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Three years ago, 20 October 2004, the opposition Belarusian journalist Veranika Cherkasova was found stabbed in her apartment in Minsk.  Her relatives and colleagues still did not get the clear answer who was guilty in her death. They do not exclude she could be murdered for her professional activity:  Veranika wrote a lot about special forces activity and covered  Belarusian and Iraqi relationships during Hussein period. (21-OCT-07)

On October 14, European March, the mass action of Belarusian democratic forces, took place in Minsk.  Up to 10000 people expressed their wish for Republic of Belarus to join European Union. Authorities preliminarily detained some tens of young people. There were no detentions during the action itself. (15-OCT-07)

Today, the human rights NGO Law Initiative´s offices in the city of Gomel were visited by four KGB officers, carrying a search warrant for documents and information related to the youth activist Andrei Tinuta´s case. Meanwhile, Leodnind Soudalenka, a human rights defender working for Law Initiative, attended ODIHR / OSCE´s Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw. HRH F addresses the timing of the search, questioning whether KGB tries to link Soudalenka to Tinuta´s case. (05-OCT-07)
   

The group of people with HIV/AIDS has made a request to the Ministry of Health to resume the access to the necessary medicine for the HIVAIDS patients in Svetlogorsk and Gomel. The reasons of the ARV-therapy delivery break are still not clear. This request was addressed for the Minister of Health Vasily Zharko on the September 14 (22-SEP-07)
 

The oppositional leader, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the 13th Convocation Andrei Klimau, right, was arrested on 3 April 2007 for an article of 25 January 2007 that was published by the web-site of the United Civil Party. A criminal case was brought before the court under part 3 of article 361 of the Criminal Code ‘Public calls to seizure of the state power or forced change of the state order of the Republic of Belarus committed with the use of mass media’. (14-SEP-07)
 

The Ihar Hiermianchuk Memorial Diploma “For Adherence to the Principles of Freedom of Speech” has been presented to Iosif Syaredzich, Editor-in-Chief of “Narodnaya Vola”. The Honorary Diploma was founded by the Norwegian PEN-center and the Human Rights House Foundation together with BAJ. This year, the awarding ceremony was dated to the International Solidarity Day of Journalists, globally celebrated on September 8th. (10-SEPT-07) 
 

Belarusian authorities have begun preparations for the parliamentary elections campaign 2008 beforehand by liquidation and suspension of the political parties. For the last two months the Ministry of Justice has given warnings to six political parties. While the activity of the Party of Communists of Republic of Belarus was suspended for six months by the Supreme Court, the Labour Party was liquidated and the women’s party ‘Nadzeya’ faces liquidation. (06-SEP-07)
 

The founders of the public human rights association ‘Viasna’ have finally received an official letter from the Ministry of Justice ‘On refusal of state registration for the public association’. The Ministry lists five reasons why Viasna´s request to be registered has been refused. Viasna comments, giving their interpretation of why the organisation has been denied registration. (29-AUG-07)
 

Following Belarusian authorities’ liquidation of the Human Rights Center Viasna in October 2003, members of the organisation appealed sent an appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee in April 2004, suggesting that the liquidation was illegal and asking the UN committee for its opinion. After careful consideration, the UN responded earlier this month with unconditional support. Belarusian authorities have violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. (16-AUG-07)