Polish-Belarusian “consultations” postponed

It had been planned that at today’s consultations the conflict related to the Union of Poles in Belarus was to be discussed.

However the event was rescheduled, Polish Radio External Service was informed by the first secretary of the Polish Embassy in Minsk Pawel Marczuk.

As said by him, talks were put off for the second half of March. A concrete date hasn’t been chosen. The reasons for rescheduling haven’t been revealed. As said by Marczuk, the Polish side is ready for the talks.

The decision to set up a commission was adopted summing up the results of the meeting of Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Foreign Minister of Poland Radoslaw Sikorski in Kyiv on February 25. The possible date of the first session was named then, March 9.

A group of Belarusian experts is to be headed by Leanid Hulyaka, Head of Religious and Ethnic Affairs Committee, and Polish experts by Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer.

The spilt in the Union of Poles happened in 2005. Since that time in fact two Unions of Poles exist, the official one, registered by the Justice Ministry of Belarus, and unofficial, which is supported by the Polish authorities and repressed by the Belarusian authorities.

In early 2010 the conflict between the UPB members aggravated because of the situation with the Polish House in Ivyanets (Valozhyn district, Minsk): both the official and independent organisations laid claims on the building. On February 17 the court of Valozhyn district passed a decision in favour of the registered structure of the UPB.

On February 15 and 17 Belarusian law-enforcing agencies detained several dozens of activists of the independent UPB for staging protest rallies, and the leaders of the organisation were condemned.

These actions have caused discontent of official Warsaw and the European structures.