A German citizen was arrested at the Varshawski Most border checkpoint near Brest on June 28 on suspicion of attempting to smuggle narcotic drugs into Belarus.
As much as 16.3 grams of amphetamine was found in his car, Aleh Tsaryk, chief of the drug control and human trafficking prevention office of the Brest regional police department told BelaPAN.
The German was placed in a detention center and charged with illegal drug distribution under Part Three of the Criminal Code’s Article 328, Mr. Tsaryk said.
The Political Council of the United Civic Party (UCP) decided on Saturday that the party should hold an extraordinary convention on July 27, Katsyaryna Tkachenka, a spokesperson for the party, told BelaPAN.
This “technical” convention has to be held because of the forthcoming parliamentary elections, Ms. Tkachenka explained. During the convention, the party will decide on its nominees for the House of Representatives, she noted.
According to Ms. Tkachenka, the UCP Political Council nominated more than 40 people for district election commissions.
More than 50 people on Sunday commemorated thousands people executed by the NKVD secret police near Cherven, Minsk region, days into Nazi Germany’s June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.
As local history enthusiast Uladzimir Darahush told BelaPAN, NKVD staff executed many prisoners, mostly victims of Stalin purges and foreign-born people, as the Soviet army was retreating, unable to check the advance of German troops.
A few thousand prisoners were shot to death in a forest some two kilometers off Cherven. “Among those killed was Belarusian Jewish writer Zelik Akselrod. A two-kilometer stretch of a forest trail was covered with bodies,” Mr. Darahush said.
The ceremony took place near a cross erected at the massacre site. The crowd heard speeches by Syarhey Papkow, deputy chairman of the Conservative Christian Party, Maya Klyashtornaya, a daughter of poet Todar Klyashtorny who was executed in 1937, and others.
The ceremony was observed by some 10 police officers and local government officials who filmed the entire event. //BelaPAN
More than 15 people gathered in the Kurapaty forest close to the Minsk beltway on June 29 to commemorate Stalin terror victims.
Opposition and civil society activists hold rallies on the 29th day of each month at the site to remember people massacred in Belarus during Stalin purges.
The crowd, which included opposition youths, small business activists, former Gulag prisoners and heritage conservation campaigners, sang Belarusian revival songs, observed a minute of silence and laid flowers at crosses marking the site where thousands are believed to have been executed by the NKVD secret police in the 1930s.
A group pushing for the commemoration of Stalin terror victims is now working on a book that would include a list of sites where people were massacred by the NKVD between the 1920s and 1940s, Uladzimir Ramanowski, a leader of the group, said at the rally.
Seven police officers and plainclothesmen observed the rally. They warned one participant, retiree Nina Bahinskaya, against displaying “unregistered symbols.”
The leaders of European organizations realize that Belarus should not be in isolation, which is evidenced by recent meetings with representatives of the OSCE and the Council of Europe, Vadzim Papow, chairman of the House of Representatives of the Belarusian National Assembly, told reporters in Minsk on Saturday.
“We always tell them that if they don’t meet us half-way but put forward more and more demands, this will never do,” Mr. Papow said. “They themselves understand this now.”
“Our relations will be developing upward, no matter how much someone may want it to be to the contrary,” Mr. Papow said.
According to him, Andrea Rigoni, special rapporteur on Belarus in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), is expected to visit Minsk in July.
Mr. Papow confirmed the Belarus authorities’ readiness to invite foreign parliamentary organizations to observe parliamentary elections to be held in the country this fall.
Mr. Papow noted that one should not tie up relations between Belarus and the European Union with the outcome of the forthcoming elections. “These are private statements by certain persons and we are tolerant to them,” he said.
Franak Vyachorka, head of the Belarusian Popular Front’s culture commission, was banned from crossing the border into Lithuania, where he planned to meet with pro-democratic youths.
As Mr. Vyachorka told BelaPAN, on the morning of June 28, he was put off a bus at the Kamenny Loh border checkpoint. Belarusian border guards explained to him that he was on the foreign travel ban list.
According to Mr. Vyachorka, he visited Lithuania on June 7 and then did not have any problems with crossing the border. He said that he would complain to the Prosecutor General’s Office.
On January 1, 2008, the Belarusian government abolished travel permit stamps in passports and introduced an electronic passport check system, which detects people on the exit ban list. This list is in fact secret and, as a rule, people learn that they are on the list from border guards on arrival at the border.
Among those on the list are Anatol Lyabedzka, chairman of the United Civic Party, and prominent young opposition activists Barys Haretski and Zmitser Dashkevich.
