BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/07/2005

Tit for tat

A Polish consul in Minsk was given five days to pack and leave Belarus by the country's foreign ministry. He is the second Polish diplomat expelled from Belarus this year, in the wake of a crisis in bilateral relations, which Warsaw blames on Minsk.

The Belarusian foreign ministry said its move was in response to the earlier expulsion of a Belarusian diplomat from Poland. But Poland's foreign minister Adam Rotfeld does not see any connection between the two incidents and blames Minsk for causing a crisis in bilateral relations.

'He was expelled for activities contrary to his diplomatic status. The Belarusian side asked us not to give publicity to this incident, which suggests that Minsk did not object, while now it argues that the expulsion of the Polish diplomat was a tit for tat move. These two incidents have nothing in common.'

The Polish consul told to leave Belarus, Andrzej Buczak said the move came as a total surprise to him.

'The ambasador telephoned me and told me that he had received such information.'

Polish eurodeputy and chairman of a delegation for relations with Belarus Bogdan Klich believes that relations with the Minsk government will get worse and worse, and does not expect an improvement before the next presidential elections scheduled for 2006.

It's not surprising that Poland is regarded as an enemy by Lukashenko, dubbed the last autocratic ruler in Europe. When it joined NATO and the European Union, Poland brought western democracy dangerously close to Belarus. Bilateral relations deteriorated rapidly when the Lukashenko regime clamped down on the Union of Poles in Belarus after it elected new leaders to replace a group loyal to the president.

Polish politicians are in favor of firm diplomatic steps to be taken in the current dispute with Belarus. Marek Jurek from the opposition Law and Justice party, expected to win the autumn parliamentary elections, says that Poland should be tough towards Minsk.

'This situation shows that it is necessary to be firm with countries which do not observe the norms of international co-existence.'

Eurodeputy Bogdan Klich points to the need of providing assistance to pro-democracy forces in Belarus.

Radio Free Belarus is likely to start broadcasting from Polish territory shortly now that the European Parliament supported the idea of sponsoring an independent radio station, realizing the urgency of providing uncensored news to the Belarusians.

Source:

http://www.radio.com.pl/polonia/article.asp?tId=25199&j=2