CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE
February 4, 2002
read the details at www.charter97.org/e/index.phtml
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MISSING POLITICIANS' RELATIVES WANT OSCE TO UPHOLD INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION
IDEA
Delegation of the special working group for Belarus of the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly, made up of Uta Tsapf (Germany), Urban Alin (Sweden) and Helena Demakova
(Latvia), who joined them today, was handed on February 4 a letter, sent to the
OSCE PA chairman Adrian Severin. The letter had been signed by Svetlana Zavadskaya,
Olga Zakharenko, Ludmila Karpenko, Irina Krasovskaya and Tatyana Klimova. The
women plead with Adrian Severin to support the idea of launching an independent
investigation into the disappearance of some well-known Belarusian politicians.
The letter underscores that the creation of the climate of trust, being one of
the four essential conditions, worked out by the international community with
regard for Belarus, cannot be achieved without locating the missing ones.
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THEY GOT A WRONG MAN
"Belorusskaya Gazeta"
The loudest arrest in January was the detention of the director of the Minsk
tractor plant Mikhail Leonov. Both the state procuracy and the Committee for
state control claim in unison that the former MTP director is guilty of violating
the law. Does that mean that the investigators have every ground to believe that
Leonov is implicated in running financial transactions, which inflicted a $4mln
damage upon the state? "Belorusskaya Gazeta" learnt about the results of the
CSC's examination into the Minsk tractor plant's activities. The interesting
point here is this: according to the inspectors, Leonov's guilt may only be punished
by administrative means, not criminal.
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BARANPOVICHI DAIRY FACTORY DIRECTOR APPREHENDED
Officers of the Brest region Committee against economic criminality and corruption
detained the director of the Baranovichi milk factory Trofim Gurinovich, charged
with getting a $1,5thsd bribe. BelaAPN quotes Brest regional committee press-center
as saying that Gurinovich received the funds from a private entrepreneur, who
thus won the contest on supplying the equipment for the factory's store. Gurinovich
was detained in his own office right at the moment when the businessman handed
over the money to him. Police instituted legal action under article 430/2 of
the Penal Code, envisaging 5-10 year imprisonment.
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AUTHORITIES SET TO STRANGLE UNION OF BELARUSIAN WRITERS
"The high statesmen determined to strangle the Union of Belarusian writers, paying
little heed to the image, that our country enjoys in the eyes of the world's
intellectuals". Such statement was voiced in a letter, sent to the Prime Minister
Gennady Novitsky and Vice Premier Vladimir Drazhin by the famous Belarusian writers
Yanka Bryl, Svetlana Aleksievich, Gennady Buravkin, Sergei Zakonnikov, Rygor
Baradulin, Anatoly Vertinsky and Vladimir Orlov.
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PA OSCE DELEGATION HEAD REFUSES TO MEET BELARUSIAN YOUTH ORGANIZATION REPRESENTATIVES
In the connection with the visit to Belarus of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the OSCE special working group on Belarus ZUBR movement addressed the AMG OSCE
mission to Belarus with the request to organize a meeting with the head of the
delegation Mrs. Uta Zapf. The representatives of the resistance movement intended
to tell about repressions towards ZUBR activists and the Belarusian youth as
a whole. The ZUBR human rights service has recorded more than 600 cases of repression
towards the representatives of the ZUBR. Throughout 2001 ZUBR activists were
detained, fined, beaten, expelled from universities, dismissed from job, intimidated
and recruited by KGB.
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ZINAIDA HANCHAR ADDRESSES BELARUSIAN DIASPORA WITH APPEAL TO BRING UP PROBLEM
OF POLITICAL TERRORISM IN BELARUS
Zinaida Hanchar, the wife of the Belarusian oppositional politician Viktar Hanchar
who disappeared without traces more than two years ago, sent an open letter to
the Chair of the Rada (Council) of the Belarusian National Republic, Ivonka Survilla.
In the letter she reminded that Viktar Hanchar disappeared in Minsk on September
16, 1999. "You know about his role in the Belarusian politics, and why Alyaxandar
Lukashenka considered Hanchar his most dangerous political rival", - writes Hanchar's
wife in her latter. The full text follows.
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A SYSTEM OF OPINION POLLS LICENSING CREATED IN BELARUS
As the president of the Belarusian Association of Businessmen Alyaxandar Patupa
said to BelaPAN, some of the scientific state institutions received a letter
from the Administration of Lukashenka containing an order to "start creating
a system of licensing of all kinds of society surveys, including opinion polls,
without delay". The letter was sent on January 18, but this fact has become known
only now. According to Patupa, a special state commission consisting of representatives
of a number of state institutions, including the Institute of Social and Political
Research, was created.
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PREVENTIVE STRIKE AT SALIHORSK LARGE ENTERPRISES
In Salihorsk at the large state-run enterprises "Universal", "Kupalinka", "Kalinka",
at the construction organizations, medical and educational institutions a preventive
strike against abuse of trade union rights by authorities was held on February
1 from 12.00 to 12.05. The miners of the association "Belaruskalij" had not participated
in the strike.
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LUKASHENKA CALLED TRADE UNIONS "AN ARMY OF IDLERS"
Alyaxandar Lukashenka supports the new way of trade union dues collection, which
was ratified by the Council of Ministers verdict N 1804 from December 14, 2001.
He stated that on February 1 during appointment of the heads of the local executive
institutions. The decree cancelled the transfer of trade union dues without cash.
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JUSTICE FOUND ONLY WITH THE HELP OF UN COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS
The leader of the Maladzechna branch of the Belarusian Popular Front Ales Kaputsky
with the help of the UN Committee on Human Rights managed to receive back the
money he was fined under unlawful ruling of the court.
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CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE
February 4, 2002
read the details at www.charter97.org/e/index.phtml