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Belarus Crime
A drastic decline in living standards and the general
breakdown in law and order throughout the former Soviet
Union
have contributed greatly to a dramatic rise in crime in
Belarus.
In the first half of 1993, Belarus's murder rate increased
by
almost 50 percent and muggings by almost 60 percent.
Organized
crime is present in Belarus as well. Independent Belarus
has also
become a transshipment point for illegal drugs intended
for
Western Europe; locally produced opium and cannabis supply
Belarus's own populace.
Perhaps one of the more public crimes in the republic
is
corruption in the government. Although Alyaksandr
Lukashyenka
campaigned on an anticorruption platform, accusations of
corruption have stuck to his administration. In December
1994,
Syarhey Antonchyk read a report in the Supreme Soviet
charging a
number of high-level administration figures with
corruption,
which lead a number of these figures to offer their
resignations.
Lukashyenka refused to accept the resignations and banned
four
independent newspapers from publishing the report. Such
incidents
are generally acknowledged to be just the tip of the
proverbial
iceberg.
Data as of June 1995
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