Catherine Ashton concerned over events in Belarus

• 11.02.2010, 9:22

Polish MFA head Radoslaw Sikorski had a telephone conversation with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton.

The politicians discussed the situation about the Union of Poles in Belarus.

The press service of the Polish MFA informs the parties discussed possible EU’s reactions to help the Belarusian Poles. Catherine Ashton shared Poland’s concern over the current situation and expressed her readiness to raise the issue in conversation with the Belarusian authorities, Regnum news agency reports.

Sikorski also discussed the situation in Belarus with OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev.

On February 8 in Ivyanets (Minsk region) policemen and officers of court burst into the Polish House owned by the unrecognized by the Belarusian authorities Union of Poles. The building was surrounded by police. Activists of the Union of Poles were forced away from the building.

The Union of Poles was split in 2005. Its part which was loyal to the regime is officially recognized. Activists of the UPB not recognized by the authorities headed by Andzelika Borys are subject to crackdown by the authorities.

On February 9, mass media spread information that Poland’s Ambassador to Belarus Henryk Litwin had been recalled to Warsaw in protest of persecution of the Polish minority.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski stated that he plans to have “a man-to-man talk” with the Belarusian Foreign Minister Syarhei Martynau, and the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek called upon Minsk to stop crackdown on he Polish ethnical minority immediately.