Support of Poland is very important for Belarus, said a presidential hopeful, a candidate of democratic forces Alyaksadnr Milinkevich on January 6 in Bialystok after the meeting with the prime minister of Poland Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.
Members of youth organizations in Zhodzina who collect signatures for nomination of Alyaksandr Milinkevich, are summoned for conversation to the KGB (State Security Committee).
Today the leadership of the organization of the Belarusian independent trade union “Azot” filed an application to the regional prosecutor’s office of Kastrychnitski district of Hrodna. They stated that the administration of the enterprise pushed the workers to leave the Independent Trade Union.
Special services have made an attempt to recruit and activist of the Zubr movement, a technical editor of an independent internet-source “Electronic Barysau” (www.borisov-e.info) Alyaksandr Monich.
Syarhei Halahaniuk, the head of the initiative group of political prisoner, former deputy and leader of the group “Respublika” Syarhei Skrabets, who wants to take part in the presidential race, is not allowed to meet with the candidate for presidency. S. Halahaniuk was told so on January 4 in a letter from the Supreme Court.
Yesterday in the evening on the highway Minsk-Zhlobin by the village of Belitsa road policemen detained in his own car the head of Zhlobin regional branch of the Communist Party of Belarus Valer Rybchnka. In the police department of Zhlobin investigator Yauhenia Ihnatush carried out a search of his car. 10,800 calendars for the year 2006 with the name and email of the candidate of the united opposition at the presidential elections, Alyaksandr Milinkevich, were confiscated.
Today Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is leading for Bialystok region to meet with representatives of the Belarusian minority, and with the nominee for the presidential position in Belarus, a representative of the united opposition Alyaksandr Milinkevich, the Radio Svaboda informs.
More emails are coming to the Charter’97 press center. Students witness that learners of Belarusian universities are forced to sign for nomination of Alyaksandr Lukashenka as a candidate for presidency. “News sites have been writing that students of the chemistry department of the Belarusian State University are forced to sign for Lukashenka. The same things are taking place in all faculties of the Belarusian State University. Every morning before every examination students are obligated to sign for Lukashenka. Even passports of the students are not necessary for that, as dean’s office has all students’ data. The same things are taking place in mathematics, history, economy, philosophy, philology and journalism and other departments. The same thins are taking place in hostels. Is it legal? Jan, a third-year student of the BSU,” the letter we have received today reads.
The Charter’97 press center has received a letter from a student of the chemistry department of the Belarusian State University, where he informed that students are made to sign in support of Lukashenka’s nomination as a candidate for presidency. “I cannot but tell you the story in my university, at chemistry faculty of the Belarusian State University. During the exam a deputy dean on educational work burst into the classroom and said that collection of signatures in support of all 8 candidates is taking place in one of the rooms of the university. There was a queue of students in the room. Two guys were sitting there, they simply took passports of the students and asked them to undersign then. I came and asked what is going on, as the whole technique was indecorous. I was answered that collection of signatures for Lukashenka was taking place. When I asked why wrong information had been given, the answer was: “You know, you can sign even for everybody, and later you will vote for anyone you like…” So it was a total disorder. And students who do not know Election Code, are misled,” the letter reads.
In the next two months Poland`s foreign ministry plans to open a radio station broadcasting to Belarus, deputy foreign minister Anna Fotyga told the Senate Thursday. Fotyga said the programmes will be broadcast in Belarussian and Polish by an independent radio station financed from NGO and government funds, and mainly addressed to Belarus` Polish minority. She declined to name further details. In August then PM Marek Belka granted 950.000 zlotys to NGOs involved in the project.
For Belarus, trade and economic cooperation with EU is the obvious highlight of its foreign policy, Interfax reported referring to the 2006-2010 program of social and economic advance of that country.
Putin’s Gas Game 11:43, 06/01/2006, By Ralph Peters, New York Post
Moscow’s New Year`s gift to the world was a frontal assault on democracy: The Russians turned off Ukraine`s natural-gas supplies in mid-winter. Russia`s current czar showed himself willing to freeze free people to death to demonstrate the Kremlin`s resurgent power.
Catholic priest Fr. Robert Krzywicki, who was ordered with another priest in mid-December 2005 to leave Belarus by the end of the year, left the country on 27 December. He had served as a priest in the town of Borisov [Barysaw], north-east of the capital Minsk, for 12 years, and his supporters gathered with flowers and gifts on the steps of the parish church to see him off. No reason was given for the decision and Fr. Krzywicki told Forum 18 News Service that "I committed no crime." Baptists from across the country have told Forum 18 that pressure has also begun to mount on their congregations. In western Belarus for example, a member of a small village congregation told Forum 18 from Brest that "there are incidents all over the place. We don`t know why things changed for the worse, but we don`t believe the pressure has ended." Church members have appealed to the authorities in Brest and the capital Minsk against violations of their rights.
As of January 1, 2006, the number of mobile services subscribers totaled 4 mln. 90 thousand which is 1,7 times more than in January of 2005. The growth is slower compared with the same period in 2004, when the total number of subscribers increased by 2,2.
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