CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE
January, 20, 2003
http://195.133.248.5/20040120_eng.htm
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Child Porn Mongers' Attempt to Paralyze Work of www.charter97.org
Internet was exploded last Friday by information about Belarusian companies and
citizens making money on child pornography websites. Many sites of important
international news agencies, mass media and internet recourses placed articles
on this case. On Monday a reporter's investigation "Belarusian Roots of Child
Porn Mongers" appeared on the site www.charter97.org. The details of the dirty
business were disclosed there. On the next day the site was attacked by unknown
hackers. On Tuesday by 1 p.m. the work of the site of Charter'97 was paralyzed
completely. 

The attack started at about 8 a.m. Minsk time. An enormous quantity of users'
requests was directed to a site, and the server was unable to process them. These
so-called DOS-attacks are for today one of the prevalent means that can paralyze
work of web-sites. As said by support service of the hosting company "Masterhost",
more than a half of requests to sites of at Masterhost server were sent to the
site www.charter97.org. The work of the site stopped completely at 1 p.m. Minsk
time.

At the moment recovery work is underway. The article that caused the attack is
placed at the address http://195.133.248.5/

The attack against the site www.charter97.org which caused a halt of its operating
proves that a serious issue has been touch upon in the article. However, the
attempts to stop spreading of information on the crimes of child porn are meaningless.
Such actions can only attract more attention of the public to this significant
problem. 

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Reaction to Article "Belarusian Origin of Child Porn Dealers"

The theme of Belarus-based ring operating child pornography sites aroused interest
of the world community and mass media some days ago. In continuation of this
theme today's "Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta" published an article "Lolita on
Credit Card", also dedicated to activities of CP dealers. The repercussions for
raising a question are obvious. Today in the morning the web-site www.charter97.org
had experienced a hacker attack, which paralyzed the work of the site for some
time. Hackers imitated mass users' query to our server. These attempts continue
still. We apologize for interruption of our work and promise to solve the problem
soon. 

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NTV Returns To Belarus

Russian NTV Television reopens its office in Belarus starting from February 1.
According to NTV press service, Belarusian Ministry of Information and NTV signed
an agreement on cooperation, RIA Novosti informs. As Pavel Selin, former NTV
correspondent in Belarus, told the press-center of Charter'97, NTV had not appointed
a head of the office in Minsk yet.
As the "Obozrevatel" reporter in Minsk said, according to the agreement signed
on January 19, NTV has agreed "to comply with Belarusian laws and to cover Belarussian
social, economic and political events objectively".

Belarusian authorities closed down NTV office in Minsk in July, 2003 in a dispute
over the channel's coverage of the funeral of Vasil Bykov, a famous writer and
opponent of President Alexander Lukashenko. Belarusian authorities regarded the
facts reported by the correspondent untrue and fabricated. Pavel Selin was deported
from Belarus.


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Free Belarus: Opposition Can Come to an Agreement Before the End of Spring

One of the leaders of European coalition "Free Belarus" Andrei Sannikaw, representing
Charter'97, commenting on presentation of the list of candidates from 5+, said:
"Now, when they came through the stage of making a list (we also have our list)
we could start talks and negotiations: consultations to find common points, aims
of participation in elections  and then start negotiations on concrete issues".

Another representative of "Free Belarus" Mikola Statkevich in his interview to
Radio Svaboda said that coalition 5+ has not answered to the proposal to start
talks, and just offered to join 5+, but he does not lose optimism:

"I think that as soon as our colleagues become certain that they cannot introduce
monopoly for democracy and everything connected with it, they are to start talks.
And we'll have an agreement, I think, before the end of spring. And at an earlier
time it is not desirable. If the authorities knew the format of our coalition,
our tactics and strategy beforehand, they could think up something, even though
they are inert". 

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Talks on Gas Did Not Take Place

Yesterday Belarusian-Russian talks concerning gas supply to Belarus and creation
of a joint venture with "Belatransgas" did not succeed yesterday. The Department
of Governmental information of Russian Federation informed that talks on the
level of gas corporations "Gazprom" and "Beltransgz" were planned on January
19. However yesterday Belarusian delegation did not arrive to Moscow. The decision
to cancel visit to Moscow was made at last moment, and even in "Beltransgaz"
itself on Monday morning nobody could say for sure whereabouts of director general
Pyotr Petukh. His reception office answered that at 7 a.m. he was to leave for
Moscow. But one of deputy directors was sure that he had not left for talks and
is in the country. However, as Sergei Kupriyanov, press secretary of Gazprom
board of directors said, "talks are to take place today".


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Homiel Central Market Director Arrested

Uladzimir Zhalezko, director of Central Market of Homiel, was arrested at the
moment when he was receiving a 1,500 dollars bribe. The detention was carried
out by law enforcers of the department on economical crimes of the Internal Affairs
Department (Homiel regional executive committee) and regional prosecutor's office.
The motivation was an appeal of a businessman who said that the director asks
money for prolongation a rent contract, the BDG informs. Uladzimir Zhalezko is
taken into custody. The regional prosecutor's office brought up an action. 

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CHARTER'97 BELARUS NEWS UPDATE
December, 20, 2003
http://195.133.248.5/20040120_eng.htm