BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

August 11, 2005

Poland Appeals to Russia to Stop Attacks

By VANESSA GERA

Associated Press Writer

Poland's president appealed Thursday to Russian President Vladimir Putin to track down the men who attacked two Polish diplomats and a journalist in Moscow in recent days, saying the violence was "leading to a harmful escalation of hostility."

President Aleksander Kwasniewski's appeal came in a written statement released to the Polish media late Thursday. Earlier in the day, a Polish journalist for the leading Rzeczpospolita newspaper was beaten in Moscow, while two diplomats with the Polish Embassy in Moscow were attacked in separate incidents earlier in the week.

"These dangerous incidents in past days are creating tensions in Polish-Russian relations, Kwasniewski said.

He asked Putin and Russian authorities to take "resolute action toward tracking down and punishing the organizers and the perpetrators of the attacks and to provide security for Poles working and residing on Russian territory."

The incidents follow the July 31 mugging of three sons of Russian diplomats in a Warsaw park, during which the boys' cell phones were stolen.

Putin's government demanded an apology. The Polish Foreign Ministry expressed "deep regret," but said it owed no apology for what it said was a criminal act.

The incidents also come amid rising tensions between Poland and Belarus, whose autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko enjoys Putin's backing.

Poland has been pressing for democratic change in neighboring Belarus, angering Lukashenko's government. The former Soviet republic's minority Polish community has also complained of being harassed in a government crackdown

Source:

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050811/API/508111180&cachetime=3&template=dateline

Google