The International Commission on Missing Persons turns 10. The commission has issued a special informational letter on this occasion. It tells about the results of its work and plans for the future. Besides, the ICMP offers its assistance to Belarus, “the country where serious human rights violations are taking place”.
Today a ceremony of the opening of Felix Dzerzhinsky’s monument at the territory of Military Academy of Belarus in Minsk took place. The monument is a copy of the monument at the Lubyanka Square in Moscow which was removed in 1991. The reaction of the Belarusian civil society to erecting a monument to a person who had founded a machine of repressions that later killed millions of people, including Belarusians, was extremely negative.
The steering committee of the United Civil Party has passed a fundamental decision not to accredit state-run Belarusian TV channels for the participation at its congress. “They have many times created forgeries aimed against the UCP,” the deputy chairman of the UCP Syarhei Alfer explained.
At the summit of the European Union-Russia held on May 25 in Sochi, a situation at the Balkans, Middle East and Iran, and also the developments in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova were discussed, a Russian daily Vremya Novostei informs.
“The statement of the Justice Ministry on suspension of operations of the Republican public association “Belarusian Helsinki Committee” could be connected with criticizing the results of the presidential elections held in March this year. The BHC has been carrying out monitoring of the elections and has registered an abundance of violations,” said the deputy chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Aleh Hulak, commenting the Justice Ministry’s application to the Supreme Court to suspend activities of the BHC.
Doctors have not checked the state of Mikalay Autukhovich’s health in three days of his hunger strike without water. Vaukavysk entrepreneur, who is tried in Hrodna now, is under arrest in Hrodna pre-trial detention center. Autukhovich went on a dry hunger strike on Tuesday, May 23. By that time he had already been fasting for 40 days, demanding release, the Radio Racyja informs.
Former political prisoner, the leader of entrepreneurs Valery Levaneuski has file an application to prosecutor’s office to bring up criminal actions against the administration of the pre-trial isolation center of prison number 1 of Hrodna, Mahilyou corrective colony number 19 and Ivatsevichy colony number 22, where he served a sentence since 2004.
The government will bar overflights by U.S. and Canadian airlines, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday, citing those countries` refusal last month to allow Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky`s plane permission to refuel during flights to and from Cuba.
Ukraine`s accession to NATO will not affect this country`s military-technical cooperation with Belarus, Belarusian Defense Minister Colonel General Leonid Maltsev told a press conference in Brest following a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Anatoly Gritsenko commenting on whether Ukrainian-Belarusian cooperation in this sphere might narrow after Ukraine joins the North Atlantic Alliance. "We see it as an advantage rather than a disadvantage: Ukraine can be of help in our work with NATO," he said.
The chairman of the pro-regime Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus, Leanid Kozik, managed to come to Switzerland to take part in the session of the International Labour Organization. It is known that Kozik’s name is on the list of Belarusian officials for whom entry to the EU countries and the US is banned. A neutral Swutzerland supported the sanctions of the EU against Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his entourage.
On May 25 Anatol Lyabedzka gave testimony to senior operating officer of criminal investigation department Alyaksandr Arlouski concerning his abduction on April 26. The appeal of the leader of the United Civil Party to bring up a criminal action and bring criminals to justice has been addressed to the General Prosecutor. The prosecutor’s office of Minsk submitted the appeal to the prosecutor’s office of Tsentralny district, which forwarded the statement to the police department of the same district.
The Justice Ministry has filed a suit for suspension of activities of the Republican public association “Belarusian Helsinki Committee”, the Justice Ministry informs.
Belarus can undo the so-called “union” with Russia in case Gazprom would deliver gas to the country at world prices. This warning in a veiled form is contained in a letter sent to the head of Russian government Mikhail Fradkov by Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhey Sidorski (Sergei Sidorsky), åðó Russian daily Kommersant writes. As the newspaper was informed by sources close to the Russian ministers’ cabinet, a confidential letter was sent by Sidorski on May 15. The situation in economy of the country and forecast of its development in connection with expected prices rise is described there.
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