14.11.2007 Police Return ‘Tovarishch’ Circulation 45 Days after Confiscation

On 13 November the police returned an issue of the non-state newspaper ‘Tovarishch’ (printed organ of the Party of Communists of Belarus) to its chief editor Siarhei Vazniak. The newspapers were taken away from the newspaper’s editorial office on 27 September.

14.11.2007 Human Rights Activists Demand to Abolish Forced State Assignment of Graduates

This year 65 criminal cases have been brought against the high school graduates who failed to get to the places of work assignment. The present legislation treats such behavior as evasion from duties and demands from the people to pay off the costs that had been already spent by the state for their education. The numbers differ, but in general it is about 3-5 thousand US dollars, the average wage being about 200 dollars.

14.11.2007 Yaraslau Hryshchenia Fired

On 13 November the director of Baranavichy Culture house of railway workers phoned to the youth activist Yaraslau Hryshchenia and told that he was fired.

14.11.2007 Olof Palme Center Representative Not Let in Belarus

In the night of 11-12 November the border guards of Minsk airport without any explanations didn’t allow a representative of Olof Palme International Center in Stockholm, Natasha Alekseyeva to enter Belarus.

14.11.2007 Aliaksandr Kazulin’s Case Submitted to PACE

On 13 November in the framework of the international campaign of solidarity with the political prisoner Aliaksandr Kazulin an address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was sent. As said by the former lawyer of the convicted politician, Ihar Rynkevich, the document had been prepared by the public commission ‘Free Kazulin!’

14.11.2007 Farce: Political Prisoner Klimau’s Foodstuffs ‘Checked’ for More than a Month

Only recently has the political prisoner Andrei Klimau received the foodstuffs, which were taken away for a ‘check-up’ in early October, as soon as he was guarded to Mozyr colony. The information about the return of the foodstuffs to the prisoner was voiced by Yury Barankau, the acting head of the Department of serving punishment.

14.11.2007 Representative of Belarusian People’s Republic Died

Belarusian People’s Republic was declared by the Belarusian democratic intellectuals in 1918, short before the Bolshevik’s turned the country into a Soviet republic. The Communists did not recognize Belarusian People’s Republic. The BPF government had to escape abroad.

12.11.2007 33 Countries Propose to Condemn Belarus for Human Rights Violations

33 countries have introduced to the UN a draft resolution on Belarus.

12.11.2007 Pavel Batuyeu Summonsed to Prosecutor’s Office

On 7 November in the central square of Salihorsk the youth action ‘Put Communism to Tribunal’ took place. It lasted for some 15 seconds and was violently dispersed by the police. The same day the prosecutor’s office started a check-up whether one of the action participants, Ivan Shyla, violated article 363 of the Criminal Code, ‘resistance to the police’.

12.11.2007 18 Months of Corrective Labor for Seminar in Poland

An activist of the Belarusian Popular Front Party, a teacher from the village of Talka Natallia Illinich was tried for ‘instigation for falsification of documents’ and sentenced to 18 months of corrective labor with paying 20% of salary to the state.

12.11.2007 More Newspapers Excluded from State Subscription Catalog

Several Russian newspapers – Kommersant, Novaya Gazeta, Moskovskiy Komsomolets and Nezavisimaya Gazeta - were not listed in the subscription catalogue of the Belposhta (Belarusian Post) enterprise for the 1st half of 2008.

12.11.2007 Nazi Provocation at Reception of Polish Embassy

The Polish Embassy held a reception in the Hastsinny Dvor restaurant in Minsk on the occasion of the Polish Independence Day of 11 November. Activists of the Union of Poles from different regions of Belarus were invited to the reception. Suddenly a dozen of people dressed in some kind of a military uniform appeared at the entrance to the restaurant and started to shout out insulting words against the guests.

12.11.2007 Supreme Court Upholds Non-registration of 'Viasna'

Case #03-17p/2007 VERDICT IN THE NAME OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

On 26 October 2006 the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus consisting of the presiding Yakhnavets S.K, with the secretary Budkina I.A., with participation of the prosecutor of a department of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Belarus Zanouski L.F., the plaintiffs Stefanovich V.K, Bialiatski A.V., Labkovich U.M., a representative of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus Piachkurou A.V., having considered in the hall of court sittings of the Supreme Court a civil case on the suit of Stefanovich Valiantsin Kanstantsinavich, Labkovich Uladzimir Mikalayevich, Bialiatski Aliaksandr Viktaravich against the ruling of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus to refuse registration to the Public human rights association ‘Viasna’,

12.11.2007 Homel: Police Confiscate Appeals to Authorities

At 12.30 a.m. in Homel the police detained the UCP activists Vasil Paliakou and Ihar Sluchak. They were taken to a police station. There the police questioned the detainees and exacted from them 1,5 thousand appeals to deputies.

12.11.2007 Electricity Turned off During Protestant Assembly

At the week-end a youth conference took place at the New Life Church in Minsk. It was attended by representatives of Belarusian Evangelic churches from all over the country. Minsk authorities tried to disrupt the event. On the second day of the conference representatives of electricity services and the administration of Maskouski district police department of Minsk came there.