EMBASSY MINSK WEEKLY POL/ECON REPORT - December 4, 2006

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MINSK 001245 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM ECON BO SUBJECT: EMBASSY MINSK WEEKLY POL/ECON REPORT - December 4, 2006 ¶1. The following are brief items of interest compiled by Embassy Minsk. TABLE OF CONTENTS CIVIL SOCIETY -------------- - Milinkevich Meets Bush, Faces Two Months in Jail (para. 2) - Union of Left-wing Parties Favors Election Boycott (para. 3) - Youth Activists Attempt to Demonstrate During CIS Summit (para. 4) - Foreign Travel Permits Could Be Abolished in 2007 (para. 5) - Neo-Nazis Want to Stop Belarusian-Language Theater (para. 6) - Brest Jewish Memorial Vandalized (para. 7) - Clinton Bench Damaged in Another Vandal Attack (para. 8) - Catholic Community Goes on Hunger Strike (para. 9) - Over 130 Employees to Quit Pro-GOB Trade Union (para. 10) INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS -------------- - Belarus Ready for European Union "Consultations" (para.11) - NATO Helps Belarus Destroy Landmines by December 5 (para. 12) - Authorities Allow UN Aid Fund to Provide More Money (para. 13) ECONOMICS -------------- - Foreign Investment Up 150 Percent (para. 14) - Refinance Rate Cut to 10 Percent (para. 15) - QUOTE OF THE WEEK (para. 16) -------------- CIVIL SOCIETY -------------- ¶2. Milinkevich Meets Bush, Faces Two Months in Jail On November 28, opposition leader and former presidential candidate Aleksandr Milinkevich met briefly with U.S. President George W. Bush on the margins of the NATO Summit in Riga to discuss the political and human rights situation in Belarus. President Bush said that the U.S. would continue to support opposition groups in Belarus and expressed hope that democracy would soon be restored in the country. The following day, Minsk airport authorities detained Milinkevich for approximately four hours upon his return and charged him with deliberately crossing the border using a forged document, a charge that carries a jail term of up to two months or a heavy fine. Upon his initial departure from Belarus en route to Riga, Milinkevich had mistakenly given Belarusian border guards his son's passport. ¶3. Union of Left-wing Parties Favors Election Boycott On December 2, the Belarusian Party of Communists (BPC) approved the Declaration of the Formation of the Union of Left-wing Parties at a special convention held in Minsk. The declaration united the BPC party, the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (BSDP) "Gramada," and the Belarusian Women's Party "Nadzeya." Claiming that the elections would be a farce, they also recommended pro- democratic contenders to withdraw from the race (septel). ¶4. Youth Activists Attempt to Demonstrate During CIS Summit On November 28, 13 youth opposition activists staged a demonstration during a meeting between President Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin on the margins of the CIS Summit in downtown Minsk. The activists formed a line and displayed images of imprisoned youth leaders Dmitriy Dashkevich and Artur Finkevich. Police dispersed the demonstrators after a few minutes, but there were no reports of arrests. ¶5. Foreign Travel Permits Could be Abolished in 2007 On November 28, State Border Troops Committee Chairman Aleksandr Pavlovskiy announced that Belarus' system of foreign travel permits could be abolished by December 30, 2007. In 2002, the Constitutional Court recommended abolishing the travel permit system by January 1, 2006, since the requirement infringes on citizens' constitutional right to freedom of movement. The GOB later requested that the Court extend the deadline on the grounds that it lacked a computer database of persons subject to travel restrictions. ¶6. Neo-Nazis Want to Stop Belarusian-Language Theater On November 29, Viktoriya Dashkevich, head of a puppet theater in the northern city of Vitebsk, reported that the neo-Nazi Russian National Unity group sent her a letter demanding that the theater MINSK 00001245 002 OF 003 stop staging Belarusian-language plays and translate all plays into Russian on the grounds that Belarus will soon become a part of Russia. Dashkevich plans to file a complaint with law- enforcement agencies over the letter. ¶7. Brest Jewish Memorial Vandalized On November 30, vandals burned flowers and wreaths on the Brest Jewish memorial dedicated to the extermination of the Brest ghetto, leaving the monument partially blackened by the smoke and flames. Police are investigating the incident but have not opened a criminal case. This is the sixth act of vandalism at the monument since its erection in 1992. ¶8. Clinton Bench Damaged in Another Vandal Attack On December 1, independent media reported that vandals damaged the Clinton Bench, a granite monument in the Kurapaty Stalin-era massacre site just outside Minsk. The vandals threw the bench's granite slab off its concrete supports and scattered the flowers and candles that were placed on the bench. The bench, frequently attacked by vandals, was donated by President Bill