Poland watching with great concern Belarusian authorities’ repressive measures against union of Poles :: Charter'97 :: News

Poland is “watching the Belarusian authorities’ repressive measures against the Union of Belarusian Poles (UBP) with great concern,” the Polish embassy in Belarus quoted Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, speaker of Poland’s Sejm, as telling Radio Zet on Wednesday.

A month before, Poland accused the Belarusian government of interference in the UBP`s March 12-13 conference, which resulted in the election of a new UBP leader.

The Polish foreign ministry criticized the Belarusian authorities for allegedly barring some delegates from attending the convention and pressurizing UBP members to sway the vote.

The Belarusian foreign ministry dismissed Poland’s criticism as “absolutely unfounded” and as “an attempt at pressure and interference in Belarus` internal affairs.”

It said that the Belarusian authorities had done their utmost to help organize the conference, in particular bussed delegates from other regions to the venue, Grodno.

When asked whether Poland should comment on Aleksandr Lukashenko`s Tuesday statement that the staff of the Polish diplomatic mission was doing “destructive work” in western Belarus, Mr. Cimoszewicz said that Warsaw should flatly deny this.

“We should give a decent, clear and unambiguous response, make it clear that we are not hostile to the Belarusians and reject all absurd accusations of this kind,” he said. “We, like most democratic countries in Europe, have never concealed our condemnation and criticism of Belarus’ political practices.”

As Mr. Cimoszewicz said, he believes that no “honest” person could put up with the fact that the disappearances of prominent opposition figures were not investigated into in a proper way. According to him, the men were most likely killed “and not by some bandits but most likely by someone in the government.”

The Sejm speaker dismissed earlier the Belarusian leader’s accusations as “scandalous and unfounded.”

“This is the speech of an angry dictator who is disappointed by the fact that not all Belarusians fear him,” he said.