BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

15/08/2007

Belarus Turns Polish Officials Away From Border

Reuters

Senior Polish politicians said on Wednesday they had been denied entry to Belarus, the latest in a series of diplomatic incidents pitting the ex-Soviet state under President Alexander Lukashenko against its Western neighbour.

Belarus' foreign ministry and its security service, still known by its Soviet-era name the KGB, said the Poles had sought to provoke an incident to secure publicity ahead of an early election likely to take place in the coming months.

Relations have periodically been tense over Belarus' treatment of its 400,000-strong ethnic Polish minority, accused by Lukashenko of fomenting dissent in his country of 10 million.

The Polish politicians were bound for Polish Army Day celebrations in the town of Grodno, home to many ethnic Poles and part of Poland before World War Two.

Among those barred was a delegation representing Poland's leading opposition party, the pro-business Civic Platform, headed by leader Donald Tusk. Deputy senate speaker Krzysztof Putra had been turned away from the border earlier in the day.

"They gave no reason. I had to wait about 50 minutes while the guards phoned their superiors and then told me I could not enter Belarus," Putra, also denied entry earlier this year, said on TVN24 television.

The station said Polish presidential adviser Michal Dworcyzk had been detained in Belarus during a police roadside check.

Poland's PAP news agency said Belarus' ambassador had been summoned to the foreign ministry in Warsaw for an explanation.

Belarussian state television later showed pictures of the Poles seated in their cars in discussion with border guards.

Belarussian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Vanshina, in a comment broadcast on television, said authorities had "warned the Polish side in good time that some of its representatives planning to visit Grodno would be refused entry to our country.

"Any trip aimed at engaging in political speculation or using Belarus' ethnic Polish minority to score points in Poland's political scene will never be met with understanding."

Belarus' official BELTA news agency quoted an unidentified KGB official as saying the Poles had acted deliberately.

"These politicians knew full well that they will be denied entry but still went on with their pre-planned scandal," the official was quoted as saying.

Lukashenko, popular at home, is accused in the West of crushing fundamental rights, closing down independent media and rigging elections. He and several dozen officials are barred from entering the United States and European Union.

In 2005, Belarussian riot police seized the Polish community's offices in Grodno, ousted the group's leaders and forced the election of more loyal executives. That incident prompted each country to expel the other's diplomats.

Source:

http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=71562