Mikhail Chyhir (Chigir) -- Businessman and Former Prime Minister
![[ Photograph: Mikhail Chyhir (Chigir) ]](../images/chigir.jpg)
Mikhail Chyhir (Chigir) -- Businessman and Former Prime Minister |
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In November, 1997 he became signatory of Charter 97. He joined the board of the National Executive Council ("Committee"; the opposition shadow cabinet) in 1998. In March, 1999, after the announcement on January 13, of the presidential elections by the rump Supreme Soviet of Belarus (the part that did not recognize the constitutional changes accomplished in the 1996 referendum (sic), and refused to join the House of Representatives -- the lower chamber of the new parliament of Belarus handpicked by Lukashenko), Chyhir announced his candidacy for presidency of the Republic of Belarus.
In order to participate in the campaign, Chyhir gave up a lucrative position of head of the representative office of a German chemical concern KEA, citing reasons for his decision "the misery and wildness in Belarus." (Belorusskij Rynok, 08.03.99) He vowed to restart the economic reform that he initiated while being Prime Minister (Ibid).
Since then, he established initiative groups that collected more than 100,000 signatures under petition to nominate him as a candidate, required by the Constitution of Belarus of 1994. Chyhir’s candidacy is supported by a number of opposition groups, including Social Democrats, independent trade unions, and after the death of Gennady Karpenko, who was nominated by the United Civil Party as a leader of united opposition, the UCP is likely to support his candidacy as well.
Before Chyhir’s arrests [see references, below, and ILHR Web site], organizers of presidential elections were continuously repressed by the authorities. On February 25, 1999, the whole opposition election committee was detained. On March 1, 1999, the chairman of the election committee, Viktor Honchar (Gonchar), was arrested and sentenced to 10 days in prison. He was further charged with illegal appropriation of the rights of a public official. Members of initiative groups who collected signatures for either Honchar or Paznyak were arrested, interrogated, fined, or threatened. (ILHR Belarus updates, 12, 13, 14).
It is written by "Alex Znatkevich and Henadz Barbarych are reporters for the Minsk-based private news agency BelaPAN. Alex Znatkevich is also TOL's stringer in Minsk." (note from the TOL Web site):
If the preceding link does not work for you, go to the Transparency Online (TOL) Web site: http://www.transparency.de/index.html
Select "News", select "Daily Corruption News", and under latest headlines, select, "Belarusia: From grace to disgrace"
[No. I don't know of any place called "Belarusia," either. :-( You can let TOL know what you think of this at: transitions@tol.cz ]
"Vladimir Ognev, a former interpreter for the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Minsk office, has told BelaPAN that the State Committee for State Security (KGB) is trying to make him testify against former Prime Minister Mikhail Chyhir."
"In the period from 1991 to 1996, according to Mr. Ognev, he used to interpret a lot for Pushe, one of Belarus' biggest private companies at the time, and even accompanied a Pushe vice president to Sweden in 1992. Mr. Ognev says it was the trip, or rather a power saw they had brought from Sweden, that interested the KGB agent who allegedly approached him first in 1998 and was more specific and insistent in April 2000."
" 'The agent asked me to testify under questioning or in court that the saw had been intended to bribe Mikhail Chyhir. He was president of Belagroprombank at the time and did business with Pushe,' Mr. Ognev said. The agent's other request allegedly concerned Pushe's talks with foreign partners. 'He asked me to say that the Western partners had been offered fictitious contracts needed to get loans from banks,' Mr. Ognev said. Mr. Chyhir's name was not mentioned, but Mr. Ognev suggests that the KGB sought to link Pushe to Belagroprombank through loans."
"According to Mr. Ognev, whose contract with the IMF expired earlier this month, the agent phoned him on July 20 and enquired about his employment plans. 'They hinted that they knew my private life quite well,' Mr. Ognev said. 'I took it as blackmail.' He says that he has been offered a job with the National Bank of Belarus on the condition of KGB approval."
"According to Mr. Ognev, he decided to disclose the facts because he feared that the KGB would not let him alone. He also says that he was shocked at the methods employed by the authorities to discredit Mr. Chyhir."
"A BelaPAN correspondent called the number on the card that the KGB agent had allegedly handed to Mr. Ognev. BelaPAN was told that the man in question had been transferred to a different unit. The KGB press office refused to comment on Mr. Ognev's story, saying that the KGB did not work on the Chyhir case."
"The US Embassy in Minsk has informed BelaPAN that the United States welcomes the decision of the Supreme Court of Belarus to return former Prime Minister Mikhail Chyhir's case to the Minsk City Court, on which the defense insisted."
"On August 18 [2000], the Supreme Court canceled its August 18 hearing on Mikhail Chyhir's appeal against his three-year suspended prison sentence, sustaining his wife and lawyer Yuliya Chyhir's complaint that she had not had enough time to study the minutes of the trial."
"The US Embassy says that the United States continues to consider the criminal prosecution of Mr. Chyhir politically motivated, urges the Belarusian government to remove all charges against him and other opposition figures, 'and to demonstrate true respect for a period of peace in the run-up to parliamentary elections.' "
"An election commission in Minsk has registered a group of supporters who will collect signatures for the nomination of former Prime Minister Mikhail Chyhir to run in this fall's elections for the National Assembly House of Representatives."
