Post halts Communist paper delivery :: Charter'97 :: News

The state-run post office in Belarus has halted delivery of the communist newspaper, party officials said today, the latest sign in what the West says is an attempt to crush the opposition ahead of the election next year.

The decision to halt deliveries of Tovarishch (Comrade) was the most recent ruling against opposition publications as the ex-Soviet state gears up for the election in which President Alexander Lukashenko is to seek a new term.

"The Central Committee of the Belarussian Communist Party ... notes the political nature of this decision, proof of increasing pressure on non-state media ahead of the 2006 presidential election," a party statement said.

Post office officials said they halted the delivery because the newspaper suspended publication for three months this year after being denied permission to print inside Belarus.

But party spokesman Sergei Voznyak dismissed that explanation, saying the post office had signed a new agreement on delivery after Tovarishch resumed publication. The weekly newspaper first appeared in 1994 and has a circulation of 9000.

"It is clear the decision was not taken by those in charge at the post office," he said. "This is what happened with other publications."

Most opposition publications are printed outside Belarus and organise delivery networks outside the postal system. Similar refusals by the post office have hit the opposition newspapers Narodnaya Volya and Solidarnost.

Western countries accuse Mr Lukashenko of closing independent media and harassing journalists. Both the United States and European Union say they will toughen sanctions against the country if next year`s election is proved neither free nor fair.

The president, in office since 1994, has vowed to cut short attempts at upheaval like last year`s "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine and parliament has passed a law with tough penalties for a variety of offences linked with activism. He has said he will either win next year`s poll fairly or go into retirement.

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