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BELARUSIAN LAWMAKERS CONTINUE HUNGER STRIKE OVER ELECTION CODE. Three Chamber of Representatives deputies, Uladzimir Parfyanovich, Syarhey Skrabets, and Valery Fralou, who went on a hunger strike in the parliamentary building on 3 June (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 June 2004), moved their protest to Fralou's apartment in Minsk on 5 June, RFE/RL's Belarusian Service reported. Fralou explained the move by the need of the three protesting deputies to be close to those giving them moral support. The deputies are protesting the blockade by the parliamentary leadership of their initiative to put on the agenda a draft bill providing for democratic changes to the Election Code. They are also demanding the release of their political associate Mikhail Marynich, who has been in custody since 26 April (see "RFE/RL Belarus and Ukraine Report," 11 May 2004). Three activists of the opposition United Civic Party (AHP), who pitched several tents in the backyard of Fralou's apartment block, joined the hunger strike on 5 June. The same day, police dismantled and confiscated the tents, warning the AHP activists that they could be punished for staging an unauthorized rally. JM
UKRAINIAN NONSTATE MEDIA MARK JOURNALISTS DAY WITH 'LIVE NEWSPAPER.' The editorial offices of "Lvivska hazeta," "Ukrayina moloda," and the "Ukrayinska pravda" website celebrated Journalists Day in Kyiv on 6 June with the publication of a "live newspaper," which was edited and printed in front of the building of the Union of Ukrainian Journalists on Khreshchatyk Street, the "Ukrayinska pravda" website reported. Journalists sent articles for several issues of the "live newspaper" via notebooks, while an ad hoc editorial office on the street edited them, printed issues of several hundred copies each on a Risograph printer, and distributed the publication immediately among passersby. The event organizers reportedly said their goal was "to show that a newspaper can be made even without appropriate conditions," adding that "it is enough to do one's work honestly and at a good quality level in order to counter the pressure to which the authorities frequently resort." JM
UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION NEWSPAPER EDITOR ATTACKED. Andriy Voytsekhovskyy, editor of the opposition newspaper "Gremuchaya smes" (Explosive Mixture) and a local correspondent of other publications linked to the Socialist Party, was beaten up in Kharkiv on 3 June, UNIAN reported on 5 June. Voytsekhovskyy told the agency that he was attacked at night, when he was coming home from work. The editor said he is not sure whether he was beaten up for his professional activity but he added that he has long been in "strong opposition to the authorities." Voytsekhovskyy has been a Socialist Party member for some 10 years. Hanne Severinsen, a rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said at a news conference in Kyiv on 3 June that in Ukraine opposition media are in danger. JM
SLOVAK PRESIDENT VISITS UKRAINE. Slovak President Rudolf Schuster met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Leonid Kuchma, on 7 June during a one-day visit to Kyiv, Ukrainian media reported. Schuster said at a news conference after the meeting that "the Schengen border will not become a dividing line between Ukraine and Slovakia." The two leaders reportedly discussed the participation of their countries in the international stabilization mission in Iraq and bilateral issues relating to trade and visa regimes. JM