About twenty people, mostly members of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party, demonstrated at an empty stadium on the outskirts of Brest on November 29 to express their support for the local independent newspaper Brestsky Kuryer.
Brestsky Kuryer is having trouble getting printed at Brest's state-run printery and has even had to print a recent issue in Russia following an official warning from Belarus' State Committee on the Press for publishing a statement "on behalf of unregistered organizations."
Local activists of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC) and the Belarusian Social Democratic Party originally planned to picket the printery, but the city government named the remote soccer stadium as the only place where they could demonstrate legally.
The BHC plans to stage another picket in support of the newspaper at the same stadium on November 30.
A judge of a district court in Brest on November 27 ruled that the cargo of three more heavy-duty trucks out of the 21-vehicle convoy that was intercepted in Belarus earlier this month should be confiscated. As a
result of three court sessions held the previous week, the judge examined evidence concerning 15 of the 21 trucks, and also ruled that their load should be forfeited to the public domain as contraband. The shipment included televisions, laser printers, clothes and other expensive goods, although the shipping documents said that facing
ceramic tile, which is subject to minimum customs duty, was in the trucks. As the court investigation established, the drivers were to be handed new shipping documents after crossing the Belarusian-Polish border, and to head for Russia.
The confiscated load of the 18 trucks, which is valued at 5,400 million rubels ($3.6 million), will be distributed to retail stores throughout the country. The trucks themselves were not confiscated and will be returned to their owners. The fate of the remaining three trucks' load will be decided after material about the case is submitted to the
court, the judge told BelaPAN. The twenty-one trucks were stopped by Belarusian authorities in the Kobrin district, Brest region, after the
convoy crossed Belarus' Polish border at the Kozlovichi checkpoint and passed through the Brestgruzavtoservis customs terminal.
The shipping documents designated an Arizona, United States, based firm called Salem as the consignor. The cargo was transported to Finland by sea and then it was carried to Poland where it was loaded into the trucks, which were owned by carriers based in Russia and Belarus, including Brest.
The consignee failed to be identified because the shipping documents had only the address: Skaryna Avenue, Minsk. The customs clearance papers were made out in dummy persons' names. The regional branch of the Committee for State Security (KGB) suspects Brest customs officers of participation in the smuggling. Criminal proceedings have
been instituted in connection with the incident.
The Brest City Soviet (elected council) on November 28 almost unanimously confirmed the appointment of Nikolai Gordiyevich as chairman of the Brest City Executive Committee.
On November 27, Mr. Gordiyevich was received by the Belarusian ruler, who gave his consent to his appointment. Mr. Gordiyevich filled the position left vacant by Gennady Mosko, who resigned after serving in that post for more than five years.
While introducing Mr. Gordiyevich to the Brest City Soviet, region governor Vasily Dolgolyov said that he was chosen from among several candidates for a number of reasons, including because he was a new man in Brest. Mr. Gordiyevich was appointed as deputy chairman of the
Brest City Executive Committee just nine months ago. Before that, he headed the executive government in the nearby city of Kobrin for several years. Mr. Dolgolyov said that the new city head will have to work
hard to make Brest number 2 city in Belarus in terms of beauty and achievements.
Brest Regional Prosecutor Valery Omelyanyuk has challenged the acquittal verdict passed by the Brest Regional Court on Gennady Kolesnikov, a former Orthodox deacon previously convicted of the 1998 murder of local priest Mikhail Satsyuk.
Mr. Kolesnikov was sentenced to 20 years in jail in July 2000 after confessing to killing the priest over sexual harassment on the victim's part. The Supreme Court of Belarus vacated the sentence for "lack of evidence," remanding the case for retrial. The Brest Regional Court
acquitted the ex-deacon last week.
The Prosecutor's Office took the verdict as a "slap in the face." One officer said their case against Mr. Kolesnikov was airtight, adding that the Church must have been behind the acquittal verdict. Prosecutor Omelyanyuk filed his appeal with the Supreme Court on November 27.
Belarusian ruler Aleksandr Lukashenko has appointed Nikolai Gordiyevich as chairman of the Brest City Executive Committee, the government of the 300,000 regional capital in southwestern Belarus.
Mr. Gordiyevich's predecessor, Gennady Mosko, headed the Brest government for more than five years. He resigned in late October following a probe into his running of the city economy. He has already accepted the position of deputy director general for economy at Westauto (formerly Brestsovtransavto), a large Brest-based motor carrier. Mr. Gordiyevich was recommended for the post by the Brest
Regional Executive Committee, of which he has been deputy chairman since March 2001. Before that, he served as chairman of the City Executive Committee in nearby Kobrin for several years.
