CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE
January 21, 2003
www.charter97.org
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OLEG ALKAEV: VIDEO RECORDS OF ZAKHARENKO, GONCHAR AND KRASOVSKY'S MURDERS EXIST
INDEED
15:46 21/01/2003, Marina Koktysh, Narodnaya Volya

"Narodnaya Volya" continues to keep track of the investigation course into the
disappearances of

Yuri Zakharenko, Viktor Gonchar, Anatoly Krasovsky and Dmitry Zavadsky. According
to the

information, received by the editorial board from the competent sources, in the
end of the month

the investigation into the matter may finally be halted. Detectives claim that
they have

exhausted all possible methods, getting no facts and results at the end. However,
the Belarusian

public will hardly put up with that. Facts do exist. This is proved by the video-records
of Irina

Krasovskaya and lawyer Garry Pogonailos conversation with Oleg Alkaev. They had
a six-hour long

talk in Germany with the former chief of the pre-trial confinement Alkaev. The
records shed light

on some remarkable peculiarities of disappearances of prominent opposition members.
Publishing

todays materials the newspaper in no wise passes an accusatory verdict to the
people, whose

names are made mention in it. If they believe that Oleg Alkaev is mistaken or
lies or that Garry

Pogonailos position is biased, "Narodnaya Volya" will gladly give floor to any
of the sides and

publish their vision of the problem too.
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/21/nv

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GRODNO ENTREPRENEURS EMBARK ON ONE DAY STRIKE
12:32 21/01/2003

On January 22 the entrepreneurs of Grodno intend to carry out a one-day warning
strike. According

to the preliminary data the strike will involve over 4,000 Grodno entrepreneurs.
Their demands

remain pretty much the same. Economic claims  to return confiscated on trumped-up
pretexts

commodity and money to the owners, dismiss officers of the controlling bodies,
which behave

lawlessly and halt constant police "raids". Political demands are to stop the
harassment of

journalists and resignation of Alexander Lukashenko.
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/21/strike

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HOW VLADIMIR PUTIN RECONCILED WITH ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO
12:29 21/01/2003, Andrei Kolesnikov, Kommersant

Belarus counted on this visit a lot, which is quite understandable, as far as
only a few foreign

leaders visit the country. The analytical program of the local TV ran a long
report on how Minsk

was preparing to meet the Russian president. According to the presenter, the
financial

expenditures could be compared only with George Bush's coming (though president
Bush has never

been in Minsk).
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/21/luka

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POLITICAL PARTIES' MEMBERS IGNORED COUNTRYWIDE
16:32 21/01/2003

The formation of the district electoral commissions ended on January 15, but
it took the Central

Electoral Commission quite a while to draw the conclusions and calculate the
statistics. They

explained the delay by huge volumes of work to be done. Throughout the country
there have been

formed 6,681 commissions, which encompass 72,328 people. In light of this figure,
the number of

political parties' members  162  simply gets lost. Active politicians are overlooked

practically everywhere.
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/21/party

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COURT ACTION OVER "STRESHINSKY AND CO" RESUMES IN ITALY
12:38 21/01/2003, ForUm

On Monday the court of Turin resumed court hearings on the so-called case of
"Streshunsky and

Co". The state prosecutors accuse the group of citizens from Ukraine, Russia,
Greece, Great

Britain and Croatia in conspiring a criminal plot for selling arms to Yugoslavia
contrary to the

UN sanctions in 1992-94. According to the case files, in 1992-94 the Global Technologies

International company, headed by Streshinsky, supplied eight consignments of
ammunition from

Ukraine and Belarus to Yugoslavia opposite to the UN arms embargo. Meantime,
the state export

organizations of Belarus and Ukraine were presented phony certificates of the
final user.
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/21/arms

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INFORMAL CIS SUMMIT MOVED TO KIEV
12:36 21/01/2003

Informal CIS summit will take place in Kiev rather than Ivano-Frankovsky region,
as planned

before, "Interfax" was told on Monday in the chief informational department of
the Ukrainian

president's Administration.
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/21/sng

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CRIMINAL LAWSUIT AGAINST "BELAZ" COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR
12:36 21/01/2003

The lawsuit was instituted under article 424/3 of the Belarusian Penal code 
power abuse.

BelaPAN refers to the press-service of the Committee for state control and the
department of

financial investigations in Minsk and Minsk region that the company's commercial
director in the

years 2001-2002 purposefully gave instructions for the sale of costly vehicles
in breach of the

agreement on preliminary payment. As a result of the unsanctioned exceeding of
terms for holding

exterior trade operations, "BelAz" faced economic sanctions in the size of 58,9mln
Russian rubles

and $4,2mln, reports the press-service.
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/21/belaz

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RIOT POLICE ILL-TREAT FEMALES
12:34 21/01/2003

In course of Vladimir Putin's visit to Minsk police have been operating in an
emergency regime

but all the same failed to avoid clashes. Despite the order of the police leadership
not to

detain anyone and prevent any incidents, a few riot policemen in civilian beat
the women from the

Human Rights League.
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2003/01/21/omon
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CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE
January 21, 2003
www.charter97.org