International

Poland to block Belarusians involved in repression

15.02.2010 18:23

Radoslaw Sikorski

Polish authorities have announced that they will not allow those who are responsible for violating rights of the Polish minority in Belarus into the country.

From midnight tonight, borders will close to those individuals involved in repressing Poles’ living in Belarus’ rights and visas will no longer be issued to those people, says Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski following a closed-door meeting with Polish President Lech Kaczynski Monday afternoon.

“The President has sent a letter to President Lukashenko asking for him to personally fix the situation of the Polish minority in Belarus,” said spokesperson Wladyslaw Stasiak.

Foreign Minister Sikorski added, following the meeting, that he presented Kaczynski with several dozen scenarios which could come up, should Belarusian authorities not react positively and show steps to repair relations with both the Union of Poles in Belarus and the Polish government.

While the Foreign Minister expressed hope that the Belarusian government will respond favourably, “the timer is ticking for the negative scenarios to play out.”

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk spoke with head of the Union of Poles in Belarus, Andzelika Borys, by phone on Monday, to inform her of the work being done by both the Polish government and the European Union to ensure that the Polish minority groups’ rights are respected by Belarusian authorities.

Head of European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, announced, at a press conference in Warsaw, that the EP will pass a resolution on the situation in Belarus next week and will do everything possible to stop militia aggression against Poles in the country.

“Future relations between Belarus and the EU depend upon the manner with which opposition and national minority groups are treated by Belarusian authorities. It is our main barometer,” stated Buzek.

On Monday, Belarusian militia arrested a total of 40 Union of Poles in Belarus members who wanted to attend the court proceedings regarding the group’s Polish House in Ivyenets which was seized by authorities a week ago. Union head Andzelika Borys was fined 1 million Belarusian rubles (about 250 euro) by the court today as the Union is not officially recognized by authorities. Three other activists from the Union were sentenced to five days in jail for holding unsanctioned demonstrations in Grodna on 10 February. (mmj)

Comments: 54 Add new comment

Alex

15/02/2010 18:56:28

Actually, Poland has been refusing entry visas to Belarusian Poles involved with the official Union of Poles in Belarus for a few years now.

These tough talk and provocations will only further push Belarus into Russia's sphere of influence - thank you very much! Mr. Sikorski can you issue similar statements for Ukraine, too? And don't forget about Lithuania where they don't allow Poles to spell their names in Polish.

Veledar

15/02/2010 19:07:29

Sikorski starts his "running for president" campaign already.But what a cheap and ugly method to gain electoral popularity - organize a provocation in a peaceful neighboring state and then present yourself as a problem solver and defender of "oppressed", tough talk, tough walk.
Only very ignorant people can buy into that....

Vasyl

15/02/2010 19:13:45

Alex and Veledar, do something useful and stop the arrests instead of posting propaganda on this site.

Alex

15/02/2010 20:13:35

Vasyl, can you ask Mr. Sikorski to stop playing a clown?

anon

15/02/2010 20:18:44

if sikorski is a clown, is tusk, buzek, stasiak, kaczynski and the various other politicians involved in this issue?

Vasyl

15/02/2010 20:33:59

Can't do that. I'm not from Poland, but you work for the Russian government, so just get Putin to put pressure on Belarus to stop the arrests.

Maciej Skiba

15/02/2010 21:11:57

Actually Alex, Poland many times brought up the situation with the Lithuanian government regarding the spelling of the names. But in end the situation will not escalate because both country's are in the EU and sticking together is needed to influence EU matters. In either case are you seriously taking a situation with Poles not being able to spell their names in Polish which occurs in Lithuania and comparing it to the systematic mistreatment of Poles in Belarus. In Belarus you have the closure of Polish language newspapers, harassment by authorities, jail terms for Poles speaking out, and just in general you have murder of journalists, censorship of the internet, assaults on critics of the government etc. Are you trying to say the situations are the same? Your basically comparing a needle prick to a knife wound.

(A little more info about your beloved Lukaschenko)
http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc06/EDOC10814.pdf

Where are you priorities Alex? You should be defending the people who are having their rights trampled upon not the dictator. By the way Belarus is already in Russia's sphere of influence, its not like we can make things worse. Plus after the Russian Belarussion gas spat (that lead to the warming of EU-Belarus ties) Lukashenko knows better than to fly completely into the arms of Russia.

P.S the building belongs to the Union of Poles that democratically elected Andzelika, seeing as the Belarussion authorities replaced her with their own stooges doesn't mean the building now belongs to them.

Maciej Skiba

15/02/2010 21:15:11

Alex and if you think the official Union of Poles is still official after the democratically elected leader has been replaced, than I'm not surprised you said earlier that Russia strengthened democracy in Ukraine.

jarek Krupa

15/02/2010 23:21:46

@ Marciej Skiba

Well written en thanks for the link

Scorpio

16/02/2010 00:16:34

Alex
I feel sory for you. You appear tob be a loner with no friends and the only contact you have with the ouside world is this forum.
Get a life, go outside into the Community and experience the real world.

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