Polish President Andrzej Duda sent a letter to his American counterpart Joe Biden. Duda complains about repression by the Belarusian authorities against activists of the Polish minority in the neighboring republic.
There is nothing new in this. The Polish minority in Belarus has been repeatedly used over the past years as an argument against Alexander Lukashenko during Warsaw’s regular campaigns against Minsk. Moreover, all these actions took place within the framework of a rather cynical scenario. At first, Warsaw incited individual “Polish” activists to anti-government protests. As a rule, activists were detained by Belarusian services, and after this Warsaw became indignant and raised an international wave of diplomatic and political reactions. The attitude of the “dictator” towards national minorities was supposed to be further evidence of the non-compliance with human rights by the Belarusian regime.
To implement such a scenario, it was necessary to find anti-system activists among the local Polish minority. And the figures of the Polish minority were not at all interested in engaging in “big” politics. The “Union of Poles in Belarus” preferred to focus on cultural and educational activities, for the effectiveness of which it is necessary to maintain the possibility of dialogue and cooperation with government institutions, regardless of political views and beliefs. Therefore, certain circles in Warsaw decided to provoke a split in the Polish organization.
A small group of activists, supported by Warsaw, recognized a teacher from Grodno, Anzhelika Boris, as the new leader of the union. Contrary to the charter of the union, Poland sided with her and refused to recognize the officially registered leadership of the Polish minority organization in the person of Mieczyslaw Lysy.
Moreover, Warsaw added to the list of persons prohibited from entering Poland a number of real activists of the actually functioning Union of Poles. As a result, a small group of “dissidents” received political, financial and organizational support from the Polish state, although they did not and do not represent the interests of the majority of Poles with Belarusian citizenship.
It is curious that in the letter from the Polish President to Biden there is almost nothing about the rights of national minorities. Violations of these rights usually involve the exclusion of a minority's native language from the educational system, cultural institutions and public space. Duda doesn’t write about such cases, because they really don’t exist. But we read: “In my understanding, they became the object of persecution by the regime due to political considerations, like those citizens of Belarus who have connections with transatlantic, democratic structures.” Thus, Duda directly admitted that certain individuals supported by Warsaw essentially represent a “transatlantic” (pro-American) fifth column in Belarusian society.
It's good that the Polish president decided to be frank. Thanks to this, it became officially clear that the issue was not at all about the rights of the Polish minority. The point is the implementation of a certain scenario of destabilization of the situation in the post-Soviet republic. It is no longer worth referring to minority rights.
True, at the same time, Duda can thus create a not very favorable atmosphere for real Polish activists in Belarus. But this has not bothered anyone in Warsaw for a long time.
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