“Civilized world must finally realize that way of negotiations and agreements with Belarusian dictatorship is wrong. It leads only to strengthening of the regime and to increasing repressions against civil society,” - said leader of Belarusian civil initiative “We remember”, member of council of civil initiatives Iryna Krasouskaya on October 3 during her speech on conference “Freedom and democracy in EU neighbor-countries” in Swedish Gotland.

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The International Atomic Energy Agency is in danger of moving in the same direction as the discredited, Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission, where human rights violators find refuge and sit in judgment of others. Last week, the 135 countries of the IAEA conference approved 10 new members to sit on its board of governors, including Cuba, Syria, and Belarus. The 35-member, Vienna-based IAEA board is seen as the ultimate international arbiter on nuclear proliferation. The possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists is a looming security risk, and now terror sponsors have become decision makers.

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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko called Friday for strict control over the media and Internet in order to protect his people from alleged Western disinformation, and accused the West of trying to manipulate public opinion with the goal of regime change.

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Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said at a meeting of the country`s Security Council. He lashed out at the opposition for advocating the imposition of economic sanctions on Belarus and criticised Poland and the Baltic states for hosting NATO radio-electronic installations. The following is an excerpt from a report broadcast by the Belarusian radio on 30 September:

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Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized the importance of military cooperation with Russia while speaking at a session of the Security Council on September 30. He called Russia a strategic partner and the main ally, and stressed that Minsk strictly abides by its commitments under the agreements providing for the creation of a joint regional group of forces. "We`ve made considerably progress in the defense sphere," Mr. Lukashenko noted.

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Army reform has been completed in Belarus, but the development of the national Armed Forces will never come to an end, announced Defense Minister Leonid Maltsev on September 30 following a meeting of the country`s Security Council.

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As an election approaches, will Belarus, Europe`s remaining Soviet bastion, have its own Orange Revolution?

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Allied Belarusian opposition activists yesterday (2 October) named opposition leader Alyaksandr Milinkevich as their single candidate to challenge President Alyaksandr Lukashenka in next year`s presidential election. Milinkevich talked to RFE/RL in a wide-ranging interview.

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On Friday, 30 September, members of HRC Viasna visited the political prisoner Mikalai Statkievich who spends his term of personal restraint in the open penitentiary institution in Baranavichy. During the visit Aliaksandr Bialiatski, chair of HRC Viasna, passed to him books and oscillograph that is necessary for repair of TV sets (Mr. Statkievich repairs TV-sets, vacuum cleaners, etc.).

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The brother a Polish minority leader in Belarus has been dismissed from work. Andzelika Borys, the democratically elected president of the organization of ethnic Poles, had been kicked out of her post under orders from the controversial Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. Borys says she had received threats against herself and her family, believed to be coming from the Belarusian KGB.

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On 30 September, in his speech to the Defense Soviet, Aliaksandr Lukashenka stated it was necessary to protect Belarusian society from foreign informational expansion and “induction of instability by anti-Belarusian information resources”.

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The report “Forcible Abductions in Europe” has been presented yesterday at the opening of the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe by a Special Rapporteur, Cyprian deputy Christos Pourgourides. It is a rare case when the resolution has been passed without a voice dissentient, and during the debate nobody raised objections. All speakers told only about the necessity of an international legal tool to struggle people’s disappearances and international prosecution of culprits.

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