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Vienna: The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC) express their grave concern over the ongoing harassment of human rights defenders in the Republic of Belarus. (7-DEC-2004)
 

The prosecutor of Minsk Savetski Borough Prosecutor’s Office Mikalay Platnitski gave the official warning about “inadmissibility of libeling insinuations” to the head of the central committee of the Party of Communists of Republic of Belarus Siarhey Kaliakin. (07-DEC-2004)

At 10 am. on 2 December the the correspondent of the non-state newspaper Narodnaya Volia in Homel region Iryna Makavetskaya was at Homel Chyhunachny Borough Court. She wanted to write an article about an open trial. In the very beginning of the trial the head of the court Tatsiana Adrybets ordered Makavetskaya to leave the court hall. The journalist refused to do it saying she would obey only to lawful demands of the court. (07-DEC-2004)

Vawkavysk District Court fined the chief editor of Mestnaya Gazeta newspaper 50 basic values (1 200 000 Belarusian rubles). Judge Yury Yakimovich considered the hunger-strike of the defendant as unauthorized picket. (26-NOV-04)
 
 

On 25 November the college board of Minsk City Court rejected the demand by Volha Zavadskaya, the mother of cameraman Zmitser Zavadski who disappeared in July 2000, to renew the investigation. (26-NOV-04)
 

An open Republic of Belarus is a threat to President Lukashenko´s dictatorship. Sanctions and isolation will strengthen the status quo, said representatives from the Belarusian opposition when they visited the Human Rights House in Oslo the 18th of November in a conference organised by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and NUPI, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. (22-NOV-04).
 

Human Rights Center “Viasna” has already prepared “Preliminary monitoring on facts of tortures and other inhumane treatment of citizens of Belarus”, based on the principles of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The English version of the report will be soon available at the “Viasna” site: www.spring96.org (16-NOV-04)
 

The 67-year-old pensioner from Vawkavysk Valiantsina Saldatava keeps hungering for the 19th day already. That’s how she protests against the falsification of the results of the election, persecution of the independent Mestnaya Gazeta and the inaction of the authorities in solution of the housing problems.

On 1 November Belarusian Association of Journalists addressed Information Minister Uladzimir Rusakevich with an open letter, requesting to cancel the order about suspension of the “Mestnaya Gazeta” newspaper. By that day the editor-in-chief of this independent newspaper had been on hunger strike for already 13 days. (4-NOV-2004)