CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE
January 16, 2003
www.charter97.org
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LEBANESE PROSECUTOR: MILITARY CARGO FOR IRAQ DISPATCHED BY BELARUS
11:20 16/01/2003

Lebanese newspaper "The Daily Star" reported with a reference to the Lebanese
state prosecutor Adnan Adum that the military cargo, captured in the airport
of Beirut en route to Iraq, arrived from Croatia, rather than Belarus. However,
the prosecutor personally told Radio Svaboda that he never gave such commentaries,
pinpointing that the sender was Belarus, not Croatia.
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/16/lib

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WHY PUGACHEV TRAVELS TO BEIRUT?
15:37 16/01/2003

First deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus Vasily Pugachev will visit Beirut on
Monday, January 20. RIA "Novosti" correspondent reports that the official "will
discuss with the Lebanese colleagues the ways of extending and strengthening
Belarusian-Lebanese relations". The news sounds particularly astounding in light
of the recent scandal with the seizure of military consignment on the territory
of Lebanon en route to Iraq from Belarus.
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/16/libanon

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INDEPENDENT "NOVAYA GAZETA SMORGONI" MAY CEASE EXISTENCE
15:35 16/01/2003

Local executive in the person of the head of the district executive committee
Stanislav Yurgel demands to halt the activities of the editor of the newspaper
Romuald Ulan as an individual entrepreneur and addressed over the matter the
Grodno region economic court. The newspaper's personnel are convinced that the
authorities are simply trying to silence the popular regional edition.
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/16/gazeta

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DISTRICT COMMISSION'S FORMATION OVER
12:54 16/01/2003

Outcomes of this stage of the election campaign will be made known only on January
17, Radio Svaboda was told by the secretary of the Central Electoral Commission
Nikolai Lozovik. He explains the delay by saying that they need to gather and
process the data, emanating from more than 6000 constituencies.
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/16/izbirkom

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GRODNO OPPOSITION DENIED ACCESS TO DISTRICT COMMISSIONS
12:51 16/01/2003

BPF representatives addressed the authorities with a protest appeal. None of
the 33 members of their party were included into the district commissions on
the elections into the City Hall. BPF Council believes that this testifies to
the executive's violation of Electoral Code.
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/16/grodno

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BELARUS RESUMES INVESTIGATION INTO KOLOMIYTS'S CASE
11:22 16/01/2003

Kiev procuracy intends to more thoroughly investigate into the death on the territory
of Belarus of a director of the news agency "Ukrainian news" Mikhail Kolomiyts,
said the prosecutor of Kiev Vasily Prisyazhnuk. In the near future Belarus will
be repeatedly visited by the Ukrainian operative group, which will try to define
possible contacts of Kolomiyts, reasons for his coming to Belarus and particularly
to the forest of Molodechno, where his body had been unearthed.
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/16/kolom
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CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE
January 16, 2003
www.charter97.org