Polish border control officers at the Terespol checkpoint have recently turned back a total of more than 100 Chechens.
Belarus' border guards found the Chechens' documents to be in order and let them through, the press office of the Brest Border Control Unit told BelaPAN.
Some 140 Chechens boarded a Brest-Terespol train on the morning of September 30, the day before Poland starts applying new visa regulations for Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian citizens. It is yet unclear whether or not they were allowed to enter Poland, according to the press office. Several hundred Chechens were turned away from the Terespol border crossing last November and were finally allowed
to enter Poland only after Russian diplomats interfered. Poland's border control authorities declined to comment on the reasons for their decision. There were reports that Poland, having a large Chechen community, sought to close the country's doors to new immigrants. It is Chechen women with children and seniors that settle in Poland first as a rule.
They are later joined by men, who, as the Polish authorities believe, might have been involved in combat operations in the breakaway Russian republic.
Search troops in Brest have unearthed the remains of more than 120 people some of whom were Russian soldiers buried during World War I.
The mass grave contained pieces of Russian army uniform, a pair of shoulder straps and buttons that bore the mark of the Russian czar. A Bible with bullet holes was laying on the chest of a skeleton.
The searchers also found a tombstone that said in Polish that the grave contains the remains of 38 Russian soldiers buried in 1915. The stone was put up in 1928. The bones were first found this summer by construction workers digging trenches to lay down communications cable.
The searchers cannot explain why the stone mentions just 28 soldiers, whereas they have found 120 skeletons and more than a hundred separate bones. Some skeletons were 2 meters deep, while others
laid near to the surface. There is a theory that the site is a former military cemetery but there is no historic evidence to prove it.
The remains will be reburied at the cemetery near the village of Ploska, Brest district.
Aleksandr Lukashenko is expected to attend an opening ceremony for an indoor athletics arena in Brest on September 26.
Work at the arena's design started as far back as 1987 and the Brest Electromechanical Factory was expected to finance the construction. However, the project stalled in 1995 because of the lack of funds.
Last year, the national government ordered that the track and field center should be completed and tasked Konstantin Pechko, deputy chairman of the Brest Regional Executive Committee, with
supervising the project. The Brestproyekt bureau designed the arena with due regard for the requirements of the International Amateur Athletics Federation. Seven billion rubels ($3.5 million) was spent on the project this year alone. The newly built arena is said to meet all international standards. It has a 200-meter track, infield jump
and shot put areas, two practice halls and two weight lifting gyms, saunas and a cafeteria. The arena has a capacity of 1,500 spectators.
The facility, said to be the best in Belarus, may become the national team's training center.
On September 4, it is 440 years since Mikalai Radzivill Chorny, starasta (mayor) of Bierasce (Brest), printed the Bible, known as Brest Bible or Radzivil Bible, in 1563.
Radzivill Chorny, who actively promoted Reformation ideas, founded a Calvinist community, build a Protestant church and in 1553 opened in Bierascie the first printing plant on the territory of modern Belarus.
The Brest Bible is considered one of the best books of the Grand Duchy of Litva and Rzecz Pospolita. A few originals of the Brest Bible are kept in libraries in Moscow, Vilnius and Krakow. There is an incomplete copy of the Bible at the Yakub Kolas Central Scientific Library in Minsk.
Aleksandr Palyshenkov, deputy chairman of the Brest City Executive Committee, on September 3 handed keys to a one-room apartment to rower Natalya Gelakh, who, teamed with Yuliya Bichik, took the silver medal in the women's coxless pair final at the 2003 World Championships held in Milan in late August.
Speaking at the ceremony the official noted that the athlete has shown an outstanding performance in the last three years. Ms. Gelakh came in fourth at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and won a bronze medal
at the 2002 World Championships. The athlete's performance at the 2003 World Championships is an honor to her native city, Mr. Palyshenkov stressed.The Vitapharm company and the regional government's Sports Department also presented their gifts to
the rower.
The city authorities in Brest have contributed much to the development of sports in recent years, according to Mr. Palyshenkov. An indoor athletics arena is to open in the city on September 26 in the presence of the Belarusian leader. In addition, he said, the city government plans to renovate a rowing canal in the Kovalyovo neighborhood, the national team's training ground, which is currently in very poor condition.
Apart from Ms. Gelakh, the Brest region also can be proud of heptathlete Natalya Sazanovich, resident in Baranovichi, and shot putter Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Stolin, who won a bronze and a silver medal, respectively, at the recent Athletics World Championships in Paris.
The city authorities in Brest have prohibited the local branch of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party "Narodnaya Hramada" (BSDP) from staging a festival to mark the beginning of the new school year.
Igor Maslovsky of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC) told BelaPAN that the BSDP intended to stage the festival in central Brest between September 2 and 4 and filed the application 15 days in
advance as required by the law. The authorities said that the BSDP needed to obtain approval from school management and housing
authorities for the festival, according to Mr. Maslovsky. He said the BSDP held four festivals last year attended by hundreds of Brest residents.
The trial opened in Brest of four men suspected of involvement in the brutal murder of Mikhail Zubov, director of the state-run transport company Interavtotrans.
Mr. Zubov was clubbed to death with a hockey club and a metal bar near his house in Brest at about 6p.m. on January 24, 2002.
Bograt Gogladze and Nikolai Samokhvalov, both have a record of convictions, reportedly admitted to the murder. They said they had been paid $300 by businessmen Igor Goncharov and Yury Grigoruk to
beat and intimidate Mr. Zubov, but he died of injuries.
Messrs. Grigoruk and Goncharov are accused of complicity and hooliganism. Mr. Goncharov was hospitalized with a heart attack shortly before the trail and did not attend the first hearing.
30 September 2003