BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

03/10/2007

Belarusian Opposition Submits Petition To Legislature Against Removal Of State Benefits

Opposition leaders delivered some 40,000 signatures under a petition against the upcoming abolition of state benefits and privileges to the Belarusian National Assembly in Minsk on October 2, Belapan and RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported. Some 20 members of the group, including Belarusian Party of Communists head Syarhey Kalyakin, Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) head Anatol Lyaukovich, and United Civic Party leader Anatol Lyabedzka, managed to reach the national legislature after scuffles with police who blocked the way to the building. "I worked in parliament for six years and never saw somebody preventing a person from entering the parliamentary building and approaching his representative," Lyabedzka told journalists. The state benefits are to be abolished under a bill that was passed in May and signed by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka in June. In particular, the legislation will remove reduced transport fares for students and the holders of the Veteran of Labor title as well as make fewer people entitled to discounts on utility and phone bills and health services. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/10/3-cee/cee-031007.asp