Latvia would like very much dialogue between the European Union and Belarus to develop, Maira Mora, the Latvian ambassador in Minsk, said on Friday following the signing of an interstate agreement on cooperation in the social security sphere.
“We are very interested in dialogue between Belarus and the European Union and try to do everything possible so that it will take place,” she said. “Now we are expecting the Belarusian authorities to take further steps that could launch this dialogue.”
The ambassador said that Belarus is attractive for Latvian businesspeople, and that representatives of Latvian business circles would visit Belarus soon.
“I hope that certain changes are taking place in Belarus’ policy regarding foreign investments, but I have to note that much still should be done to improve the business environment so that investors will come to Belarus without apprehensions, and that there will be favorable conditions for their activities,” Ms. Mora said.
The Brest city organization of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party "Hramada" has asked the city authorities for permission to stage a protest against the imprisonment of Alyaksandr Kazulin who is the leader of the party.
Hana Kanyus, chairwoman of the cell, told BelaPAN that they intended to file applications for the permission every day and stage protests until the former presidential candidate was released from prison.
The first application was submitted for permission to demonstrate at a stadium, the only place in the city allowed for such events, on March 14.
"The purpose of the demonstration is to demand the release of our party leader, Alyaksandr Kazulin, and draw the attention of the public to human rights abuses in Belarus," Ms. Kanyus said. //BelaPAN
Belarus is better for business than Brussels, Boris Nemsic, head of Telekom Austria Group, told the Financial Times in an interview.
"We have been much better treated in Belarus than in Brussels. That's not a political statement. That's a business statement," he said.
Mr. Nemsic was responding to comments by Viviane Reding, the European Union telecommunications commissioner, who called on the mobile phone industry last week to cut the costs of text messaging and mobile internet access for customers traveling abroad.
In October 2007, Telekom Austria bought a 70-percent stake in Mobile Digital Communications, Belarus’ first GSM provider also known as Velcom.
Mr. Nemsic made clear that he was satisfied with the way the Belarusian authorities had treated the company last year, according to the Financial Times.
But Mr. Nemsic, who was born in the former Yugoslavia, said the European Commission's moves to establish retail price controls reminded him of communism. "I lived under communism and I hated regulated prices," he said.
In August 2007, the Belarusian government sold its stake in Velcom to the co-owner, Cyprus-based Samauwi Brothers (SB) Telecom, for $556 million, according to official reports.
Few months later, Telekom Austria paid €730 million for 70 percent in Velcom’s Cyprus-based owner and has the right to buy the remaining 30-percent stake for €320 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. //BelaPAN
Prime Minister Syarhey Sidorski and National Bank head Pyotr Prakapovich suggested that the government should lift all restrictions on wages in the construction sector that experiences a severe shortage of labor.
In particular, Mr. Sidorski proposed to Alyaksandr Lukashenka at a government conference held on Thursday that the average level of monthly pay in the sector should be increased to the equivalent of $700, according to the Belarusian leader’s press office.
At present construction costs estimates include a wage fund calculated on the basis of up to 650,000 rubels ($300) per employee and construction organizations have to use their profits to increase the level of pay to 1,200,000 or 1,300,000 rubels, the press office said.
Mr. Prakapovich also suggested immediately addressing the housing problem of the sector’s employees. He said that construction organizations should be allowed to start housing projects in which their employees would be co-investors to receive a title to an apartment on completion of the construction.
Mr. Sidorski pointed out that the profitability limit for housing construction in rural areas is only five percent, which he said impedes the development of construction organizations. “It’s necessary that the construction sector should earn money by itself for the modernization of its equipment,” he said, suggesting that the profitability limit should be raised to 10 or 15 percent.
“Raise the profitability limit to 10 percent and set the pay level as you want, but it’s necessary to do this without increasing the costs of housing,” Mr. Lukashenka stressed, according to his press office. //BelaPAN
A group of small business activists has called for the immediate release of former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin.
