EMBASSY MINSK WEEKLY REPORT - April 7, 2006

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MINSK 000386

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SIPDIS

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TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON BO
SUBJECT: EMBASSY MINSK WEEKLY REPORT - April 7, 2006



1. The following are brief items of interest compiled by
Embassy Minsk.

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Post Elections
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2. Milinkevich's European Tour

Opposition leader and former presidential candidate Aleksandr
Milinkevich traveled to Vienna (April 3 and 4) and Strasbourg
(April 5 and 6) to meet with top EU officials. In Vienna,
Milinkevich met with Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel,
the head of the Austrian delegation to the Parliamentary
Assembly (PA) of the Council of Europe Michael Spindelegger, PA
speaker Andreas Khol, and ambassadors from the European Union
and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The EU officials offered their support for Belarusians
persecuted and jailed for political reasons. Schuessel opined
that the EU should provide financial support for political
groups and independent media in Belarus and impose sanctions on
Lukashenko. European Parliament (EP) president Josep Borel
invited Milinkevich to Strasbourg to watch the EP's debate
about the situation in Belarus following the presidential
elections, to discuss short- and long-term cooperation plans
with EU countries, to meet with MEP's and to hold a press
conference with EP Vice-President Janusz Onyszkiewicz.
Milinkevich is scheduled to travel to Berlin on April 7 and to
meet with EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on April 10.


3. Supreme Court Rejects Election Results Complaint

On April 5, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from former
presidential candidates Aleksandr Kozulin and Milinkevich
requesting the court to invalidate the March 19 presidential
elections results. The court claimed that the appeal was
outside the court's jurisdiction. Milinkevich's team
experienced difficulties when it tried to submit the claim to
the Supreme Court on March 31; the court refused to accept the
complaint due to a missing notarized document. Milinkevich's
representative had to send the complaint via certified mail.
The complaint, which Milinkevich signed in the presence of
journalists, was 26 pages long and included a 773 page
supplemental report detailing violations of election
regulations.


4. USD 70 Fine for Legally Printed Campaign Booklets

On March 31, a Gomel district judge fined Milinkevich's adviser
Victor Korneyenko USD 70 for legally printed campaign booklets
and ordered the 28,000 copies of the book destroyed. The judge
declared that the slogan on the book "Milinkevich is the New
President" violated the Electoral Code. Human rights defender
Leonid Sudalenko argued, however, that the "judge ignored the
fact that the Central Election Commission had approved the
design and paid for the publication of the booklets."
Sudalenko claimed that Korneyenko was not involved in the
printing of these booklets, only their transportation.
Korneyenko plans to appeal the decision.

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Human Rights
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5. Unconscious Polish Diplomat Dies in Belarusian Hospital

On April 6, Polish vice consul Ryszard Badon-Lehr died after
lingering in a coma for more than two weeks in the intensive
care unit at Bialystok hospital. The 63-year old vice consul
was found unconscious in his apartment after failing to show up
for work on March 22. He had electric shock traces around his
kidney and bruises on his body. Polish prosecutors have
launched an investigation into the suspected beating of
diplomat. The Polish Charge, however, told us he excludes GOB
involvement in the case.


6. Opposition Activist Fined for Quoting the Bible

On April 6, a Vitebsk judge fined opposition activist Boris
Khamaida BYR 5.6 million [USD 2,600] for demonstrating with a
sign that contained the Gospel of Matthew quote, "The one who
endures to the end will be saved." Police detained Khamaida
for three hours on March 20 for displaying the sign and accused
him of breaking demonstration laws. Khamaida was also fined
USD 2,200 last month for displaying signs that called on people
to boycott the presidential elections.


7. Roma Leader Assaulted in Minsk

On April 3, a group of six unidentified men assaulted human
rights activist and Roma community leader Nikolai Kalinin in

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downtown Minsk. Kalinin explained that the men beat him up to
defend the honor of a woman whom he had allegedly insulted, but
Kalinin claimed that he had never seen the woman before.
Kalinin's father Valdemar defended his son after the men
started their assault. Kalinin linked the attack to his human
rights work and his involvement in monitoring the presidential
elections. Kalinin and his father will not complain to the
police because, "it would make no sense, as they [i.e. the
police] could lay the blame on us if we did." According to
independent news source Belapan, Kalinin is currently seeking
medical treatment for his wounds from his family because he
cannot receive medical treatment for the assault wounds without
a referral from law enforcement.


