Deputy chief of US mission at OSCE Douglas Davidson addressed last week the OSCE Permanent Council with an official statement, calling into question Belarus’ sincerity in solving the conflict around AMG mission. Among other things Douglas noted that “in view of the extraordinary precedent this would set, we believe that it will be necessary to consider appropriate concrete measures”. Following read the full transcript of his speech:

---

OSCE mission in its present-day form won’t operate on the territory of Belarus, said, answering “Mediafact’s” question on Monday, head of the information department, press-secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Pavel Latushko. According to the official Foreign Ministry representative, that’s the core essence of the Belarus’ position, expressed by the country’s permanent representative in OSCE Viktor Gaisenok during the October 17 session of the organization’s Permanent Council in Vienna.

---

Central district procuracy instituted legal case against 29-year old Oksana Novikova for her alleged slander of Alexander Lukashenko. Private entrepreneur Oksana Novikova was detained on October 17 for disseminating flyers near the Oktyabrskaya square of Minsk and, following a search, was arrested, reports BelaPAN .

---

Editorial board of the newspaper “Narodnaya Volya” forwarded a letter of protest against the claims, laid out by Leonid Kozik, who demanded to shut down the paper due to the allegedly tendentious coverage of the trade unions’ activities. The newspaper’s editor-in-chief Iosif Seredich is nonetheless convinced that the new FTU chair is simply trying to intimidate the periodical’s staff and thus prevent it from publishing some compromising materials about him.

---

Founders of the new edition are the young people, coming from various provinces of the Brest region and the newspaper was originally considered to become regional. In Kobryn they found space for the office, where the newspaper could be headquartered. However, the local town hall didn’t give its consent to having such periodical in the town. The statesmen demanded from the founders the detailed data about the purposes of the new edition, its editorial board and sources of funding.

---

The Belarusian side failed to arrange additional gas supplies with the Russian gas monopolist “Gasprom”, complained deputy Minister of energy of Belarus Alexander Sivak at the October 18 press-conference in Minsk. The Belarusian side originally sought to purchase 1,5-2bln cubic meters of gas, necessary to cater for the country’s energy needs for the next couple of months, reports BelaPAN.

---

This year printed editions in Belarus are getting more and more expensive (except for paid services to the population). According to the Ministry of statistics and analysis, in January-September the cost of the printed editions rose by 50,2%, including in September – by 4,9%. In general, since the beginning of the year the consumer prices went 24,4% uphill.

---

Director for the European Regional Political-Military Affairs Mr. John Schmidt (Bureau of European Affairs, Department of State) addressed the OSCE Permanent Council over the recent expulsion of the OSCE AMG mission from the territory of Belarus. In his speech Mr.Schmidt called on Alexander Lukashenko to change his course and insisted on OSCE sending a high-level visit to Minsk to negotiate the AMG future. Following read an excerpt from his speech:

---

At the session of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna Belarusian representative Viktor Gaisenok declared that the Belarusian side insists on the shutdown of the OSCE AMG mission in Minsk, demanding that the Permanent Council formally shuts the mission.

---

Belarusian Helsinki Committee received a written response from the permanent commission of the “house of representatives” for national security to the joint statement by BHC and public organization “Legal assistance to the population” on the destiny of the lawsuits, instituted after the vanishings of Zakharenko, Gonchar, Krasovsky and Zavadsky.

---

PACE Commission, chaired by the deputy of the Russian State Duma Sergei Kovalev, which is dealing with the political disappearances phenomenon in Belarus, forwarded a concomitant inquiry to the Belarusian “national assembly”, Sergei Kovalev told Radio Svaboda on October 18.

---

On November 12 the Russian State Duma plans to hold parliamentary hearings on the problem of the Belarusian-Russian integration. The hearings are being prepared presently by the parliamentary faction “Union of right-wing forces”, BelaPAN was told by the chairman of the United Civil Party Anatoly Lebedko. According to the politician, within the framework of these hearings they will surely raise an issue of the disappeared Belarusian politicians in opposition.

---

Correspondent of the Belarusian radio “Svaboda” Natalya Sudlenkova, released from the German jail, returned last Saturday to the Czech Republic, RIA “Novosti” was told by the press-secretary of the radio station “Svaboda/Svobodnaya Evropa” Sonya Vinter.

---

Court of the central district of Minsk turned down on October 18 a request of the religious association of Krishna devotees, filed to the Committee for religions and nationalities of Belarus concerning their registration.

---

There must be built a thorough educational system in Belarus, which would encompass all levels of education, said Alexander Lukashenko at October 18 national seminar of leading state workers, which is held in the Minsk region. The head of state pointed out the necessity to punish those, who damage the condition in which the educational system dwells. “We must altogether solve the problem of domestic education, otherwise we will lose the society,” – said Alexander Lukashenko.

---