Belarusian president extols peace, unity in New Year's speech.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has praised unity and tolerance and highlighted the absence of civil strife in a nationwide New Year's address. Lukashenka spoke optimistically about the prospects for improving living standards in 2003 and reiterated commitment towards strengthening sovereignty and building a union state with Russia. The following is the text of the address from Belarusian television on 31 December:

Dear compatriots,

Once a year I have the happy privilege of addressing you at this special moment when you are gathered at home with your friends and relatives. I would like to welcome you all on New Year's Eve and thank you for your hard work for the benefit of our Motherland. I am grateful to everyone who works on a farm and on the factory floor, who is mastering an uneasy area of private business, who glorifies Belarus in science, sport and culture and who is ensuring the development of a healthy and educated nation.

New Year's Eve is hardly the appropriate time for a detailed account of the work done. However, at the same time let us recall what we do not have. First, we do not have either internal or external armed conflicts. Our people are not woken up in the middle of the night by explosions and our children and grandchildren do not shed their blood in hot spots. We do not have any enemies and we do not have any territorial claims against anybody. We do not have religious or racial feuds. We all live in peace, friendship and accord. Everyone has the right to pursue their own religion. It gives me particular pleasure to speak about this during the Christmas holidays.

Despite all the forecasts by pseudoprophets and the direct opposition of ill-wishers, we are not experiencing an economic downturn. In this country everyone who wishes to work works and earns money. Our homes are full of light and are warm and cosy. We have the problems which arise out of the world economic crisis under control. Our society is devoid of profound divisions between a handful of the superrich and millions of deprived people. Corruption is not eroding our society. And finally, such a notion as a refugee from Belarus is non-existent. On the contrary, every year an increasing number of people are willing to assume Belarusian citizenship.

Dear friends, the outgoing year has been difficult, instructive, but full of good deeds for all of us. We have been living and working honestly and fruitfully. We have been improving the standards of education, health care and culture. We have been building new world-class bridges and motorways, laying gas pipelines to towns and villages, ...