30 July 2007
Police planning prevention campaign targeting alcohol-related crime
The Belarusian police plan to crack down on alcohol-related crime by working with vulnerable families, Interior Minister Uladzimir Navumaw told reporters last week.
"The biggest problems in the country today are what happens in families with alcohol problems, which then leads to grave crimes," the official said.
General Navumaw acknowledged that the police had failed to tackle the problem properly. "We identified a set of measures at the beginning of the year, but this translated into a small-scale campaign of two or three months, although such work should be done on a permanent basis," he added.
"We need to concentrate on early prevention beginning from the formation of a family. There should be no situation where one member starts abusing alcohol, then he is followed by another and then kids follow them," the minister noted.
General Navumaw pointed to a decrease in the number of deaths caused by the consumption of fake liquor and the number of people caught drunk in public places. However, he stressed, it is yet early to speak about the improvement of the culture of drinking in the country.
The interior minister said that Alyaksandr Lukashenka's decree that requires "uncaring" parents to compensate the state for the maintenance of their children "gives us full rights to both reform and punish a person." "We will discuss today that many don't want to engage in prevention and reformation. They want to impose strict punishment without doing this work. In our view, this won't lead to the desired effect," he said.
http://brestonline.com/en/news/news1341.html