BELARUS BI-WEEKLY POL/ECON REPORT - July 11, 2008

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 VILNIUS 000556 AMEMBASSY MINSK SENDS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM ECON ENRG BO SUBJECT: BELARUS BI-WEEKLY POL/ECON REPORT - July 11, 2008 ¶1. The following are brief items of interest compiled by Embassy Minsk. TABLE OF CONTENTS Civil Society -------------- - Opposition Youth Expelled from Schools (para. 2) - Minsk Authorities Ban Opposition Demonstrations (para. 3) - Independent Newspaper Evicted (para. 4) - Parliamentary Candidates Dismissed from Workplaces (para. 5) - Opposition Youth Banned from Traveling Abroad (para. 6) - Belarusian Helsinki Committee Observer Arrested (para. 7) - "European Belarus" Campaign Activists Detained and Fined (para. 8) - Civic Party Youth Arrested and Fined (para. 9) - Malady Front Activists Jailed (para. 10) Domestic Economy -------------- - Belneftekhim Raises Gasoline and Diesel Prices (para. 11) - Belarus Does Not Fear Food Crisis (para. 12) - Belarus' Private Bank Priorbank Named the Country's Best Bank (para. 13) - Belarus on the List of the World's 40 Most Corrupt Economies (para. 14) International Trade -------------- - Belarus' Foreign Trade Statistics, January-May 2008 (para. 15) Quote of the Week (para. 16) -------------- -------------- Civil Society -------------- ¶2. Opposition Youth Expelled from Schools Grodno opposition youth activist and local first-year philological department student Sergey Yenin was expelled June 28. On July 1, the Mogilyov State University and the Mozyr State University administrations expelled local Malady Front (MF) member and first-year student Rostislav Pankratov and civil society activist and third-year student Ekaterina Manchuk, respectively. A MF member from Baranovichy Artyom Lastovetskiy was expelled from a Minsk university July 7. All the activists linked their expulsions with the "purges" of the democratic movement members in schools over their political activists despite official allegations of "academic failures". ¶3. Minsk Authorities Ban Opposition Demonstrations On July 2, Minsk city authorities denied the Belarusian Social Democratic Party-Gramada (BSDP-G) permission to hold demonstrations in support of jailed party's chairman Aleksandr Kozulin. The officials provided no grounds for the refusal. BSDP-G planned to rally on the occasion of the second anniversary of the political prisoner's trial and to advocate his immediate release. ¶4. Independent Newspaper Evicted Nesvizh town authorities terminated a lease contract with the editorial of the last remaining independent local newspaper Nesvizhskiy Chas on June 30. The eviction orders followed a ban on retail sales and on subscription to the newspaper. The editorial stated it would attempt to rent office space in a different location. ¶5. Parliamentary Candidates Dismissed from Workplaces On June 30, "For Freedom" movement member Aleksandr Mekh was dismissed from his job of an engineer at the Beltransgaz pipeline in Kobrin for his commitment to run for the parliamentary elections. Opposition activist's colleagues unsuccessfully appealed to management to reinstate Mekh. In a separate case, Bobruysk women's movement activist Taisiya Kabanchuk was fired July 7 for running in the elections. Kabanchuk maintained the local BKGB officers questioned her employer about Kabanchuk's civil society activities and forced them to fire her. ¶6. Opposition Youth Banned from Traveling Abroad On June 28, Belarusian Popular Front culture commission head Franak Vyachorka (son of Belarusian Popular Front leader Vintsuk Vyachorka) was banned from traveling to Lithuania for meetings with the democratic youth groups. Vyachorka stated he would appeal to the VILNIUS 00000556 002 OF 003 Prosecutor General since he had freely crossed the border into Lithuania on June 7. ¶7. Belarusian Helsinki Committee Observer Arrested A Minsk district court sentenced Molodechno-based human rights advocate and Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC) election observer Eduard Balanchuk to ten days in jail and a fine of 1,050,000 rubles (USD 490) on June 27. The police arrested Balanchuk for disobeying their orders and using obscenities, and confiscated ten computers from his vehicle. The BHC urged the judge to clear Balanchuk of all "politically motivated" charges, noting his arrest would impede independent election monitoring. ¶8. "European Belarus" Campaign Activists Detained and Fined On June 30, a Brest district court fined "European Belarus" (EB) civil campaign member Ivan Stasyuk 70,000 rubles (USD 33). The police detained Stasyuk a day before for distributing leaflets calling to enter the European Union (EU). In a separate incident in Grodno, the police briefly detained June 28 three EB activists Aleksandra Katok, Marta Petrovksaya, and Aleksandr Kireyev for collecting