The United Civic Party (UCP) plans to increase its presence in the Brest region, UCP leader Anatoly Lebedko told BelaPAN after meeting his party's regional bosses in Brest on February 26.
Mr. Lebedko said that the UCP was weaker in Brest than in other regions partly because of frequent changes in its leadership. "I believe that the party has a great potential in Brest, but the lack of good infrastructure weakens the UCP's ties with voters," Mr. Lebedko said. "Our economic program is the strongest point, but the party is out of touch with the population. We can communicate all [our
ideas] through our branches only."
Within the next 18 months, the UCP intends to set up new branches in Brest, Baranovichi, Pinsk, Luninets and Kobrin. "We are preparing for large-scale participation in the local elections," Mr. Lebedko said.
He noted that Nikolai Yaromich might be replaced as chairman of the Brest regional branch at a conference coming up in March. "Yaromich, an intelligent and educated man, has a good potential, but no time to pay enough attention to the party questions."
Cash-starved collective farms in the Pruzhany district, Brest region, paid part of wages for December last year with coupons.
For instance, the management of the Iskra collective farm told BelaPAN that it paid 30 percent of December's wages in coupons, which workers can exchange for food and consumer goods at local stores.
Vladimir Senchuk, deputy chairman of the Pruzhany District Executive Committee, said that the collective farmers should not worry if they fail to use their coupons before March 1 -- they will be able to exchange them for cash as soon as the crisis is over.
The average pre-tax wage in the Brest region amounted to 137,100 rubels ($83) in January, a fall of 5.3 percent from December 2001, the Regional Statistics Department reported. Wages in agriculture averaged 82,500 rubels ($50), collective farmers earned even less - 70,700 rubels ($43). About 30 percent of the agricultural enterprises in the
region operate at a loss.
The Belavezhskaya Puscha National Park management has began charging tourists for walking near open-air cages and significantly raised charges for guided tours.
Excursions near open-air cages, which used to be free of charge in the past, now cost 2,500 rubels (less than $2). The management said the measure is intended to raise additional funds for animal feed.
Tourists are not allowed any longer to drive around the park in their own cars. Guided car tours used to cost about 1,000 rubels per person. Under the new rules, tourists can explore the park in their own minivans or rent a minivan at the park. A guided tour costs 8,000 (about $5) per person in a non-rented minivan and 10,000 rubels ($6) per person
in a rented minivan.
The park administration declined to comment on the price rise. A park employee speaking on condition of anonymity told BelaPAN that new charges might scare off tourists.
Belavezhskaya Puscha covers a vast area in western Belarus and spreads into Poland. Its forests are on the average more than 100 years old. The age of some is estimated at 250 to 350 years. 600-year-old oaks and 350-year-old ashes and pines are not uncommon there. The Park is unique in Europe in terms of animal and plant diversity. In 1992,
UNESCO included the Park into its World Heritage List, while the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development allocated $1 million to protect the biodiversity of the Belarusian part of the forest.
In late January, the Council of Europe extended by another five years the park's Diploma for Protected Areas, the park employee said.
A newly retired man in a small town named Zhabinka in southwestern Belarus has refused to accept his first monthly pension of 68,000 rubels ($40), sending it to Minsk's Main Post Office "poste restante" for Aleksandr Lukashenko.
60-year-old Gennady Samoilenko also sent the Belarusian ruler a letter protesting his "starving retirement" and his pension that "can buy neither a good medicine nor a balanced diet." Mr. Samoilenko told BelaPAN he tried to send his pension directly to the presidential palace, but his local post office would not accept it.
A man with a loaded pistol and a large amount in undeclared German cash has been arrested by Belarusian customs officers in the border city of Brest on a train en route from Moscow to Warsaw.
The man, a resident of the Belarusian city of Vitebsk, carried as much as 109,700 German marks that did not look genuine; his gun was loaded with eight rounds, but he surrendered peacefully, BelaPAN was told by Nikolai Ignatsevich, deputy chief of the Brest Customs Office.
"It is hard to imagine what could have happened had the armed passenger offered resistance, the more so as he was arrested by a female officer. This is the first time in five years that we find a gun on a passenger," Mr. Ignatsevich said.