Emanuel Zeltser is denying his guilt, Dzmitry Haracka, the defense counsel for the American lawyer who has been held in custody in Minsk since March, told BelaPAN.
On Friday, the Committee for State Security (KGB) said that it had brought formal charges against Mr. Zeltser and his secretary Vladlena Funk.
The pair are to answer charges of business espionage and the use of knowingly fake documents, according to the KGB's statement. Mr. Zeltser also is facing a charge of smuggling illegal drugs into Belarus.
"I cannot comment on the charges brought against my client because I was warned against disclosing the material of investigation," Mr. Harachka said. "But I can say that we were prepared for such a development. In particular, we expected that new charges would be brought against Zeltser, and this new charge, business espionage, really appeared."
Mr. Harachka said that his client and he would start studying the case material on June 30. "The new charge against Zeltser will not affect the proceedings," he said.
Mr. Zeltser and his secretary were charged with using fake documents when they were arrested upon their arrival in Minsk on March 12.
On May 27, Mr. Zeltser was charged with drug smuggling over medications that he brought into Belarus.
Mark Zeltser, the brother of the US lawyer, claims that self-exiled Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky orchestrated the arrest of Mr. Zeltser over the assets of the late Georgian billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili. When Mr. Patarkatsishvili died, his assets became the subject of a dispute pitting the widow backed by Mr. Berezovsky, against his step cousin, Joseph Kay, who is represented by Mr. Zeltser.
The KGB said in the Friday statement that it also instituted criminal proceedings against Mr. Kay under the Criminal Code's article that penalizes business espionage.
On May 14, the Tbilisi City Court in Georgia recognized Joseph Kay as a legitimate executor of the late Georgian billionaire’s assets.
Belarus' GDP is projected to grow by between 10 and 12 percent in 2009, the first deputy prime minister, Uladzimir Syamashka, said at a joint meeting of the lower and upper chambers of the National Assembly on Friday.
He said that the target was set in the government's economic forecast for the next year.
Mr. Syamashka said that the projected GDP growth would be achieved thanks to an increase in industrial output, the growth of construction and trade.
Industrial growth is projected at between 10.5 and 12.5 percent. Fixed capital expenditures are to go up by 23 to 25 percent compared with 2008, while the population's real income is to increase by 14 to 15 percent.
The vice premier said that the tax burden would decrease by 1.2 percentage points of GDP, which would make additional 1,400 billion rubels available for the "development of economy." //BelaPAN
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) has urged the European Union and European governments to lower Schengen visa fees and simplify visa procedures for Belarusian citizens.
“Amongst Europeans, Belarussian citizens have to pay the highest fees to enter countries belonging to the Schengen zone: 60 euros for a single-entry visa,” PACE said in a declaration issued on June 26. “This sum amounts to almost one third of the average monthly salary in Belarus. This, together with bureaucratic hurdles, creates overwhelming difficulties for ordinary Belarussians, especially students, youth and business people, in traveling to Europe and reduces even further their chances of coming into contact with other Europeans.”
“The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Council of Europe member States and the European Union have constantly and repeatedly stated that the policy applied towards the Belarussian authorities should not have any adverse consequences on ordinary Belarussians, who should not be isolated,” the declaration said. “However, the EU has made it clear that it will reduce visa fees only once Belarus joins the European Neighbourhood Policy.”
The declaration was signed by, among others, Andrea Rigoni, special rapporteur on Belarus in PACE; Sinikka Hurskainen, head of the PACE subcommittee on Belarus; Estonia’s Andres Herkel, who served as PACE rapporteurs on Belarus in the past; former PACE President Rene van der Linden; Mikhail Margelov, head of the Russian delegation to PACE; and also Albanian, Belgian, British, Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Latvian, Polish, Swedish, and Turkish lawmakers.
A district court in Minsk on June 27 dismissed prominent opposition activist Franak Vyachorka`s complaint about his expulsion from Belarusian State University (BHU).
The Maskowski District Court ruled that the expulsion was lawful, while the youth complained to court late.
Mr. Vyachorka argued that he had first approached university officials in an attempt to have the decision revoked.
The youth was kicked out this past February, officially for failing to pass two exams.
He had been doing his third year at the journalism department. He had an outstanding performance.
Mr. Vyachorka took the exams after serving a jail term on a charge of using obscene language in a public place that was brought against him after he attended the trial of an associate of his. Because of the jail term, he missed exams in the subjects and resit exams in their due course, but the university administration rejected the custody as no good reason and said that Mr. Vyachorka`s first try would be deemed as third, final.
The district court on Friday also dismissed Mr. Vyachorka`s motion to summon his fellow students and teachers.
The young man is set to contest the judgment. //BelaPAN
30 June 2008