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Belarus to take children from ‘immoral’ parents
Yet another dictator who needs to be overthrown. Your turn, Europe.
MINSK - Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, berated in the West for his authoritarian methods, has ordered that children be taken from families deemed ‘immoral’ and sent to orphanages. This would be done bypassing the courts under Lukashenko’s decree, which was signed late on Friday and will come into force on Jan. 1, 2007.

Parents would have to repay the costs of their children’s stay in orphanages and their own homes could be confiscated.

‘If it is established that parents are leading an immoral life which corrupts their children, if they are hardcore alcoholics or drug addicts, or if they in any other way neglect their parental duties, their children will be placed under state guardianship,’ Lukashenko’s press service said. ‘Thus, such procedures are envisaged to be implemented bypassing courts,’ it said.

In a move strikingly similar to Soviet-era campaigns against ‘spongers and ill-gained profits’, Lukashenko said ‘careless parents’ would be prosecuted if they dodged compulsory labour or misreported their real incomes.
Posted by: Steve White 2006-11-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=173116