The Information Channel Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE January 21, 2003 www.charter97.org --------------------------------------------------------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------- CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE January 21, 2003 www.charter97.org -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: http://felist.com/member/unsub?grp=media.charter97 http://felist.com/ mailto:ask@felist.com