MINSK, January 19 (AVN) - About 10,000 Belarussian Interior Ministry officers were reprimanded and 116 policemen were brought to court for various offences in 2000, a ministry spokesman told the Military News Agency on Friday.
Belarus registered a further increase in crime rate last year, the spokesman said. 135,500 crimes were registered and the rate of grave crimes grew 2.3 percent.
Belarussian Interior Minister Vladimir Naumov told the summing-up session of the ministry's board that crime combating has entered a new level and that it was necessary to reduce the number of law-enforcers. According to some estimates, the ministry numbered about 130,000 people before the fire-fighting units were separated from it and made subordinate to the Emergencies Ministry. There is no new data on the number of law-enforcers but it still exceeds the strength of the Belarussian Armed Forces, where about 80,000 people are serving.