At its sitting on 22 February the Council of the Union of Belarusian Writers rejected the ultimatum of the Presidential Office heads which had earlier requested that the organization leave most of the premises they now occupy in the House of Writers. The Presidential Office response runs as follows, “They are not being thrown out into the street, it´s just that they´ve been offered smaller premises than they currently occupy”. The Presidential Office requested that the Union of Writers occupy 10 times less area of the House of Writers than they do now: 58 square meters instead of 614. (1-MAR-2005)
Thus, the organization can lose the library, the chair´s study as well as access to the conference hall, says Ales Pashkievich, Chair of the UBW. There will be no room for keeping writers´ archives, personal files of the writers. According to Mr. Pashkevich, when denied what they want, the Presidential Office, which was granted ownership of the House of Writers, threatens to take the case to court and have the writers´ organization evicted for delayed rentals worth 133 million rubles.
The Council of the UBW does not recognize this indebtedness and appealed some other demands made by the Presidential Office´s managers. Most of the writers are convinced that the authorities want to have the union evicted from the building and have the writers stop its activity.
