Ariel Cohen, a senior research fellow who specializes in Russia and Eastern Europe at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank, hailed the decision but said it came three years too late.
Rep. Chris Smith, who heads a committee on European security, said the Treasury action sends "a clear signal to those like Lukashenko and his cronies who have brazenly violated human rights and democratic principles they will not find a safe haven here in the U.S. for their dubious financial assets."
The United States moved Monday to clamp down financially on Belarus` authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko as well as other government officials.
According to a diplomatic source, Moscow notes that Kosovo, territorial integrity of Georgia and democracy in Belarus could become the most controversial issues at the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg, Interfax informs.
He was the playwright whose work was banned by the Communists. He was the leader of the revolution that drove them from power. He was the President who was courted by rock stars and royalty. Now Vaclav Havel`s role in bringing freedom to Czechoslovakia is celebrated in Tom Stoppard`s extraordinary new play. John Walsh meets a living legend
Published: 20 June 2006
Belarus`s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday dismissed as meaningless Washington`s imposition of a freeze on its assets in the United States and suggested the "mythical funds" be sent to families in need.
Former political prisoner Valery Levaneuski sent “The rules of interior order” to political prisoner, former candidate for the Presidential post Aliaksandr Kazulin. A.Kazulin recieved the booklet that must be available in every prison, only a few weeks after it had been sent. Press-center of Charter’97 disposes the text of the letter addressed by Aliaksandr Kazulin to Valery Levaneuski:
Ivan Spirin was the only one of the detainees who had been arrested in Vitsebsk for the last two days, who stays in the pre-trial detention center. He was detained on Saturday, June 17, near the amphitheatre, where graffiti “Bunt” and a streamer emerged. The young activist was charged with “petty hooliganism” and “insubordination to demands of police” because Ivan Spirin protested against search of his things. Judge Valyantsina Mikhasyova sentenced hi to 15 days of arrest.
“The OPCAT is the most important development for the effective prevention of torture at the universal level” said Manfred Nowak, the UN Special rapporteur on torture.
“Money from the shadow budget is kept either in a coffer, or on accounts, or a used in projects realised abroad,” told the leader of the United Civil Party Anatol Lyabedzka, commenting on he decision of the US government to freeze accounts of Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his entourage, which followed after the EU decision. “They belong to people whose names would not tell anything to Belarusian citizens. But in fact they belong to people suspected by the world community,” the politician is positive.
In Estonia a number of events was staged in support of the democratic forces of Belarus. In the city Pärnu of a public action was held. Candles and informational materials about the Day of Solidarity with Belarus were handed out.
A new protest against Russian troops’ stay in Belarus was held on June 17, on the day of opening joint military exercises. A 15-metre streamer with the slogan “No to Russian military in Belarus!” was placed on the railroad bridge over Pushkin Avenue in Minsk. The streamer stayed there for more than an hour, and thousands of citizens saw it.
On June 19 hearings in the criminal case of Vaukavysk entrepreneur Mikalay Autukhovich continues in the court of Kastrychnitski district of Hrodna. He is presented altered charges. Now Autukhovich is also charged with business activities without registration or licence. So far he had been charged with large-scale tax evasion only.
So far the NTV channel was almost the only large Russian channel which program was not touch by the Russian side. However since July 4 the Belarusian TV and Radio Company (BT) will alter the program of the NTV.
Former head of the Belarusian State TV and Radio Company Yahor Rybakou (Egor Rybakov) is to spend two years less in the colony. This information has been confirmed to the Radio Svaboda by the head of the penal jurisdiction department of the Interior Ministry of Belarus Uladzimir Kouchur. According to A. Lukashenka’s decree, except Rybakou, 29 women and 2 men are pardoned.
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