Mailing List Service Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE February 19, 2002 read the details at www.charter97.org/e/index.phtml (see Russian version in the attached rus.txt document) ---------------------------------------------------------------- SEVYARYNETS TO PAY 3000000 ROUBLES FOR UNSANCTIONED MARCH Hearing of the case of the Young Front leader Paval Sevyarynets has taken place today in the court of the Soviet district of Minsk. Sevyarynets was found guilty on charges relating Article 167 part 2 of the Administrative Code for coordination of the unauthorized march along the Skaryna Avenue on the St. Valentines Day. The Judge Yuri Kazadaeus verdict was to fine the leader of the Young Front 300 minimal salaries (about 1,760 USD). ---------------------------------------------------------------- PROOF OF FALSIFICATIONS AT LOCAL ELECTIONS The Brest affiliate of the Vesna human rights center was contacted by an individual, who, preferring to stay anonymous, passed over to the human rights defenders 93 ballot sheets from the March 18, 2001 elections into the Brest town Council of deputies (voting constituency#8). The sheets were all filled out but not stamped. The man reported that he received the documents from the election commission members and was commanded to destroy them as unsafe evidence. However, he realized that should he do that he would become an accomplice of the crime, so he changed his mind and handed the ballot sheets to the center. On them there were written names of Kostuk Nina Nikolaevna and Alyaxandar Vasilievich, while on the opposite side there were placed two signatures belonging to the election commission members. ---------------------------------------------------------------- BHC DENIED PARTICIPATION IN JUDICIARY CONGRESS OF BELARUS Second Judiciary Congress will take place in the Republic of Belarus on February 21 in Minsk. However, due to the presidents presence at the event, the authorities denied the Belarusian Helsinki Committee the right to read out their February 16 appeal to the judges. Following comes an excerpt from the BHC appeal. ---------------------------------------------------------------- IOC DENIES FINANCIAL AID TO BELARUS Neue Zuercher Zeitung Member of the Belarusian Olympic squad, whose name is kept confidential, is suspected of using illicit dope. IOC has temporarily suspended the authority of the head of the Belarusian delegation to Salt Lake-2002 for aiding and abetting the sportsman and also halted financial help, earmarked to Belarus. Monday night the IOC director general Francois Karrar declared that one of the Belarusian athletes refused to pass dope testing, his refusal being considered a clear fact of dope use. Both the sportsman and the head of the Belarusian delegation Yaroslav Barichko were suspended from participation in the Olympics. Barichko is accused of assisting the sportsman in his attempt to avoid the necessary dope test. Moreover, the IOC executive committee denied to pay to the Belarusian Olympic Committee $120,000 until the end of the year as financial support. ---------------------------------------------------------------- BPYU SET TO TRAIN CIVIL MILITIA PATROLS Deputy Interior Minister of Belarus, chief of the police department for public security and special police Alyaxandar Schurko declared at the February 18 press-conference in Minsk that the Belarusian police is amateurish and non-professional. Many law-enforcers lack the necessary professionalism, which doesnt contribute to the effective protection of citizens and their property, especially in the countryside, stated Schurko. Among the objective factors, interfering with the police good performance, Schurko named the absence of transport and apartments of law-enforcers in the provinces. Only 25% of the village inspectors have at their disposal police cars, while 43% are living in their own homes. Schurko added that at the moment they consider the possibility of setting up special youth patrolling squads together with the Belarusian Patriotic Youth Union. ---------------------------------------------------------------- NB SUSPENDS ZOLOTOI TALERS LICENSE On the basis of art.98 of the Bank Code of the Republic of Belarus the National Bank ruled to halt from February 20, 2002 for 6 months the license for certain bank operations of the Zolotoi Taler bank. From then on the bank wont be able to exchange foreign currency with both domestic and overseas banks, Belarusian legal entities and foreigners, except for the mandatory sale of hard currency and transactions, held on the basis of separate NB permissions. ---------------------------------------------------------------- LUKASHENKA TO DEAL WITH SMOKERS Problems of organized struggle with the illegal labor market in trade have been discussed during Alyaxandar Lukashenkas February 18 working meeting with the deputy Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov. Kobyakov informed Lukashenka about the passage by the Cabinet of a ruling, touching upon the order of receiving payments from customers, using the cash desk, measures to enhance the effective control over the commodity movement in the country and fixation of real trade turnover. In his turn, Lukashenka demanded that the government embark on more decisive measures in that direction, claiming that its high time they established order in the import of tobacco products. ---------------------------------------------------------------- CRIMINALITY RATE GOES UPHILL Since the beginning of 2000 there has been registered growth of criminal records in Belarus in all directions, said during the February 18 meeting with the press in Minsk head of the Department for prophylactic of the Interior Ministry of Belarus Alyaxandar Naidenko. There increased the number of house burglaries: 758 cases in January (over the analogous period 2001 633). Since earlier this year they also registered a 60% leap in the ordinary criminality level as compared to the same period in 2001. Most such crimes are committed in the villages by drunks. ---------------------------------------------------------------- VITEBSK MEDICS, TEACHERS UNPAID JANUARY SALARIES In many districts of the Vitebsk region the teachers received no advance payment nor salaries for January 2002. For instance, in the Rossonsky district schools the indebtedness constitutes 80mln rubles. Similar is the situation in the Polotsk district. One reason for that is the absence of means in the local budgets, which are financing the schools. