BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

Jun 27, 2005, 19:25 GMT

Crime is on the rise in army, Belarusian prosecutor-general says

Minsk, 27 June: Belarusian Prosecutor-General Pyotr Miklashevich told reporters in Minsk last week that the army, police and other law enforcement and security agencies should not flatter themselves that all is going well with their efforts to combat crime among their personnel.

"Appalling facts hide behind" the reported low crime rates, he said. "And we are certainly worried about this."

Miklashevich said that instances of office abuse, bribery and embezzlement continue to be discovered, although the "general figures do not suggest any crime surge." Hazing practices have not yet been extirpated either, he noted.

He said that the Board of the Prosecutor-General's Office had had a "serious talk" about the matter the previous year. Criminal cooperation between corrupt customs and border control officers is a subject of particular concern, Miklashevich noted. Criminal proceedings against about 60 officers of these agencies have recently been instituted, he added.

Deputy Prosecutor-General Viktar Kasukha said that the crime rate among army, police and other troops had declined in the previous few years while the general crime rate in the country had been on the rise, which he described as a paradoxical situation.

According to him, a rise occurred the crime rate among the troops, which he linked to the police's better detection of bribery offences.

As many as 216 offences were recorded in the first five months of 2005 against 215 in the same period of the previous year.

A number of "complicated criminal cases" is currently being investigated by the Military Prosecutor's Office, Kasukha said. One case involves more than 700 crime counts, he added.

Source: Belapan news agency, Minsk, in English 1310 gmt 27 Jun 05

BBC Mon KVU 270605 ch/ms

Source:

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/mediamonitor/article_1023828.php/Crime_is_on_the_rise_in_army_Belarusian_prosecutor-general_says