8. Severinets' Leave Cut Short Without Explanation

On April 6, prominent politician Pavel Severinets, who is
serving a two-year "restricted freedom" sentence, was told he
must end his visit with his parents after just one day.
Severinets petitioned the GOB for more than 10 weeks for this
four-day leave, despite the fact that "restricted freedom"
terms allow detainees a couple of days off per month. Shortly
after the visit started, Severinets received a phone call from
the correctional facility telling him to report back by the
following day. Severinets said they did not offer an
explanation for their demand, but promised Severinets he would
"face problems" if he did not return as instructed. Severinets
considered the order to be illegal, but planned to obey it.


9. Orthodox Church Decided Against Screening of Propaganda Films

On April 5, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) decided that the
documentaries by Belarusian State Television Radio Company
deputy head Yury Azaryonok should not be shown at the ROC's
Easter festival. Originally a meeting with Azaryonok, who is a
notorious state propagandist, and a screening of his
politicized documentaries, "The Spiritual War," were on the
schedule for the Easter exhibition. However, the ROC decided
that the program should be changed after it received a letter
of protest from young believers who opposed showing the films
because they might discredit the ROC and its leadership.


10. Police Admit Seized Newspapers By Mistake

On April 4 after an exhaustive inspection, police admitted that
the 85,600 copies of the independent weekly "Tovarishch," which
were seized on March 17, contained no irregularities. The
newspapers had been delivered from Moscow and were being
unloaded in a garage when police became aware of the shipment
two days before the presidential elections and suspected
illegal activity. The police seized the truck and the
newspapers and sealed the garage. These copies were returned
and are being distributed. Tovarishch continued printing
editions of the newspaper in the interim following the seizure.

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Economy
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11. More Belarusian Oil for Farmers

On April 4, the GOB obliged Belarusian oil refineries to supply
additional gasoline and diesel fuel for the upcoming sowing
campaign. The sowing campaign, which will cost BYR 1.5
trillion [USD 700 million], requires 277,000 tons of diesel
fuel and 70,000 tons of gasoline. The Belarusian Naftan oil
refinery was ordered to supply an additional 2,600 tons of
gasoline to farms in April, and the Mozyr refinery must supply
2,700 tons. In addition, each refinery must supply 3,500 tons
of diesel fuel. The joint venture Slavneft-Start must supply
an additional 4,000 tons of diesel fuel. [Note: Farms already
receive fuel at 20 percent below market cost.]


12. State-Owned Coal Company Becomes Sole Supplier for GOB

On March 5, the GOB made the state-owned coal company
Belarustorg the sole supplier of coal for Belarus. Belarustorg
is owned by the Presidential Administration (PA). All state-
run authorities can only buy their coal from Belarustorg. In
order to meet domestic demand for coal, Belarus must import an
additional 230,000 tons of coal in 2006. The GOB plans to
continue to increase its coal purchases 62.5 percent to 520,000
tons until 2012 in order to diversity energy imports.
Previously a different PA company had the sole right to supply
coal.


13. Another Private Company Merged with State-owned Company

On April 4, the leading private pasta producing company,
Borimak, announced that it would merge with the state-owned
bread-making company, Minskoblkhlebproduckt. Borimak cited its

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poor financial situation as the reason for the merger, which
stemmed from low demand for its pasta. According to Prime-
Tass, administrative procedures forced Borimak to use domestic
flour, which is more expensive and poorer in quality, to
produce its pasta, contributing to the company's problems. In
2005, Borimak produced 9,100 tons of pasta; Belarus had to
import an additional 97,000 tons of pasta from Russia to
satisfy domestic demand.

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Information and Technology
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14. Faster, Better Internet Coming to Belarus

On April 5, Belarus' Communication and IT Minister Vladimir
Goncharenko announced that overall data throughput capacity of
the external gateway to Belarus has increased from 465 Mbps to
1,554 Mbps as of April 1, 2006. Goncharenko also announced
plans to introduce packet switching networks and to integrate
telephone, telegraph and data transfer networks into a single
network. According to Goncharenko, Ericsson has supplied
Belarus with equipment for multi-service communications
networks and for broadband Internet access.

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Quote of the Week
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15. On April 7, Belarusian lawmaker Sergei Kastyan expressed his
indifference to the impending EU visa bans on prominent Belarusian
politicians:

"So what? They [the EU countries] won't give us visas. We have no
money to go there anyway and there is nothing to see there except
tiled roofs."

KROL