Thousands of entrepreneurs all over Belarus went on strike in a bid to protest laws stifling small business, the strike`s leaders said overnight
Published:
16 February 2004 y., Monday
Over 35,000 people joined the one-day action on Thursday to support 36 businessmen who went on hunger strike in Belarus`s north-eastern town of Vitebsk last week.
Vitebsk authorities prompted the hunger strike by upgrading the status of local markets and shopping centers, thus stepping up small business`s tax burden, leader of the entrepreneur union Perspectiva Leonid Malakhov said.
"The buying ability in the provinces is very low, so businessmen can barely scrape by, and even a small increase in spending will mean bankruptcy for them," Malakhov explained.
"They went to this extreme out of despair," he added.
The wide-spread strike had Belarus`s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko call on Vitebsk authorities to compromise with the hunger strikers, who "may be right in some things."
"If we allowed them to trade, that means we have taken on responsibility for these people," Lukashenko told Vitebsk administrators.
Šaltinis:
charter97.org
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
75 years after Moscow first opened its underground train system, Muscovites can ride a restored vintage train.
more »
A glacier melt threatens to cause massive flooding and destroy a centuries old monastic fortress in the remote country of Bhutan.
more »
What do countries as geographically diverse as Saudi Arabia, Uganda and Jamaica have in common? All of them criminalised homosexuality.
more »
Human rights is a key issue for the European Parliament and MEPs Monday took a first look at what the European Union did last year, when they discussed the EU annual report on human rights in the world.
more »
Researchers found high levels of mecury in a Japenese dolphin-hunting town, but say the mecury has no ill effects.
more »
Crowds of Mexicans marched peacefully through the capital city on Saturday demanding the legalisation of marijuana.
more »
Prisoners are reported to have dramatic improvements in behaviour after pets are introduced in a new scheme.
more »
Israeli Ultra-Orthodox MPs are lining up against activists proposing a total ban on furs, saying traditional fur hats are an important part of their religious tradition.
more »
EU Member States should organise social protection, including at least 14 weeks' maternity allowance, for self-employed women and self-employed men's wives or life partners, in accordance with national laws, said the Women's Rights Committee on Tuesday.
more »
How are the European Parliament, the European Commission and other parts of the European Union supposed to interest people and explain their work?
more »