Vitsebsk: Entrepreneurs again Ask to Permit Meeting of Protest

The entrepreneurs of Vitsebsk again ask the authorities to authorize their meeting in the place that had been specified for such actions, 30-hoddzia VLKSM Park, 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. on 29 October. About 500 individual entrepreneurs and their employees intend to take part in the action.

By this meeting the entrepreneurs want to draw the attention of the authorities to the problems that ensue from presidential decree #760 (according to which since 1 January 2008 individual entrepreneurs will have the right to employ only close relatives, the maximal number of employees being three) and decree #302 about re-registration of private entrepreneurs as private unitary enterprises.

Before this the entrepreneurs wanted to hold a meeting on 24 September and also filed an appropriate application to the city authorities. They received an answer that was signed by the deputy chairman of Vitsebsk city executive committee Uladzimir Yaravikou. By this answer the authorities did not ban the meeting, but did not permit it either. Instead they said that for getting permission the entrepreneurs needed to reach agreement with the police, house economy and medics. However, the answer was sent at the end of the week, three days before the action, and 24 September was Monday, that’s why the organizers had no chance to solve these issues.