CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE
February 20, 2002
read the details at www.charter97.org/e/index.phtml

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BELARUSIAN SPORTSMAN UNWILLING TO RETURN HOME FROM STATES
Member of the Belarusian Olympic squad in Salt Lake-2002, ski-jumper Lyskovets
decided to stay in USA in order to earn money, Alyaxandar Lukashenkas special
envoy for sport Nikolai Ananiev told Interfax. The athlete, he said, finished
his Olympic performance and was due to head for Minsk February 19 morning. Ananiev
believes that the sportsmans visa expires somewhere in early or mid-March. The
Belarusian teams leadership learnt that Lyskovets telephoned his family and
told them that he would spend in the states some extra few months to earn for
his family living.
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IMF DEMANDS TO MAKE PRESIDENTIAL FUND TRANSPARENT
The fundamental statistical indices in Belarus are still drawn up not adequately
enough. According to the opinion of the International monetary Fund, transactions
outside budget, in particular, connected to the presidential fund, should be
included to the structure of the estimate. Such estimation is contained in the
report of the spread by the IMF on the results of the IMF missions work in Minsk.
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OPPOSITION ALONE TO REPRESENT BELARUS AT OSCE PA SESSION
Belarusian delegation will visit today Vienna, where on February 21-22 the winter
session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will take place. The delegation includes
chairman of the United Civil Party Anatoly Lebedko, chair of the womens party
Nadzeya Valentina Polevikova and deputy head of the Belarusian Social-Democratic
Party Narodnaya Gromada Vladimir Nistuk. All three will enjoy the observers
status in Viena.
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COLONEL WAS BEATING DETAINEES
An activist of the Yong Front, Dzmitser Dashkevich, lodged a complaint against
the actions of the police officers during detaining participants of the youth
demo on the St. Valentines Day. Police officers were beating me during detention,
though I was not fighting with them, was not disturbing public order. The beating
continued in the car Zhiguli, where the officer placed me. A man in mufti was
beating me with his hands on the face. The beating was accompanied by curses
and threats to deal with me severely,  Dashkevich wrote in his complaint.
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UN CARES FOR BELARUSIANS RIGHTS
The UN High Commissioner for human rights together with the leadership of the
UN development program launched a project of financial assistance for the civil
initiatives, promoting human rights values in Belarus.
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TRADER IN DEATH
Detained in Belgium a Sanjivan Rupra gave his testimony to the Belgian and American
intelligence concerning the arms supplies to the Al Qaeda guerillas by the
retired Soviet office Viktor But. The Los Angeles Times writes about this incident
in its latest issue. Rupra said that he knows genuinely of many transactions
between the bin Ladins people and Viktor Buts deals. He also pledged to detail
how exactly the weaponry had been shipped to Afghanistan.
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KUCHMA ACCUSED OF NEW ORDER TO MURDER
NTV
Ukrainian deputy, the head of the commission of the Supreme Rada on respecting
citizens rights in course of parliamentary elections Alexandr Elyashkevich believes
that Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma ordered to murder him. The attempt took
place on February 9, 2000, Elyashkevich said in the course of the press conference,
the site Ukraina.ru informs.
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LESYA GONGADZE DEMANDS 1GRIVNA REIMBURSEMENT FROM KUCHMA
Correspondent.net
Mother of the journalist Georgy Gongadze submitted into the Pechersky court of
Kiev a lawsuit against the general procuracy and personally deputy prosecutor
general Aleksei Baganets. Lesya Gongadze claims that the procuracy general morally
abused her by having declined to consider her petition on bringing to criminal
responsibility president Leonid Kuchma, Vladimir Litvin and Yuri Kravchenko,
whom she holds accountable for abducting and murdering her son. Lesya Gongadze
demands a moral reimbursement of 1 grivna due to the low living standard of
the Ukraine nationals.
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MINIMAL WAGE RISE ON MARCH 1
Minimal salary size will see another increase in March, reports RIA Novosti
correspondent. This will take place on March 1 this year. A concomitant ruling
was signed by the Belarusian government. The minimal salary will from now on
be set at the level of 17thsd BLR. Therefore, the currently existing minimal
wage of 10 thousand Belarusian rubles will grow by 70%.
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SIEMENS WINS TENDER
Tender on the supply of equipment for the second cellular operator of GSM standard
in Belarus was won in a contest by the bidder from Germany Siemens AG. The
decision of the special commission on declaring Siemens a winner, was coordinated
with the Ministry of communications of Belarus February 18 night.
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US STATE DEPT. OFFICIALS IN MINSK
The US State Department delegation, headed by the deputy assistant to the US
Secretary of State Steven Pifer came on a visit to Minsk. Mr.Pifer is the top
State Dept. official responsible for the US relations with Belarus, Moldova,
Russia and Ukraine. As said by the US embassy representative Aleksei Solomakha,
the purpose of the visit is the evaluation of the situation in Belarus in light
of the criteria, which touch upon all countries  transparency of electoral process,
freedom of speech, parliaments real authority and political climate free from
repressions. Moreover, Steven Pifer will discuss the issues of weaponry sale
and military training of representatives of states, groups and organizations,
which alert us most.
