BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

13/03/2007

Belarusian Individual Traders Rally Against Presidential Decree

Some 250 small business owners held a rally in a park in Minsk on March 12, protesting the presidential decree that effectively bans them from using hired labor, Belapan reported. In December, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka issued a decree that prohibits sole entrepreneurs from employing people other than three family members as of 2008. According to rally participants, the edict runs counter to the constitution, which guarantees the equality of all forms of ownership and the right to engage in enterprise. The rally adopted a resolution demanding that the president annuls the decree. The resolution also includes a demand to immediately release Mikalay Autukhovich, Yury Lyavonau, Alyaksandr Kazulin, Katsyaryna Sadouskaya, Pavel Sevyarynets, Mikalay Statkevich, Artur Finkevich, Zmitser Dashkevich, and Dzyanis Dzyanisau, who are widely considered political prisoners. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/03/3-CEE/cee-130307.asp