Authorities Propose “Free-will Self-liquidation” to “Social Technologies” Analytical Center

According to RFE/RL

“Social Technologies” Analytical Center has existed for less than five years and will be liquidated by the end of February because it has received three official warnings this year.

A correspondent of RFE/RL met with the head of the center Aliaksandr Fiaduta and asked him about the reasons for such actions of the justice board of Minsk City Executive Committee.

According to Fiaduta, this decision is a result of the purposeful campaign against the third sector:
-- We are affected by the campaign, conducted by the central authorities against the whole civil society. By the way, the authorities proposed to us to close the organization on our own will instead of the liquidation by the court, and we agreed to it, because in the present situation we have no chances to win the trial.

After the presidential election of 2001 “Social Technologies” concentrated on a number of projects, including:
1. the issue of Belaruski stohodnik (Belarusian Yearly Periodical) with the monitoring of the most important events (by the way, the presentation of the new number of the periodical will most probably take place in the middle of February);
2. the web-site Nasha merkavanne (Our opinion) www.nmn.by, where the analytical materials of Belarusian and foreign experts are placed.

Will the liquidation of “Social Technologies” mean the liquidation of the yearly periodical and the site?

Mr. Fiaduta hopes that the liquidation of the center won’t stop these projects, because the analytical materials are in a high demand. May be, something in the decoration and the structure of the projects will be changed, but the political accents, familiar to the readers of nmnby.org will remain the same.

Fiaduta:
-- The proposals of independent experts are more objective than those of the experts who are financed by the authorities... There are many experts, but Belarusian society and Belarusian political parties first of all think that they are wise enough and all they need is just to decorate the proposals they make to the society. It happens all the time: at first some party takes a decision and then declares it the only decision possible in the existing circumstances.

What concerns “Social Technologies”, according to Aliaksandr Fiaduta, none of their workers will become redundant after 28 February. A number of experts received proposals from political parties and public organizations to take part in their analytical structures and Fiaduta received such proposal from “For New Belarus” Fund. However, the final decision will be taken after the end of the “liquidation” period.