signatures to petition Belarus' entry into the EU. The three were later released without charges; however, the police seized their petitions. On June 28, a Minsk district court sentenced EB member Yevgeniy Afnagel to seven days in jail for alleged use of obscenities. Afnagel has been serving 17 days in jail following his 10-day jail term he received in absentia on May ¶21. On July 7, a Minsk district judge sentenced EB activist Paulina Kuryanovich to five days in jail on minor hooliganism charges. The plainclothesmen detained Kuryanovich on July 3 and confiscated European flags found in her bag. ¶9. United Civic Party Youth Arrested and Fined A Minsk district court sentenced United Civic Party (UCP) youth wing leader Mikhail Pashkevich to seven days in jail on June 30. The police apprehended Pashkevich on June 28 on disorderly behavior administrative charges. A judge also fined Pashkevich 350,000 rubles (USD 165) for alleged contempt of court following Pashkevich's refusal to testify and answer what he called "silly" questions and Radio Liberty correspondent Lyubov Lunyova 280,000 rubles (USD 130) for speaking on the phone; both were present at the court to observe legal action against opposition members. ¶10. Malady Front Activists Jailed On July 2, Baranovichi MF leader Zmitser Stankevich was sentenced to ten days in jail for distributing leaflets about the political prisoners. A Gantsevichi town judge sentenced July 2 local MF members Andrey Karavayev, Sergey Skipar to 15 days in jail and Elena Chernyak, Svetlana Zhulevich to fines of 175,000 rubles (USD 80) on the same leaflet distribution charges. -------------- Domestic Economy -------------- ¶11. Belneftekhim Raises Gasoline and Diesel Prices Belarus' petrochemical conglomerate Belneftekhim raised gasoline and diesel prices July 6, for the second time this year. According to Prime-Tass news service, the 5 percent increase in gasoline and 10 percent rise in diesel prices will offset only part of Belarusian oil refineries production costs. The unnamed official in the country's Economy Ministry told the agency July 7 that growing world oil prices make domestic supplies of oil products unprofitable. They are nevertheless possible only because of high export prices on Belarusian-made oil products. ¶12. Belarus Does Not Fear Food Crisis Speaking at a news conference in Minsk on July 9, Belarus' Deputy Agriculture Minister Nadezhda Kotkovets said the country has no reasons to fear food crises, as production and supply situation is stable. The government believes the country can feel safe growing 5.5-6 million tons of grain a year, while last year the harvest was 7.2 million tons and the plan for future years is 8-9 million tons. ¶13. Belarus' Private Bank Priorbank Named the Country's Best Bank Belarus' largest private Priorbank, which is also the country's third largest bank, issued a press-release on July 1 stating that Britain's financial magazine Euromoney had named it the best bank in Belarus. Priorbank belongs to Austria's Raiffeisen International banking group. Priorbank is one of the most financially successful banks in Belarus. ¶14. Belarus on the List of the World's 40 Most Corrupt Economies According to Russia's RIA Novosti news service, Transparency International issued its annual Corruption Barometer report in late VILNIUS 00000556 003 OF 003 June and named Belarus among the world's 40 most corrupt economies. The country's corruption index is 2.1 (10 meaning the least corrupt country). The corruption index calculation is based on data supplied by 12 independent institutions. -------------- International Trade -------------- ¶15. Belarus' Foreign Trade Statistics, January-May 2008 Speaking to trade officers of foreign Embassies in Minsk on July 9 (note: the U.S. Embassy was not invited to this presentation), Belarus' Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Yevdochenko said that the trade deficit in the country's foreign commodity trade through May was USD 1.7 billion, i.e. USD 260 million higher than a year ago. The Deputy Minister noted that Belarus plans to export more services to mitigate the growing deficit. Belarus' on-the-year trade with countries outside CIS grew by more than 50 percent to USD 12.4 billion. Exports grew 66 percent to USD 7.7 billion and imports grew 30.7 percent to USD 4.7 billion. In the same period Belarus had a two-fold increase in the trade deficit with Russia, now at USD 5.5 billion. -------------- Quote of the Week -------------- ¶16. Speaking at an official meeting on issues related to September parliamentary election Lukashenko pledged that nobody would hinder international election observation: "Nobody is prohibited from observing, watching, asking questions, making suggestions and criticizing but nobody will be allowed to interfere with the election process in violation of the law." MOORE CLOUD