"By releasing his political opponents under pressure from the Belarusian and international public, Lukashenka seeks to retain an image of a good-doer," the group said in a statement posted on the Web site ourbelarus.org on Friday. "Against his highly educated rival for the presidency, he uses methods that smirches the fair name of Alyaksandr Kazulin."
"We urge the people and governments of democratic countries to use all the strength of international solidarity and international law for the cause of the quick release of Ayaksandr Kazulin," the statement reads. "We demand the immediate release of prisoner of conscience Alyaksandr Kazulin without any conditions and personal guarantees for Mr. Lukashenka."
The statement bears signatures of small business activists Anatol Zmitrovich, Alyaksandr Makayew, Mikalay Awtukhovich, Ihar Lednik, as well as opposition politican Vyachaslaw Siwchyk.
Dr. Kazulin was sentenced to five and a half years in prison after post-election protests in 2006. Amnesty International has declared him a prisoner of conscience. //BelaPAN
The brother of former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin, Uladzimir, on February 28 got back his driver’s documents, which had been seized by unidentified police officers.
The documents were taken away from him earlier that day, as he was driving toward Vitsyebsk to see Dr. Kazulin off to his prison near the city.
Uladzimir was able to reclaim his documents with the help of Pavel Levinaw, a member of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee. “He is a well-known figure in Vitsyebsk,” Uladzimir told BelaPAN. “He phoned a desk officer, who called back five minutes later saying that I should drive to the regional traffic police department, which was 100 kilometers away. I had to do it at my own peril.”
“A senior lieutenant who received me started waving a charge sheet in my face, but had to retract his words and even apologize after I had enumerated the offenses committed by police during my arrest, told him I’d file a complained and warned that there were reporters with video cameras outside.”
Uladzimir’s car was pulled over by police 7:20 p.m. fifty kilometers away from the prison, allegedly for speeding. “We drove in a single file, there were three or four cars in front, but police decided to stop mine,” he noted. “They were probably following orders. I refused to sign the charge sheet.” According to him, officers of a rapid response unit from Vitsyebsk, who never identified themselves, searched the car for drugs, weapons and ammunition.
“I was first told that my car was stolen and then that it was not in their database,” Uladzimir said. “They said that I should drive with them to Orsha to have my number plate checked. Then I heard, ‘Hurry up, let’s go,’ and the uniformed men got into their car and sped away, taking my driver’s documents and leaving me no ticket. I stepped onto the middle of the road in an attempt to stop them, but they almost ran me over.”
Uladzimir left the police department at about 10 p.m.
Alyaksandr Kazulin, who was serving a 5½-year prison sentence in the Vitsba 3 correctional institution just outside Vitsyebsk, was granted a three-day leave on Monday night to attend the funeral of his wife, who had died of cancer two days before. Although the car driving him back to prison was also stopped for allegedly speeding, Dr. Kazulin was able to return there on time.
Police in Baranavichy dispersed a demonstration staged on Wednesday to commemorate Iryna Kazulin who died on February 23 at the age of 48 of cancer.
Mikalay Charnavus, a local small business activist, told BelaPAN that around 30 people gathered on the central square in the evening with lighted candles and images of the late wife of former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin.
A dozen policemen were at the scene. A deputy chief of the city police department, Alyaksandr Sakuta, approached the crowd 15 minutes into the demonstration to warn them that it had not been sanctioned, and that they might face penalties.
The police dispersed mourners when they were heading for a memorial to Stalinist terror victims located not far from the city center. BelaPAN
Former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich on Wednesday evening met with Minsk residents in front of the Valhahrad department store as part of a campaign to deliver his message to people across the country.
Some 200 people took part in the meeting that lasted an hour and a half, Mr. Milinkevich's associate, Yuras Hubarevich, told BelaPAN.
Mr. Milinkevich was standing on the stairs of the department store and speaking out loud so that people could see and hear him.
