Translated material
Warsaw and Minsk exchanged expulsions
Minsk considers the expulsion of Andrzej Buczak as a response to the expulsion of its diplomat. “The actions of the Polish side forced the Belarusian side to decide on the need to leave the territory of Belarus on July 21, 2005, Counselor of the Polish Embassy in Minsk Andrzej Buczak,” says a commentary released by the Foreign Ministry from the head of the press service department, Maria Vanshina.
In May of this year, Minsk and Warsaw already exchanged expulsions of diplomats. Then the adviser of the Polish embassy, Marek Butko, left the Belarusian territory, and, as stated in the commentary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, the decision was made “taking into account active personal actions aimed at destabilizing Belarusian society.”
Back in April, speaking with his annual message to parliament, Alexander Lukashenko accused Western countries, in particular Poland, of preparing a “velvet revolution” in Belarus. Moreover, the Poles took an active part in the revolutionary events in Ukraine last year. “I also want to warn the Polish Embassy, don’t take it as a threat. Do not think that Poles in Belarus are not citizens of Belarus. These are our citizens. We won’t give them offense to anyone, and you won’t bully them either,” the president said then.
In Belarus, a population of ten million, there are about 450 thousand citizens of Polish origin, according to official data, and almost a million unofficially. Just in case, the Belarusian authorities are now paying special attention to the social and political activities of the Poles. The other day, the government considered illegitimate the congress of the Belarusian Union of Poles, at which the new leadership of this organization was elected. In Warsaw this caused a new wave of discontent.