Mailing List Service Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE December 28, 2001 read the details at www.charter97.org/e/index.phtml ---------------------------------------------------------------- EUROPES LAST PLANNED ECONOMY Sueddeutsche Zeitung Dictator Lukashenkos country reminds me of Soviet times. On the M4 highway, connecting Brest and Minsk, not far from the Belarusian capital road workers are washing the road fence. Under a drizzling rain a few people are sweeping the asphalt road. The work of such type is oftentimes seen in the state, run by dictator Lukashenko. Theres little unemployment here, not many industrial products are produced, while the salaries are hardly enough to buy the essential goods and vodka. Alexander Lukashenko, ruler of Belarus since 1994, is running Europes last centralized economy. He himself coined the name for it market socialism: the state controls price policy, may interfere with the private companies management and establishes currency exchange rates. Most of the industrial enterprises are in the hands of the state, while their approach to privatization is suspiciously careful. Many companies survive only on state subsidies. The country itself makes ends meet through the support of the powerful neighbor Russia. State servants, just like the road workers, get paid not without few months delays. As far as the market socialism doesnt function, Belarus debts are running up the scale. The more the country rests in this situation, the harder will be for it to get out, - said one Western diplomat: at the end everything may collapse in a twinkling of an eye. ---------------------------------------------------------------- BELARUS AGAIN BLAMED OVER ARMS SALES TO EXTREMISTS Belarus implication in selling arms to the international terrorists became one of the highlights in international press in 2001. On Wednesday there appeared another publication in the Polish press, while on Thursday the Belarusian Foreign Minister Mikhail Khvostov spoke on the matter, reports Radio Ratsya. ---------------------------------------------------------------- LUKASHENKO UNPOPULAR WITH RUSSIANS Only 2% of Russians consider Alexander Lukashenko worth the title man of the year-2001. Within the polls framework the All-Russian public opinion center surveyed 1,600 respondents. ---------------------------------------------------------------- LUKASHENKO FILLS CEC WITH HIS OWN As far as the Central Electoral Committees mandate expired, Alexander Lukashenko made new appointments of its members according to the presidential quota. So among the CEC members will be Igor Andreev, Lidya Ermoshina, Nadezhda Kiseleva, Nikolai Lozovik, Valery Mitskevich and Vladimir Tsetsokho. Chair of the Central Electoral Committee for elections and national referenda was again appointed Lidya Ermoshina. The rest six CEC members will be elected by the national assembly. ---------------------------------------------------------------- NO CASH PAYMENT RESTRICTIONS Recently rumors have been spreading in Belarus about the possible limitation of cash payment for commodity, worth over $200. Izvestia correspondent says that deputy Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov refutes these allegations. No one in the government raised a question about the restriction of cash payments and not even one project mentions that, notes Kobyakov. At the same time the official confirmed the existence of draft program on binding populations cash incomes, which is part of the general program on raising demand for money. By January 1 it has to be approved by the joint ruling of the government and the National Bank. ---------------------------------------------------------------- SALARY INDEBTEDNESS IN BREST REGION GROWS TWOFOLD The salary indebtedness in the Brest region amounts to 11,5bln rubles. 6 of them fall on the agricultural sector. Such data have been cited at the session of the Brest region committee on December 26. Less than two weeks ago participants of the regional intercom meeting mentioned different figures 5,5bln. While at that moment 8 regions districts had no salary debts, today only the companies of the Berezy district cleared off their salary indebtedness before workers. ---------------------------------------------------------------- MOGILEV TRADE UNIONS WANT CANCELLATION OF ILLICIT ORDER The session of the Mogilev regional trade union association passed their appeals to Alexander Lukashenko and the Constitutional court of Belarus, pleading with them to cancel the Cabinet of Ministers ruling of December 14, 2001 On measures to protect trade unionists rights. The meetings participants unanimously denounced the ruling, considering it to be anti-Constitutional and destroying the current system of trade union dues payment. They call the order a flagrant violation of workers right to spend their salary as they please. ---------------------------------------------------------------- CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY TOTALLY OBSOLETE 80% of construction equipment and machinery in the region of Gomel is outdated and needs urgent replacement. This information was voiced at the press-conference of the first deputy chair of the Gomel regional council Alexander Belayev. However, it is only possible to renew the park, he said, with a 