A judge at Brest's district court has ruled that the cargo of 15 heavy-duty trucks that was intercepted in Belarus earlier this month should be
confiscated.
Twenty-one trucks bound for Russia were stopped by Belarusian authorities in the Kobrin district, Brest region, after the convoy crossed Belarus' Polish border at the Kozlovichi checkpoint and passed through the Brestgruzavtoservis customs terminal. The trucks, which carried televisions, laser printers, clothes and other goods, was returned in Brest. The cargo was valued at almost $4 million. The accompanying documents said that ceramic tile, which is subject to low customs duty, was being shipped.
As a result of three sessions held this past week, the court of the Moskovsky district in Brest examined evidence concerning 15 of the 21 trucks, and established that the cargo had been smuggled. Since the consignees were not identified and nobody could be penalized, the judge decided that the shipment should be confiscated.
The last court session, which is to be held this week, appears to result in a similar decision with respect to the remaining six trucks.
The Brest City Executive Committee has renamed a street in Brest after Mikhail Moshensky, a prominent businessman who founded fish packaging companies Santa Impex Brest and Santa Bremor.
Mr. Moshensky died of a heart attack in May 2000 leaving his business to his son, Aleksandr. Aleksandr Moshensky has now pledged to refurbish the street named after his father.
Apart from packaging fish, Santa Impex Brest and Santa Bremor produce ice cream, carbonated drinks and frozen pommes frites. The companies run food stores in Brest, the Brest region and Russia.
Anatoly Bushuyev has resigned as chairman of the State Property Management and Privatization Committee of the Brest Regional Executive Committee (regional government).
Minister of State Property Management and Privatization Vasily Novak has accepted Mr. Bushuyev's resignation. The Ministry itself is about to cease to exist in Belarus' ongoing government reform, but the Council of Ministers has decided to leave its regional branches intact. Mr. Bushuyev is reluctant to comment on the reasons behind his
resignation.
Vera Osmolovskaya, chief of the Industry and Foreign Economic Activities Department of the Brest City Executive Committee, handed in her resignation earlier this week. November has also been marked by the resignations of Gennady Mosko, chairman of the Brest City Executive Committee, and Mikhail Kolotukhin, the Brest region's
police chief. No replacement has been found for the city head, while Mr. Kolotukhin has been succeeded by Colonel Vladimir Shafarenko, who formerly represented Belarus' Ministry of Internal Affairs in Poland.
There are two more notable vacancies in Brest. The region's TV and radio chief, Vasily Manyuk, has been appointed first deputy chairman of the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company. Nina Tolstik has been dismissed as director of the state-run Business Center in Brest's free economic zone.
The Brest Regional Court has acquitted Gennady Kolesnikov, a former Orthodox deacon in Brest in southwestern Belarus, of the 1998 murder of local priest Mikhail Satsyuk.
Mr. Satsyuk was found stabbed in the back seat of his car in a forest in Brest in October 1998. He was buried with exceptional honors in the yard of his church. The service was conducted by Exarch Filaret, head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belarus.
Mr. Kolesnikov came under suspicion very soon but was not arrested until December 1999. He confessed to killing the priest over sexual harassment on the victim's part and stood a closed-doors trial. The Brest Regional Court sentenced him to 20 years in jail in July 2000.
The Supreme Court of Belarus vacated the sentence for "lack of evidence," remanding the case for retrial. The Regional Court came up with the same verdict on November 21. Mr. Kolesnikov was released right in the courtroom. The case against the ex-deacon was airtight; his acquittal is absurd and must have been ordered by Minsk, BelaPAN was
told by an officer of the Brest Prosecutor's Office who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Church is trying to hush up any evidence of homosexuality within its ranks, the officer said.
Members of the Brest Regional Soviet (elected council) at their recent session voiced concern about a rapid reduction in the region's population in the last few years.
There are 12 abandoned villages and 136 villages with 10 and less residents in the region. The region's total population decreased from 1,510,000 in 1994 to 1,482,000 at the beginning of 2001. The urban population decreased by 16,400 people in the last six years, whereas the rural population decreased by 44,000 people since 1988. There is a shortage of working age people in the rural areas. For instance, the Sukhopol Village Soviet in the Pruzhany district administers 31 villages with a population of 3,363 people, 1,621 of whom are pensioners.
In Brest, however, births outnumbered deaths by 800 this year. About 3,000 people were born in the city in the first ten months of 2001.
30 November 2001