English

Polish president to express concern about situation of Polish community in letter to Lukashenka

Lech Kaczynski is concerned about the situation of the Polish community in Belarus and plans to express his concerns in a letter to Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Wladyslaw Stasiak, the Polish president’s chief of staff, told reporters in Warsaw on Monday following Mr. Kaczynski’s meeting with Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, BelaPAN said.

The Polish president hopes that the European Union, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and other organizations will take decisive, consistent and efficient steps to help the Polish minority in Belarus, Mr. Stasiak said.

According to him, Messrs. Kaczynski and Sikorski discussed measures that should be taken immediately. “It is necessary for us to take measures that would be appropriate in this situation and persuade our partners that the situation is very serious and the crisis should be settled within the shortest possible time.” Mr. Stasiak said.

He noted that repressive measures against activists of the Polish community in Belarus had only increased after the Belarusian foreign minister’s visit to Poland last week.

“The countdown has begun to the start of a negative scenario,” Minister Sikorski said, according to the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.

He reportedly noted that Polish authorities’ decision to deny entry into Poland for certain Belarusian officials involved in infringements on the rights of the Polish minority would come into force the following midnight. According to him, the Polish president has approved of the government’s move.

The Belarusian authorities have the opportunity to change their policy, Mr. Sikorski said. If this does not happen, “the window of opportunities will be shut and Poland and the EU will impose sanctions against Belarus,” he said,

According to the press office of the Polish government, Prime Minister Donald Tusk on February 15 phoned Andzelika Borys, leader of the Union of Poles in Belarus, to say that he was in constant contact with European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek. Mr. Tusk and Ms. Borys reportedly agreed to get in touch over the phone the following day.

Pawel Gras, spokesman for Prime Minister Tusk, said that the Polish government was awaiting a reply to a letter that had been handed to Belarusian Foreign Minister Syarhey Martynaw and then would take “further steps.” “If the reply does not meet our expectations, developments may assume various scenarios,” he said, adding that the government was considering efficient decisions that should be severe enough for the Belarusian authorities to stop their crackdown on the Polish minority.