25% profitability level, whereas its actual size hardly reaches 6-7%. So therell be a problem with the construction workers fulfillment of an order to diminish the cost of one square meter of living space by 10%. ---------------------------------------------------------------- WITNESSES TESTIMONIES CONTRADICT INVESTIGATORS Son of the countrys former Premier Mikhail Chigir Alexander, accused of setting up a criminal gang, specializing in hijacking cars, declared even before the trial began that the investigators are fabricating the witnesses testimony in order to hold him accountable for stealing many cargo minibuses Ford Transit. Yesterday this was confirmed by the participants of the court hearings, held in the Leninsky district court of Minsk. In late 2000 the unknown hijackers stole a white Ford Transit from Dmitry and Svetlana Maslovskys. Two months later they recognized the spare parts of their vehicles. However, in court it turned out that the identification was carried out not in the junior Chigirs house in the Tarasovo village, but rather at some military base in Minsk. ---------------------------------------------------------------- EQUIPMENT NOT TO BE USED IN POLITICAL PURPOSES IN BELARUS Gomel city court ruled on December 27 that chairman of the Gomel youth center Gart Sergei Odinets violated presidential decree#8, prohibiting to use in political goals the technical equipment, received through western charity foundations. According to the courts verdict, the Gart chair will need to pay a 1mln ruble fine ($637). The equipment had been seized by the KGB agent during the presidential election campaign this year. Legal action was opened against Gart upon the results of the tax inspection, which, in its turn, was based on the outcomes of searches, run by KGB. Gart intends to appeal against the town courts decision in the regional court. ---------------------------------------------------------------- UCP URGES KGB CHIEF TO RESIGN The United Civil Party (UCP) of Belarus addressed the chairman of the Committee for state security (KGB) Leonid Erin with a call to file in resignation. The reason for this was the suicide of the Gomel ZUBR activist Andrei Zaitsev, who, in UCPs opinion, could no longer endure pressure and blackmail applied against him by the local KGB. On the place of the incident they found an audiotape with the phone conversation between Zaitsev and a KGB agent, as well as his letter to the Belarusian Helsinki Committee about the circumstances of his recruitment by KGB, reads the partys statement. ---------------------------------------------------------------- COMPANY DIRECTOR ARRESTED IN BREST Brest law-enforcers apprehended head of one of the largest Belarusian-Polish companies, specializing in furniture manufacture. The man is indicted for illicit transportation abroad of a large currency amount, namely $741,550. This sum was transported by parts in course of this year. At present, the detainee is held in pre-trial confinement. The investigation on the matter is being carried out by the KGB investigative department. ---------------------------------------------------------------- BELARUSIANS OPPOSED TO LUKASHENKOS APPOINTMENT AS UNION HEAD 26% of Minskers would like Russian leader Vladimir Putin to chair the union of Russia and Belarus. Only some 12% of them prefer Lukashenko to Putin. These findings were obtained in an opinion poll, conducted by the sociological service Zerkalo of BelaPAN. 8% of respondents either prefer some less known figures or believe that the union presidency is unnecessary. The majority of the surveyed (54%) abstained from telling who should become the union president in their opinion. ---------------------------------------------------------------- MINSKERS ABHOR RUSSIAS TAKEOVER OF BELARUSIAN COMPANIES 31% consider this deal to be clearly negative, while 20% - more like negative. These are the results of the survey, held on December 18-21, 2001 by Zerkalo sociologists from BelaPAN news agency. 500 respondents, aged 50 and over, answered the questionnaire. Around one quarter of them 27% - perceive the possible privatization of domestic industrial giants by Russian tycoons as positive (10% said positive, 17% - more like positive). Every fifth (22%) couldnt answer this question. ---------------------------------------------------------------- PASSWORD-FREE INTERNET ACCESS TARIFF REDUCED New reduced tariffs will be introduced on January 1, 2002 for the users of the password-free access to Internet. It will be applicable in work days from 2a.m. till 8a.m., costing 11,6 rubles per minute, while the companies will have to pay $0,01 (not counting VAT). ---------------------------------------------------------------- SOVIET PASSPORTS UNSUITABLE FOR OVERSEAS TRAVELS FROM JAN.1 Only the national passports of the Republic of Belarus, issued after 1996, will enable their owners to freely leave the boundaries of Belarus since January 1, 2002. BELTA reports from the press-center of the frontier department that Belarusians carrying passports with USSR symbols wont be let outside the country. Individuals, who left the country with such IDs before January first will be allowed to return without a hindrance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE December 28, 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