The man has been put in a detention center. Criminal proceedings have been instituted against him. Mr. Ignatsevich says there is little doubt that the money the man carried was low-quality counterfeit. The notes are now undergoing tests.
The establishment of a Union for Solidarity of Workers Dismissed by the Regime has been announced in Brest.
The organization unites local activists of Belarusian political parties and NGOs who either campaigned for the opposition or served as election observers in Belarus' 2001 presidential election, won by authoritarian incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko, and have since then lost their jobs.
They include Igor Maslovsky, chairman of the Brest branch of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Georgy Rutsky, local leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party, and Yevgeny Belasin, of the Belarusian Popular Front. Mr. Rutsky formerly headed the Brest District Seed Inspectorate. The two others are former faculty members of
Brest State University.
The aim is to "show the public and the authorities that those who have been dismissed are united by solidarity and mutual support," says Mr. Maslovsky. "We will continue our political and public activities, from now on at the professional level." The organization plans to "resist the authorities' harassment of politically active citizens, offer concrete
support to those fired for political reasons, and inform the public about political rights violations in the Brest region." The founders do not intend to seek official registration for the Union.
Meanwhile, Brest's Justice Office has initiated court proceedings to close down one of the region's largest NGOs, the Center for Civic Initiatives (Vezha). The trial has been set for March 4. Vezha has received two "official warnings" for alleged violations of NGO regulations, which is enough for a closure.
The regional trade union association in Brest has decided to take no part
in the protests that the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB) plans to stage on March 5.
Most participants at the association's February 18 meeting agreed that the March 5 protest was premature and that their local branches were not ready for it. "I have traveled a lot around the region lately, and I saw no support for this protest. People do not believe in demonstrations and rallies," said the association's leader, Vladimir Mironchik.
Those present did not discuss the FTUB's plan to stage a nationwide protest on March 28 against the government's recent ban on checkoffs of union dues. They did decide to prepare for future protests. It is possible, however, that union dues checkoffs will not be among the demands. "We should be the first to put forward demands for higher
living standards against rising prices and to say our 'No!' to lawlessness," Mr. Mironchik said. The region's light industry union and the union of local cultural workers will take no part in the protest
regardless of the date. "It has been decided to not to participate," said Yevgeniya Vlasyuk, leader of the cultural workers' union. Last week, her union also suspended dues transfers to the regional association and
the FTUB.
Russia have overcome a second period lapse in concentration to beat Belarus 6-4 in a wide open Olympic ice hockey contest loaded with offense.
The vaunted Russian attack took little time to get in gear with Boston Bruins all-star Sergei Samsonov finding the back of the net with a backhand just one minute and 45 seconds into the game.
Oleg Antonenko levelled the score seven minutes later but then Russia reeled off three straight goals by Chicago Blackhawk Alexei Zhamnov, Atlanta Thrasher Ilya Kovalchuk and New York Islander Alexei Yashin.
Belarus showed that there is no such thing as an easy game in the final round, though, clawing its way back into the game with two goals that Tampa Bay Lightning all-star goalie Nikolai Khabibulin should have stopped.
Russia, winner of the silver medal in Nagano four years ago, came out flying in the third period with goals by Boris Mironov and Sergei Fedorov in the first four minutes to regain its three goal lead. Anaheim Might Ducks defenseman Ruslan Salei got one back in the last two minutes of the game but that was as close as qualifier Belarus would get.
More than 500 grams of heroin have been seized by Belarus' Committee for State Security (KGB) in Brest.
The amount seized is estimated at over $56,000, or 2,800 doses, the largest quantity seized in the Brest region in years, the KGB press office says. The KGB declines to comment on the identity of the suspect, citing "the interests of the investigation." Sources tell BelaPAN the person was already in custody on a drug possession charge when the heroin was found.
Belarusian police consider brining criminal charges against a German citizen suspected of trafficking in women and raping a minor.
The Brest regional police department told BelaPAN that Karl Heintz Franke, a former employee with the humanitarian foundation "The Stork of Hope", allegedly failed to register with the local authorities when he lived in the town of Pinsk, Brest region. In November 1999, he allegedly
offered housekeeping jobs to two 22-year old women, took them to Germany and sold to a pimp for $250 each. The man is also suspected of raping a 15-year old vocational school student in December 2001.
The police do not know the suspect's whereabouts.
28 February 2002