Mailing List Service Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE December 4, 2001 read the details at www.charter97.org/e/index.phtml ---------------------------------------------------------------- BELARUS EUROPES ANTI-MODEL Belarus of today is an anti-model for Europes development, said leading specialist for Belarus of the Berlin Foundation for science and politics doctor Heintz Timmerman. Present Belarusian leadership, notes the prominent German expert, will soon encounter problems even with Russia, whose foreign policy is becoming more west-oriented. ---------------------------------------------------------------- HANS-GEORG WIECK ON NOMENKLATURA PURGES IN BELARUS The head of the Advisory and Monitoring Group in Belarus Hans-Georg Wieck said that purges under way now in Belarus, the criminal proceedings against top officers in the economic administration, who collaborated with the regime opponents in the presidential campaign, cause concern. As said by Wieck, such purges highlight the polarity of the country and of the civil society. He also remarked that AMG OSCE group receives information about numerous facts of intimidation those who participated in opposition activities. ---------------------------------------------------------------- KALUGIN FACES ONE CHARGE LESS, NEW DIRECTOR TO BE APPOINTED AT ATLANT The investigators lifted an indictment against Kalugin of using phony payment documents, but left another three. Atlant directors case was passed from the Minsk city into the National department of financial research. Head of the departments investigative committee Gennady Agaponenko was placed in charge of the case, which testifies to the extreme seriousness of the matter. The official refuses to contact to journalists, referring to the confidentiality of investigation. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ANTI-CONSTITUTIONAL ACT BDG The first impression one gets from reading the Constitutional act (at Soyuz-Info web-page) is this: at last, after agonizing integration processes the lawyers found a civilized legal base to include Belarus into the composition of Russian Federation. On one hand, the project proclaims the equality of both countries. It also reads that the key goal of the new state formation is the creation of conditions for the decent lives of citizens and protection of their rights. Meantime, from other projects provisions it gets clear that the union states structures will dictate their conditions to the unions subjects. Of course, nobody would dare dictate anything to Russia. Putin will never tolerate commands from some inter-state bodies. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ACCUSED HOMEL MEDICAL INSTITUTE HEADS ADDRESSED PROTESTS TO INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTES Former Homel Medical Institute heads Professor Yuri Bandazheusky and senior lecturer Uladzimir Raukou, who were sentenced by a Military board of the Supreme Court to eight years of imprisonment for corruption, filed complaints to a Committee on Human Rights in the Board of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (Geneva) and International Court of Human Rights (Strasbourg). In the complaints prepared by lawyers of the convicted they tell that in this case significant violations of criminal and legal procedure took place, that prevented the investigators to consider the case comprehensively, fully and objectively. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ALYAXANDAR LUKASHENKA KNEW GENERAL ROKHLIN WAS TO BE KILLED Gazeta.ru Court proceedings on the case of General Lev Rokhlins murder resumed in the Naro-Fominsk court behind the closed doors. Tamara Rokhlina is prisoner at the bar again. She was found guilty a year ago, but than the case was directed to retrial. And it is possible that A.Lukashenka would become of the witnesses. ---------------------------------------------------------------- FREEDOM MARCH-1 PROTESTERS TO BE TRIED IN THEIR ABSENCE Court proceedings over four participants of the Freedom March-1 (October 17, 1999) German Sushkevich, Gleb Dogel, Andrei Volobuev and Anton Lazarev charged with violating art.186/3 of the Criminal law will be held December 6 in the Minsk city court. This article defines responsibility for organizing or active participation in group actions, violating public order. ---------------------------------------------------------------- RAKHMANKOS DEPRIVATION OF MPS IMMUNITY TO BE CONSIDERED DEC.13-14 At the next parliamentary plenary session, to be held on December 13 or 14, the deputies will decide whether they should give their consent to the prosecutor general on the deprivation of the MPs immunity of the former head of the Belarusian railroad department Viktor Rakhmanko, reports BelaPAN from the parliaments information service. The date of the next session had to be determined on December 3 by the presidium of the Republic Council, but the session was shifted to Wednesday, December 5. ---------------------------------------------------------------- KUROPATY DEFENDER FINED 100T RUBLES Minsk courts keep trying the Kuropaty defenders. The Sovietsky district court of Minsk fined the Youth Front member Roman Kazakevich 100,000 rubles (equivalent of $75). Trial over Sergei Popkov didnt result in a verdict, as far as police witnesses never turned up. Today the process against him will resume. ---------------------------------------------------------------- INVESTIGATION INTO LUKASHENKOS DEFAMATION PROLONGED Rechitsa district procuracy extended for another two months the term of the criminal investigation into the defamation of presidents honor, allegedly committed by the local resident Natalya Brel, BelaPAN was told December 3 by the womans attorney Dmitry Ivanishko. On August 30 the post-graduate student of the Institute of history of the National Academy of Sciences Natalya Brel congratulated Lukashenko with his birthday, having passed him through mass media a box with the objects, which are necessary for the Belarusians: a rope and a soap. ---------------------------------------------------------------- PERSECUTION OF KRYCHEV JOURNALISTS HALTED Criminal persecution of correspondents of the independent newspaper from Krychev Volny Gorod Sergei Nerovny, Vadim Stefanenko and Nikolai Matorenko has been stopped again, BelaPAN was told December 3 by Stefanenko. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ASSOCIATION OF BELARUSIAN STUDENTS SHUT Supreme Court judge Nikolai Bobkov satisfied the petition of the Justice Ministry and ruled to liquidate the Association of Belarusian Students. The judge claims that the student organization regularly violated domestic laws and, in particular, was involved in political affairs, which it ought not to. ---------------------------------------------------------------- HEAD OF BREST HELSINKI COMMITTEE FIRED Head of the Brest Helsinki Committee Igor Maslovsky was sacked today. This is in no wise the first incident when members of opposition political parties and public associations are deprived of their right to work in the Brest State University. The reason for the Maslovskys dismissal was his failure to get elected to the post he currently occupies. That was the decision of the scholarly council of the BSU geographic department. ---------------------------------------------------------------- MOSTY FREE TRADE UNION CHAIR MADE JOBLESS Valery Eromenchuk, chairman of the Free trade union at the Samana Plus woodworking company, was dismissed from job. The company directors order reads that the man was fired due to professional unfitness. According to the worker himself, he has the highest qualification and a few years of experience as electrician, so the dismissal can be explained by his trade union activism. ---------------------------------------------------------------- BORDIN DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM UNION TV The state secretary of the Russia-Belarus union Pavel Borodin declared that he knows nothing about the plans to launch a union TV at the facilities of the popular TV-6 channel, which the court ruled to close down a while ago. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE December 4, 2001 read the details at www.charter97.org/e/index.phtml -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: http://felist.com/member/unsub?grp=media.charter97 http://felist.com/ mailto:ask@felist.com