BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

28 Jul 2005 11:26:08 GMT

Belarus forces raid Polish offices, anger Warsaw

Source: Reuters

(Updates with Polish reaction, previous MINSK)

By Andrei Makhovsky and Natalia Reiter

MINSK/WARSAW, July 28 (Reuters) - Belarussian special forces stormed offices of the country's Polish minority on Thursday, prompting Warsaw to recall its ambassador and ask the European Union for help.

Polish Foreign Minister Adam Rotfeld said relations between the Slav neighbours, separated by the EU's eastern frontier, were in "severe crisis" after months of diplomatic expulsions and rows over the rights of ethnic Poles in Belarus.

"In the name of common values, we are calling on the European Commission to take decisive steps to help Poland ... protect its ethnic minority in Belarus," Rotfeld told a news conference announcing he had summoned his ambassador from Minsk.

"Human rights abuses and repressions in Belarus ... are a problem that should find wider international interest. Understanding within the EU of what is happening in Belarus is limited and it is high time to change this," he said.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, widely criticised for human rights abuses and called Europe's "last dictator" by Washington, accuses Warsaw of plotting an uprising against him.

In a pre-dawn raid Belarussian forces stormed the headquarters of an association of ethnic Poles in the western town of Grodno near the Polish border, detaining about 18 people, witnessess and media reports said.

"At first, the building was encircled by police cars. Then police demanded everybody leave the building. When nobody agreed, special forces stormed the building," a member of the Union of Poles who witnessed the events told Reuters.

The Belarussian Interior Ministry declined to comment.

Poland says it wants to protect the rights of its 400,000-strong minority in Belarus but makes no secret of its wish to extend democracy eastward and help tilt Minsk towards the west, as it did by backing Ukraine's Orange Revolution last year.

The morning raid follows Wednesday's court sentencing of three Polish activists to up to 15 days in prison for staging a street concert of Polish songs earlier this month without a permit.

Poland, the largest post-communist state in the European Union, actively campaigned to overturn a fraudulent election in Ukraine in 2004, eventually won by a pro-western candidate to the annoyance of Moscow which had backed his rival. Warsaw says that fears of a Ukraine-style revolution that could turn Belarus away from Russia led to Minsk's clampdown on the 20,000-strong ethnic Polish association.

"The Orange Revolution angered the Belarus authorities and made them realise that the next elections might not turn out as planned. That caused a reaction by security forces," said deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Zalucki.

Source:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28516781.htm