BelarusDigest > All > RFE/RL: Former Belarusian Leader Marks 75th Birthday In United States
RFE/RL: Former Belarusian Leader Marks 75th Birthday In United States
15 December 2009
Stanislaŭ Šuškievič, the first leader of independent Belarus between 1991 and 1994, one of the men who gave Belarus its independence renewed after over 70 years of Soviet occupation, is now not even...
Stanislaŭ Šuškievič, the first leader of independent Belarus between 1991 and 1994, one of the men who gave Belarus its independence renewed after over 70 years of Soviet occupation, is now not even getting a decent pension paid from the Belarusian state because of being in opposition to president Aliaksandr Lukašenka.
This largely relates to the whole period of early 1990s in Belarus: the state symbols of that time are de-facto forbidden for public usage, national leaders of that time are either ignored, like Šuškievič, or exiled, like the leader of the Belarusian Popular Front Zianon Paźniak, or humbly demonstrating their loyalty to the President, like former PM Viačaslaŭ Kiebič.
The former leader of Belarus, Stanislau Shushkevich marked his 75th birthday today, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports. Along with Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk, Shushkevich signed the [Belavezha – bielar.us] Accords that dissolved the Soviet Union in 1991. Shushkevich was the chairman of the Belarusian Supreme Soviet from 1991 to 1994 and played a key role in creating the Commonwealth of Independent States. Read full story
Taiwan News: Investigative journalist in Belarus faces threats
T he article by Iryna Chalip (Irina Khalip) gave a freezy reminder of late 1990s when Belarusian opposition politicians have been abducted and presumably killed.
The story around US lawyer Emanuel Zeltser is quite mysterious because one can hardly find a motivation for Belarusian KGB to act in the interests of the exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky and assist him in getting hands on the legacy of the Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili by again threatening the well-known investigative journalist Iryna Chalip.
It seems an other story where we'll know the truth not earlier than the Belarusian KGB opens its archives years from now.
One sad thing the whole story makes clear is that freedom of press still remains only theory for Belarus, just as five or ten years ago.
An investigative journalist in Belarus says she has received anonymous threats linked to her publication. Irina Khalip says she has received the threats by e-mail, telephone and in a telegram. She said Wednesday that the believes the security agency still going under its Soviet name KGB was involved in the threats. The agency refused to comment on her claim. Khalip said the threats were related to her article in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta about the disputed legacy of late Georgian billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili. // Taiwan News