People expressed worry about price hikes, the removal of state benefits to many people and plans to build a nuclear power plant in the country, according to Mr. Hubarevich.
They asked questions about why authorities were building many ice hockey arenas and carrying out other ambitious projects amid very low pension payments, why almost half of students have to pay tuition fees, how the situation in the country might be changed and what reforms should be carried out.
As part of the campaign, Mr. Milinkevich is planning to travel to Kobryn and Brest this weekend and to the Hrodna and Mahilyow regions later.
The administration of the Vitsba 3 correctional institution has directed that Alyaksandr Kazulin should return to the prison by 8 p.m. on February 28.
According to Ihar Rynkevich, a former lawyer for Dr. Kazulin, the administration explains that the decision to grant the inmate a three-day leave in connection with the death of his wife was made at about 8 p.m. on February 25.
As Mr. Rynkevich told BelaPAN, under the Criminal Procedure Code, the short-term leave should not include the time spent on traveling to the place of destination and back. Since Dr. Kazulin arrived home at about 1 a.m. on February 26, he has to depart from Minsk at about 1 a.m. on February 29 and should return to the correctional institution without being accompanied by any police escort, he said. This means that Dr. Kazulin may return to the prison at about 5 a.m. on Friday, he added.
“That’s why the authorities’ decision on the deadline for Dr. Kazulin’s return deprives him of at least eight hours of freedom,” Mr. Rynkevich concluded.
According to him, he stated his case in a telephone conversation with the deputy chief of the prison at about 10:30 a.m. on Thursday.
The Vitsba 3 correctional institution is located a few miles from Vitsyebsk. The city is about four hours by car from Minsk.
Dr. Kazulin, rector of Belarusian State University between 1996 and 2003 who was a candidate in Belarus' 2006 presidential election, was arrested during a police crackdown on a peaceful post-election opposition demonstration on March 25, 2006. He was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison on charges of hooliganism and the organization of group actions disturbing the public peace.
Dr. Kazulin has been held in the Vitsba 3 correctional institution since September 21, 2006.
His wife, Iryna Kazulin, died on February 23 at the age of 48 after a 10-year battle with breast cancer.
Opposition politician Alyaksandr Kazulin said that he forgives Alyaksandr Lukashenka for "everything" what he has done.
"My family forgives him for everything. Let it remain on his conscience what he has done," Dr. Kazulin said at an online questions-and-answers session that was hosted by BelaPAN’s online newspaper Belorusskiye Novosti on Thursday.
"I extend my hand to him before the cherished memory of my wife and the Belarusian people," the politician said. "Because I have understood that violence should not be responded with violence, or else we will become similar to the present-day authorities. We should extend our hand – the hand of help and understanding that the last line should not be crossed — to them without grudge. There are concepts that are much stronger such as conscience, honor, compassion, mercy and, finally, humanity. Violence, total violence that apparently takes place in our country always leads to decay. But what is the worst is that it leads to the decay of the most sacred things, to spiritual poverty, and to a moral desert. We cannot let this happen. Whatever we may wish, Lukashenka is part of our history. And despite many sins that the present-day authorities have committed, they have a chance to pause and think."
"I do not think anything about specific talks today. I just offer my hand and am prepared to accept Lukashenka's," he went to say.
He expressed hope that the Belarusian leader also "will forget personal offenses and things that are in the past and also will sincerely extend his hand."
"I suggest drawing a line under the past, put a final dot and begin everything with a blank sheet. I hope that it will happen," he said.
The politician stressed that he had never refused to come to the negotiating table, and even offered authorities talks at the beginning of the 2006 presidential campaign. "But talks should be between equals without dictate and the imposition of the will by those strongest," he said. "That is why when dictate started dominating I had no other choice but to show the rottenness and illegality of our regime, stand up and confront a concrete wall, which could not be destroyed at the time but in which it was absolutely realistic to smash a hole, undermine the foundations of the authorities and show their true face, something what I have done."
29 February 2008