Belarusians will not be able to complain to Alexander Lukashenka

16.10.2007. Tags: law.
Source: ERB.

On October 15^th the President of Belarus signed edict # 498 “About additional measures of the work with appeals of citizens and legal entities”. The document establishes “quality-new approaches” to work with appeals of citizens. Earlier the procedure of appeal was regulated by the law, adopted in the nineties.

Lawyer Yury Chavusau comments the situation with the new edict for the European Radio:

“The edict radically changes the procedure of consideration of citizens’ appeals. The first thing which is evident is the fact that now citizens will not be able to complain to the center, to Minsk, to the national governing bodies.

According to the President’s press service, 70% of all complaints are complaints to the central bodies.”

Now the letters of Belarusians will be considered only by the local bodies, within the borders of a district. The letters will be returned to a district from Minsk or the regional centers. Yury Chavusau forecasts how the people would react on such a “new approach”:

“Complaints to higher-ranking officers was the mechanism people still believed. They have lost faith in courts or prosecutor’s offices. But they believed complaints to high-ranking officers were a good mechanism they could rely on.

The authorities cancelled the mechanism. I can forecast that, certainly, this is not enough to create a revolutionary situation. But the tension in the society will definitely grow.”

There is also a positive aspect in the edict. Now the procedure of consideration of appeals also covers the appeals of mass media and legal entities.