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
EU animal welfare rules must be more rigorously enforced, with more inspections and effective penalties, said the Agriculture Committee on Wednesday.
more »
Fifty-three year old Rasima collects dirt everyday from a paddy field in Indonesia’s east Java province, turning it into a snack made entirely from soil, called "ampo."
more »
At the moment an Argentinian working for a French company in Spain can't travel to France for a meeting on his long-term visa.
more »
An EU-wide strategy is needed to combat violence against women, which must be recognised as a crime, said participants in a European Parliament public hearing with national parliaments and civil society representatives, held on Tuesday to mark International Women's Day.
more »
You know its Tet in Vietnam when Peach and Kumquat orange trees decorate every home, shop and public establishment.
more »
A surveyor has set up his tripod and instruments under a hot tropical sun to measure plots of land in a village where the Dac Kray minority community were settled four years ago.
more »
Japanese men are answering the call of Valentine s Day a month late.
more »
In three urgent resolutions adopted on Thursday, Parliament urges Hamas to release kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, deplores the escalating criminal violence in Mexico and calls on South Korea to scrap the death penalty.
more »
The plight of Europe's 10 million Roma population will fall under the spotlight Tuesday afternoon when MEPs discuss an upcoming Roman summit.
more »
EU Employment and Social Affairs Ministers have today adopted a Directive to prevent injuries and infections to healthcare workers from sharp objects such as needle sticks – one of the most serious health and safety threats in European workplaces and estimated to cause 1 million injuries each year.
more »