to the streets”.
“The next year is to be a very difficult one, and a crucial one. Next year we are to lift our 100 kilograms, so let’s consider a switched-off light and a burning candle our dumb-bells of 1 kilogram, which are to be the beginning of everything,” the journalist said.

As said by her, every person worried by the fate of Motherland cannot say that he or she was afraid of switching the light for the fear of secret services or dismissal from work. “It would be a simple cowardice or hypocrisy,” the journalist said.

The protest on October 16 is supported by the wife of the disappeared public figure Anatol Krasouski, the leader of the civil initiative “We Remember”, member of the “Free Belarus” Iryna Krasouskaya, and one of the “Zubr” coordinators Mikita Sasim.

“Today we are to be solidarity with one another, as never before. “Zubr” was the first to hold actions of solidarity with the families of disappeared. In March 2001 we went to the streets of Minsk with portraits of Viktar Hanchar, Yury Zakharanka, Anatol Krasouski and Dzmitry Zavadski. Since that time thousands of people have joined us, hundreds of solidarity actions have been organized. Today we should stop talking and come down to real work. It was a solidarity that has helped me to live through many hardships and stay in the Resistance movement. We shall continue our struggle, and we call all Belarusians and people who are not indifferent to the future of our country for solidarity,” the Zubr coordinator Mikita Sasim said.

Iryna Krasouskaya reminded about the ultimatum delivered to the regime by the families of the disappeared Belarusian citizen. Families of the disappeared Belarusians demanded the official authorities to carry out an objective investigation of the cases of their abducted family members. The refusal of the authorities to investigate the cases of the disappeared, brutal dispersals of the recent protest rallies “We Remember” and “We Want to Know the Truth!” prove that the authorities are involved in the politically motivated abductions of people, and intentionally hinder establishment of truth.

The wife of the disappeared oppositionist has returned from Geneva. There, in the UN Commission on Human Rights, a session of the Working Group dedicated to elaboration of a draft Convention against Forcible Abductions has been held. “It is a very serious document, which is being worked upon for several years, and which creates new possibilities for investigation of the cases of disappearances, and bringing to justice those who are responsible for abductions. Now a serious discussion is held, and I hope that at the next session of the commission this convention is to be passed,” Iryna Krasouskaya said.

Iryna Krasouskaya reminded that passing the Convention is of great importance for Belarus. According to this document, all persons implicated in politically motivated people’s abductions, from architects to perpetrators, including every official who interfered with an objective investigation of the forcible abductions’ cases, are to stand trial.

Source: Charter97; September 29, 2005; http://www.charter97.org/eng/

24. Journalists Fined for Humorous Collages
Aliaksei Karol, the Zhoda newspaper`s editor-in-chief and Aliaksandar Zdvizhkou, the Zhoda editor got fined 100 base amounts (approximately, USD 1,200) each. This verdict was announced by the Piershamajski City District Court of Minsk on September 23, 2005. The journalists were accused of violating article 172-1, part 10 of the Code of Administrative Torts (distribution of deliberately false information in the media that offends the honor and dignity of President of the Republic of Belarus.)

The court resolution is based on the check results, obtained by the Public Prosecutor`s office of Partyzanski City District of Minsk. Particularly, the state institution established that A. Karol and A. Zdvizhkou "prepared and published collages... with the President`s face as well as information... that contained deliberately false data about the head of state." The court refers to the results of "a fine art expertise, held by the National Academy of Science of Belarus" that ascertained that "the information content is false" and that it "discredits the head of state and offends his honor and dignity."

It should be reminded that on March 24, 2005, the living apartment, rented by an individual entrepreneur and the Zhoda independent newspaper editor-in-chief Aliaksei Karol were visited by the police and some civilians.

After a three-hour examination, there were confiscated 17 graphical images from the walls, which had been published in the Zhoda newspaper. Also, there were seized 4 hard discs from the computers at the apartment. All seized property was sealed up. Then, the police group completed a protocol on the investigatory activities and the confiscation matters. The state officials refused to give a copy of this document to A. Zdvizhkou on his request. The materials were passed to the Public Prosecutor`s office of Partyzanski City District of Minsk that started examining them in order to clear out if the public demonstration of the mentioned collages could be regarded as a criminal offence (article 368, part 1 of the Criminal Code of Belarus.) The examination continued till July 19, 2005. Consequently, the Public Prosecutor`s Office stated there was no reason for filing a criminal case. However, the state institution established a fact of committed administrative tort.

According to A. Karol, even now, the authorities refuse to return two editorial computers to the newspaper. In his opinion, the case with collages in Zhoda was the beginning that drove to the recent animators` prosecution. The precedent with Zhoda shows that everyone can be sued for any critical or humorous statement or picture in Belarus these days.

In accordance with the court resolution, it is final and non-reversible.

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists, September 27, 2005; www.baj.ru

25. Belarus: Second Massive Fine For Organizing Religious Worship
Vasily Yurevich, administrator of the Minsk-based charismatic New Life Church, was fined 4,080,000 Belarusian rubles (12,324 Norwegian kroner, 1,575 Euros or 1,895 US dollars) by the city`s Moscow District Court on 23 September for organizing a Sunday morning service two months earlier.

Yurevich told Forum 18 News Service from Minsk on 26 September that Judge Natalya Kuznetsova had ignored his and church members` insistence that he had not organized the service, even though New Life members formally decided on 21 November 2004 that they attend church services on their own initiative.

The fine - equivalent to 160 times the country`s official minimum monthly wage - is the se