Minsk had warned that visits from interfering diplomats would be stopped :: Charter'97 :: News

Minsk said Monday that it had warned that foreign diplomats traveling to the country to "provoke national discord" would be stopped, as was a European Parliament delegation last Monday.

"We consider the arrival of foreign emissaries who want to teach us how to live to be direct interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement August 2 regarding Polish Parliament Vice Speaker Donald Tusk`s visit.

"We would like to forewarn such people that these trips, inflaming national discord, will be firmly stopped," the statement said.

Belarusian border guards refused entrance to a delegation of Polish European Parliament members led by European Parliament Vice-President Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, the diplomats announced Monday at a press conference.

The Union of Poles in Belarus situation has recently been causing friction between Minsk and Warsaw. A union meeting at which a new leadership was elected was deemed illegitimate by the Belarusian government. Last week, some of the union`s leaders were put under administrative arrest for 10-15 days.

Senior Polish politicians have pledged to discuss Polish-Belarus issues more actively within European structures and the U.S. and the EU issued a joint statement on the Union of Poles in Belarus, considered by Minsk as interference in the country`s domestic affairs.