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ONE MORE CRIMINAL ACTION BROUGHT UP AGAINST BANKER
The Public prosecutors office brought up a criminal action against the head
of one of the largest branches of Belarusbank Larisa Balabanova. As Radio
Svaboda informs, Larisa Balabanova is charged with buying office furniture at
too high prices while she worked a main bookkeeper in the regional administration
of the Belarusbank in 1996.
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REPRESENTATIVE OF THE KHVASTOUS FAMILY CLAN UNDER INVESTIGATION
In Navapolatsk the acting director of the state enterprise Disna (Navapolatsk
market) Mikhail Aliokhin is under investigation. Last week he was detained on
charges relating bribery. Navapolatsk branch of the Department on Economic Crimes
refused to comment on this fact and information that the rifle and a big sum
of money in dollars were confiscated by search, and that in the storage areas
of the market the goods were found that were not registered in documents.
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PAHONYAS EDITOR BLAMES KGB OVER CASE FABRICATION
The editor-in-chief of the Grodno newspaper Pahonya Nikolai Markevich was summoned
to the procuracy in order to familiarize himself with the materials of the libel
suit, opened for alleged insult of the incumbent president. After five-hour
long detailed analysis of the two huge case files I can tell you with full certainty
 theres no case as such! Theres but a wild desire to incarcerate journalists,
but theres no corpus delicti whatsoever,  said Markevich in an interview to
Radio Svaboda: Firstly, the information about KGB traces in our case found confirmation.
The case starts with the description of the episode where the head of the KGB
department for Grodno region colonel Svorob addressed the regions prosecutor
Vassily Litvinov with a request to give legal evaluation to the materials, published
in the newspapers issue #36 of September 5. The address dates back to September
5. By then the paper hadnt been published yet, which is clearly seen from the
case files. Plus we learnt that nobody had read the seditious issue except Pavel
Mozheiko  the author of the article.
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POLITICAL DISMISSAL
Narodnaya Volya
Assistant director general of the Minsk tractor plant Vladimir Medvedev has recently
filed in resignation. Vladimir Timofeevich claims that this was a necessary step
on his behalf and that in reality his dismissal is connected with the publication
Leonov still harbors hope, published in Narodnaya Volya on January 22. On
January 18 the NV correspondent rendezvoused at the tractor plant with the director
generals attorney Nikolai Shalimo. In a conversation, recorded on tape, there
took part the lawyer, the MTP press-secretary Vadim Bitsan and assistant director
general Vladimir Medvedev. Medvedev sought to analyze the situation, which occurred
at the plant following Mikhail Leonovs arrest. However, he asked not to mention
his name in the materials, claiming that the plant authorities banned anyone,
except for deputy director for communication with press Nikolai Stukach, to give
any commentaries on the issue.
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SPS CRITICIZES LUKASHENKAS POLICY OVER RUSSIAN COMPANIES
Russia must not consent to merge into a closer union with Belarus against her
own economic interests, deems the leader of the SPS (union of write-wing forces)
party and parliamentary faction in State Duma Boris Nemtsov. In his interview
to Interfax Nemtsov criticized the policy of the Belarusian authorities in
relation to such Russian companies as Baltika, Slavneft, Gasprom, Lukoil.
As deemed by the SPS leader, the official Minsk wants to suck from our country
the money and the resources, giving it nothing in return. According to Nemtsov,
he delivered this position of his during his Monday meeting in Moscow to the
president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.
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CONTEST FOR HYMN-WRITERS UNDERWAY IN BELARUS
Official Belarus announced a competition for the creation of the new national
anthem. The concomitant ruling has been passed by the countrys Cabinet of Ministers.
At the moment during the festive ceremonies and events they play the old Soviet
hymn only without words. Under the contests conditions, the text of the new
hymn must be written in Belarusian and, alongside with the music, it has to proclaim
the idea of the Belarusian statehood, bear musical clearness, be easy to remember,
sound solemnly and be of a marching rhythm.
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JANUARY INFLATION AMOUNTS TO 6,1%
Inflation in Belarus in January 2002 constituted 6,1% against 5,5% in December
2001, reported the Ministry of statistics and analysis. In January 2001 the inflation
reached 4,8%. Prices on paid services in January 2002 went 4,1% up, on foodstuffs
 7,5%, while on industrial goods  2,6%. Index of prices of the manufacturers
of the industrial products rose to 103,5%, including on the production facilities
 103,4$, intermediary goods  102,7%, consumer ones  105,4%.
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CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE
February 20, 2002
read the details at www.charter97.org/e/index.phtml