"Journalist Aleksandr Feduta, Natalya Masherov (daughter of Soviet-era Communist leader Pyotr Masherov) and 2 other people plan to be on the ballot in the same constituency. Mr. Chyhir told BelaPAN that his supporters will start collecting signatures on August 12."
"Aleksandr Lukashenko said on Thursday that equal conditions have been created for all candidates, including for 'notorious figures like Chyhir and Statkevich.' The Belarusian leader said, 'No problem, whoever is not in jail can run in the elections. I am interested in their participation. Let us see if they can win the elections. I am telling them openly: everybody will have equal opportunity.' "
"In reply to this, the ex-premier noted, 'I have met enough people to see how they look at present-day life, and what they want. Those who voted for Lukashenko say now that it was a big mistake. People want changes.' "
"The most important thing for democratically minded candidates is to monitor the election and prevent frauds, Mr. Chyhir said. 'Me and my people will make frauds impossible in our constituency,' he added."
"Speaking about opposition parties' call for a boycott of the election and their appeals to the international community not to recognize the election results, Mr. Chyhir said that the parties had not asked him when they made the decision. 'I do not make decisions, I have no party and I do not participate in the Coordinating Council [of Opposition Political Parties],' Mr. Chyhir said. He added that he welcomed the democratic opposition's calls for non-recognition of the election results."
" 'My decision to run will not influence European organizations' decision," Mr. Chyhir said. "I called on the Europeans by myself not to send observers and not to recognize results.' "
"Mr. Chyhir said that he would support the opposition's policy in Parliament if elected."
"The ex-premier pointed out that one of his main motives for running in the election was pressure and the persecution of him and his family. "I must defend myself. If I am elected, it would be difficult for the authorities to do away with me, because parliamentary immunity is a sort of protection to some extent," Mr. Chyhir said."
"Mr. Chyhir received a three-year prison sentence and two-year probation in May. He was found guilty of exceeding his authority for granting a year's delay in the payment of customs duties to a company called Piask. The court also ruled that the ex-premier could not serve in the next five years in administrative positions for any organizations and companies and obliged him to pay more 209 million rubels (about $215,000) to compensate the customs authorities for losses."
"Mr. Chyhir's appeal against the sentence has been scheduled to be considered by the Supreme Court on August 18. If the appeal gets rejected, his sentence takes effect, which will prevent Mr. Chyhir from running in the elections."
"His wife, Yuliya, also wants to announce for the House of Representatives. Her group of supporters has been registered in the town of Slutsk, Minsk region. She will face off against Vsevolod Yanchevsky, leader of the government-subsidized pro-Lukashenko Belarusian Patriotic Youth Union, among other rivals."
"Ex-Prime Minister Mikhail Chyhir, who has spent over four months in pretrial detention, has addressed an open letter to Aleksandr Lukashenko, denying all the accusations brought against him."
" 'If the authorities have really completed the investigation, then why have I not been informed of the charges, about which you have told the Belarusian people and the whole world? I even have no idea what I am suspected of. I demand a clean-cut explanation why I was put into prison and for what crimes,' reads the letter."
In late July, Mr. Chyhir says, he rejected a proposal that he write a penitent letter to Mr. Lukashenko. According to the ex-prime minister, he only regrets that he 'trusted Lukashenko in July 1994 and agreed to lead the cabinet.' "
" 'I regret that I gave in at first to your words -- you seemed so sincere -- about your desire to make the people of Belarus happy. You violated the law before my very eyes, and I believed that you were clean. You trampled on symbols that are dear to conscientious Belarusians and on the language that my parents spoke. You allowed the beating of parliamentarians despite their immunity. But I kept silence! I was loyal to the promise I gave you to keep away from politics..."
" Members of my family were subject to clandestine surveillance, but I refused to believe that you were involved..."
"Prior to becoming president you accused the acting head of state of failure to pay a ridiculous price, equal to the price of a box of nails, for repairs in his apartment... "
"You had scarcely taken his post when you started to live at the nation's expense. You used public money to build a house for your mother and repair your wife's house. I knew how much it cost but I kept silence. I got sick when I saw the price of repairs at your residence and the price of your motorcade, your plane, your helicopter, your ship..."
"To get rid of the need to coordinate all these expenses with me you set up a fund of your own, which equals the national budget,' reads the letter."
"Mr. Chyhir stresses that he will not beg Mr. Lukashenko's pardon, even if he has to spend years in prison. 'In seven years you will be as old as I am now. Think about that!' he says."
"Former Prime Minister Mikhail Chyhir's pretrial detention has been extended by a month. Mr. Chyhir was arrested on April 30, 1999, while being a candidate in an opposition-organized presidential election. Prior to his arrest, Mr. Chyhir was repeatedly warned about the possibility of his and his relatives' arrest and was asked to leave the country. But Mr. Chyhir stayed in Belarus continuing his campaign in the unofficial election."
"Mr. Chyhir was initially charged with large-scale embezzlement but the charge was dropped later. In September, prosecutors charged him with power abuse and criminal negligence."
"Mikhail Chyhir and his wife, who acts as defense lawyer for her husband, are reportedly studying the case at present. Mrs. Chyhir insists that her husband acted within the bounds of the law, and that they would win the case if the trial was free and fair."