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ZAVADSKYS MOTHERS ATTORNEY DISAPPEARS Young Front leader Pavel Severinets will stand justice before the Sovietsky district court of Minsk for running a youth protest on the St.Valentines Day eve, held, contrary to the authorities permission, in the Minsk main prospect. Pavel may now receive a few days of jail in the Okrestina confinement center. ---------------------------------------------------------------- YF LEADER FACES ARREST Young Front leader Pavel Severinets will stand justice before the Sovietsky district court of Minsk for running a youth protest on the St.Valentines Day eve, held, contrary to the authorities permission, in the Minsk main prospect. Pavel may now receive a few days of jail in the Okrestina confinement center. ---------------------------------------------------------------- PAHONYAS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ACQUAINTED WITH MATERIALS OF CRIMINAL CASE Editor-in-chief of the Pahonya newspaper Mikalai Markevich was summoned to the public prosecutors office to familiarize himself with the materials of the criminal case. Markevich is the accused in a criminal case relating publishing of defamation of the president of Belarus. As Radio Racyja informs, the public prosecutors office has confiscated the issues of the Pahonya with these articles, that is why the indictment is based on the libeling materials placed in the Internet. Markevich in response to these allegations said to the investigator that he has nothing to do with the Internet. A day before the web-designer of the Pahonyas site Alyaxei Salei was summoned for interrogation. As said by Salei, in the criminal case the material evidence are copies from the computer discs, and not from the Internet. That is why the editorial board believes that the allegations are not convincing. ---------------------------------------------------------------- BHC DRAFTS REPORT HR IN BELARUS Presentation of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee report Human rights in Belarus took place recently in Minsk. As you remember, Belarus ratified the international pact on civil and political rights, which entered into legal force on March 23, 1976. According to this document, all countries, which recognized this pact and aligned themselves with it, are obliged to present periodic reports about the measures they step up in order to comply with the claims, contained in the pact, as well as to report of the progress achieved in that direction. ---------------------------------------------------------------- BELARUSIANS LET DOWN RUSSIAN BREWERS AGAIN Signing of the agreement on cooperation between joint-stock companies Ochakovo and Slutsky Pivovarennyj zavod (Slutsk Brewery) is delayed by Belarusian authorities. The agreement was submitted for coordination to the Minsk city executive committee in October last year. As said by director of the Department on Investment Valery Drozd, the Belarusian side offered Ochakovo to sign the agreement on investments with the government of Belarus first. ---------------------------------------------------------------- YUSCHENKO BLOC LEADS IN UKRAINIAN PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN RIA Oreanda Pre-election bloc of the Ukrainian ex-prime minister Viktor Yuschenko Our Ukraine enjoys the highest level of support among the population, 18.8%, according to the Center of the Economical and Political Research poll results published in Kyiv. ---------------------------------------------------------------- BELARUS SQUAD IMPLICATED IN DOPE SCANDAL SPORT Today Leader of the Belarusian Olympic team Yaroslav Barichko has been temporarily dismissed from executing his duties in Salt Lake City due to the recent dope scandal. BBC reports that an unsettling incident occurred when one of the Belarusian male skaters passed his doping test (the name is kept confidential for now). The preliminary probe showed that the athletes blood contained more nandrolon, than it is allowed by the rules. The results of the test havent been verified the proper way and could have been appealed against. However, when they told the suspected athlete to protest the decision and pass repeated examination, he simply disappeared. ---------------------------------------------------------------- OFFICERS ONLY TO SERVE IN BELARUSIAN TRAFFIC POLICE ITAR-TASS From now on only those with an officers rank will be enrolled to serve in the Belarusian traffic police, said during the yesterdays press-conference deputy head of the Belarusian Interior Minister chief of the public security service and special police department, major-general Alyaxandar Schurko. The decision to hire only those with an officers rank had been passed within the framework of the traffic police reform, currently underway in the country. Deputy Minister also stressed that at the moment they are considering the possibility of levying fines from people through banks rather than on the spot, as is the case now. ---------------------------------------------------------------- TROTYL SMUGGLERS CAPTURED IN BELARUS Belarusian law-enforcement bodies thwarted an attempt to sell 5,2kg of trotyl, which, according to specialists, would be enough to blow up 10 vehicles or a ten-story building. The news was spread on Monday by the RIA Novosti agency with a reference to the Committee for fighting organized criminality. Two Mogilev region residents, one of whom stood trial before, sought to sell 16 pieces of trotyl for 520 dollars. The evildoers were apprehended red-handed the very moment they were ready to hand over the deadly commodity to their clients. The criminals were charged with illicit sales of fire arms, ammunition and explosives. Now the men are staying under lock, awaiting trial. ---------------------------------------------------------------- CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE February 19, 2002 read the details at www.charter97.org/e/index.phtml (see Russian version in the attached rus.txt document) -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: http://felist.com/member/unsub?grp=media.charter97 http://felist.com/ mailto:ask@felist.com