The first meeting of Belarusian and Polish sister cities will take place from March 13 to 15 in Brest, a Belarusian regional capital on the Polish border.
The meeting will bring together representatives from about 100 cities and will focus on prospects for business and cultural cooperation. Organizers include the Belarusian Friendship Society, the Poland-East Society, the Belarus-Poland Society, and the Belarusian Association of
Sister Cities.
Several new sister city agreements will be signed. Belarus' Bobruisk, Zhodino, Orsha, Stolin, Soligorsk, Svetlogorsk, Slutsk, Logoisk, Borisov, and Chausy will become partners of Poland's Lomza, Augustow, Zambrow, Monki, Ostrow Mazowiecka, Ostroleka, Wlodawa, Lukow, Wyszkow, and Minsk Mazowiecki, respectively. The program of the meeting includes visits to the Brest Fortress (a World War II memorial) and Berestye (an excavation/museum of medieval Brest), as well as to Brest's free economic zone, Kovry Bresta carpet factory, and Ice Palace.
The Brest Regional Court has begun hearing a suit that may result in the closure of the region's largest and most influential non-governmental organization (NGO), the civic initiative support center "Vezha".
The formal grounds for the suit were two warnings that Vezha received from the Brest Regional Executive Committee's Justice Department.
In September 2001, Vezha was warned for activities that allegedly were outside of the organization's charter. The warning followed a public opinion poll conducted by Vezha on the eve of the presidential election. The Brest Regional Court and the Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the warning. In October, the justice department issued a second warning
to Vezha, this time for alleged illegal use in its documents and stamps of the word "Bierascie" instead of "Brest," and for writing the "Center Vezha" instead of the "Brest Regional Center for Support of Civil Initiatives 'Vezha.'"
Judge Georgy Dmitruk rejected Vezha's request for time to contest the second warning, but pledged to take the appeal into account during the hearing. Viktor Dedkov, a representative of the regional government,
said the authorities could have issued more warnings to Vezha, for instance for the content of its bulletin Kaliva, but decided to press for the NGO's closure instead. Inna Kulei, chairwoman of Vezha's board, dismissed all accusations as unfounded.
Vezha was established four years ago. Until recently, it performed the functions of a resource center for several hundreds of NGOs in the region. The case attracted many reporters and NGO representatives
from across Belarus, including those of the Vyasna human rights center, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, and a legal expert of the OSCE Advisory and Monitoring Group. Vezha activists are expected to testify as witnesses at the next session set for March 5.
The justice department of the Brest Regional Executive Committee has initiated court proceedings for the closure of Vezha, the Brest-based
center for support of civil initiatives. The first hearing has been scheduled for March 4.
Vezha is the largest and most influential non-governmental organization in the Brest region. It was established four years ago. Until recently, it performed the functions of a resource center for several hundreds of NGOs in the region.
In September 2001, it received an official warning from the justice department for activities that allegedly were outside of the organization's charter. The warning followed a public opinion poll conducted by Vezha on the eve of the presidential election. The Brest Regional Court and the
Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the warning. In October, the justice department issued a second warning to Vezha, this time for allegedly illegal use in its documents and stamps of the word "Bierascie" instead of "Brest," and for writing the "Center Vezha" instead of the
"Brest Regional Center for Support of Civil Initiatives 'Vezha.'"
In December, the justice department found that Vezha's program called "Legal Clinic" was illegal and was not provided for by the organization's charter. These warnings and Article 29 of the Non-Governmental Organizations Law are referred to as the grounds for the
justice department's legal action against Vezha.
11 March 2002