Over 50 thousand Belarussians in all parishes of the United Church of Christians of the Evangelic Belief in the Republic of Belarus and in other protestant churches took part in the prayer and fast for freedom of the New Testament spreading which took place from 15 until 17 June. The prayer was in response to the administrative penalty and detainment of the pastor of the “John the Baptist” community of the United Church of Christians of the Evangelic Belief Antony Bokun 27 May and 3-6 June.

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“Expulsion of Belarus from the “black list” does not mean the admission of normalization of the human rights’ situation in our country. That is the result of compromises, so typical of the UNO, as well as of the pressure exerted by the countries from the so-called Non-Alliance Movement which traditionally treat the human rights’ issues with a good deal of infuriation. Furthermore, the UNO mechanisms applied to human rights’ issues are not sufficiently effective because they are usually of an advising and declarative character. Moreover, as it used to happen, the states including Belarus, which openly violate the human rights, were elected by simple majority vote to the bodies intended to monitor these rights observation”, coordinator of Charter’97 Andrey Sannikov commented on the resolution of the UNO Council on Human Rights on expulsion of Belarus from the “black list” of countries demanding constant monitoring.

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President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez as well as heads of 11 states of the C.I.S. including Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan are being waited as honorable guests in Rostov-na-Donu by 30 June.

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On Tuesday in Minsk Prime Minister of Belarus Syargei Sydorsky announced failure of the international trade indicators for 5 months this year. According to him, the import growth indicator for January-May twice exceeded the export growth indicator. ”We failed in the indicator which considerably devaluates our other achievements”, the Prime Minister remarked.

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Over 100 students of the Garodnya lyceum and Garodnya State University have signed the appeal for releasing Margarita Tsaran. The 20-year –old girl was convicted to 4 years in prison for buying 0.28 grams of marijuana. Those who have signed the appeal consider the former university student’s verdict to be unfair and the criminal lawsuit against her to be the result of mistake or provocation.

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Workers of the tinting workshop of the casting and standards works #5 belonging to the “Gomselmash” enterprise are blaming the works’ authorities of artificial lowering of wages. Painters have sent complaint letters of their regular overworking on the works authorities’ requests during 3 months to different organizations .The painters supposedly didn’t receive the promised double payment for their overworking.

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“It’s a deplorable fact for Belarusian human rights activists. Existence of a position of a Special Rapporteur on Situation in Belarus helped the world community to estimate the situation with human rights in Belarus more objectively. Adrian Severin, a Special Rapporteur on Belarus, has prepared several reports. The last report was read by him on June 12. It touched upon the situation with human rights in 2006. The conclusions of the report are not encouraging – the situation in the country has deteriorated,” told a well-known human rights activist Ales Byalatski, commenting to the Charter’97 press-center on the decision of the UN Human Rights Council to abolish the position of the Special Rapporteur on Belarus.

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The UN Human Rights Council has stricken off Belarus and Cuba from the blacklist of countries where the situation with human rights is alarming and needs special surveillance. Such a decision has been taken at the session of this body. Nine countries including Cambodia, China, Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Myanmar, North Korea, and the Palestinian territories have remained on the list.

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From 1 July 2007 all supporting documentation for visas to the UK must be submitted in original form only (no photocopies). The documents need to be accompanied by a translation into English. There will be no requirement to certify the translation. This measure will speed up the application process. All information on applying for a visa to the UK can be found on the official website of the Embassy at www.britain.by. The British Embassy will continue to offer free advice to applicants.

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