Clinton in 1994 on behalf of the United States. ¶9. Catholic Community Goes on Hunger Strike On December 1, priest Aleksandr Shemet and 11 women of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of Mercy community in Grodno commenced a hunger strike in protest against the local authorities' refusal to grant them permission for the construction of a church. The community currently has more than 8,000 members and is forced to worship in two separate chapels that can only accommodate 320 people at a time. Shemet noted that embattled Protestant New Life Church inspired him to take such measures. ¶10. Over 130 Employees to Quit Pro-GOB Trade Union On November 29, independent media reported as many as 130 employees of a state-run paper mill in the eastern Gomel region announced plans to quit the pro-government Forestry Industry Workers Union. The employees are dissatisfied with the amount of their pay, workplace conditions and the insufficient supply of work gear. The company claims that it cannot afford to offer new benefits or better wages because the mill's products have been priced out of the Russian market. -------------- INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS -------------- ¶11. Belarus Ready for European Union "Consultations" On November 27, Presidential Administration Deputy Head Natalya Petkevich stated that Belarus is ready to begin "consultations" with the European Union on the GOB's progress on implementing ILO recommendations for labor reform. Petkevich noted that the GOB has not received a reply to its letter to the European Commission in 2005 following the start of procedures for withdrawing Belarus from the benefits of the Generalized System of Preferences. On November 21, the European Commission announced that the EU would offer more aid and trade to Belarus if the country demonstrated progress on democracy and human rights. ¶12. NATO Helps Belarus Destroy Landmines by December 5 On November 29, independent media reported that Belarus plans to complete the destruction of its entire stockpile of TNT-containing anti-personnel landmines under the Ottawa mine ban treaty. The NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency has funded a project in Belarus, which destroyed approximately 295,000 TNT-containing mines and converted several thousand of these mines into command- detonated mines which are not banned by the treaty. The last remaining 240 TNT-containing mines are to be detonated on December ¶5. ¶13. Authorities Allow UN Aid Fund to Provide More Money On November 29, the Ministry of Economics has reportedly allowed the United Nations Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to provide additional funds for its HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment project launched in late 2004. The Global Fund reportedly pledged to provide USD 9.5 million for the second stage of the project scheduled to start on December 1. It made available USD 6.8 million for its first stage. The ministry reported that every person living with the virus has access to treatment in Belarus. As many as 7,660 Belarusians have been diagnosed as HIV-infected as of early November 2006 with only about 500 HIV-infected people in Belarus receiving anti-retroviral treatment under the project. -------------- MINSK 00001245 003 OF 003 ECONOMICS -------------- ¶14. Foreign Investment Reported Up 150 Percent On November 27, the Ministry of Economics reported that foreign investment in Belarus increased 150 percent over the last year to USD 2.8 billion from January through September. The share of direct investment in all foreign investment inflows reportedly totaled 18.7 percent, or 49.1 percent more than in the same period of the previous year. The Ministry reported that loans accounted for 80.2 percent of all direct investment inflows. Investment in projects specified in the government's investment program totaled USD 4.2 million in the first 10 months of 2006. ¶15. Refinance Rate Cut to 10 Percent On November 29, independent media reported that the National Bank of Belarus (NBB) will lower its base refinance rate by 0.5 percentage point to 10 percent on December 1. According to the NBB, the reduction is aimed at making bank loans cheaper and is possible due to the deceleration of inflation. Belarus' consumer prices reportedly rose by 3.8 percent in January through October of 2006, rising by 0.4 percent per month on average. In the same period of the previous year, consumer prices increased by 5.6 percent, increasing by 0.5 percent per month on average, according to official statistics. -------------- QUOTE OF THE WEEK -------------- ¶16. On November 30, while unveiling his party's municipal election platform for local economic development, opposition United Civic Party Chair Anatoliy Lebedko offered the following observation: "We do not need a country going back to the past - a country where officials and politicians set prices, share subsidies and appoint leaders for us. We do not need an economy creating `phony' statistics and luxury villas for `the people's servants." Stewart