By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

HRODNA, Belarus –  On Sunday, police in Belarus arrested approximately forty members of a banned Polish cultural group, the Union of Poles (ZPB).  Members of the ZPB were arrested as they travelled to a court hearing in the  northwestern town of Volozhyn.

The ZPB, a nonpolitical organization with approximately 20,000 members, promotes Polish language and culture among ethnic Poles living in Belarus. It has been banned for the past five years, ever since it elected Anzhelika Borys as it’s leader in 2005.  The ZPB is currently the largest NGO in Belarus.

A protest was held on February 10, 2010, after police seized a building owned by ZPB, which housed the ZPB’s headquarters. Members of the ZPB were travelling to the court in Volzhyn on Sunday in order to attend the court hearing regarding the confiscation of the house when they were arrested by Belarusian police. 

The Polish government  has condemned the actions of Belarusian authorities, and recalled the its ambassador from Belarus.

Three ZPB members were sentenced to jail today by a court in the western Belarusian city of Hrodna, while dozens of others remain in detention. The court fined Anzhelika Borys, ZPB Chairwoman, one million Belarusian rubles ($360), while ZPB Deputy Chairman Meczislaw Jaskiewicz, spokesman Igor Bancer, and Council Chairman Andrzej Poczobut were sentenced to five days in jail.  Borys has gone into hiding to avoid being taken into militia custody, and she has reportedly given her mobile phone to Bancer to avoid being traced.

Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Andrzej Kremer, told the AFP news agency that the Polish government was:  “deeply worried by the operations being pursued against the representatives of the Polish minority in Belarus.”

Polish media reported that Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, has given the Belarusian Foreign Minister, Syarhey Martynau, a letter for President Lukashenko warning him that if Minsk continued to violate the rights of its Polish minority, the Polish government would ban Belarusian government officials from entering Poland and would recommend that Belarus be blocked from entering the EU.

Roughly 400,000 ethnic Poles currently live in Belarus. Human rights groups have accused the Belarusian government of repressing the rights of ethnic Poles living in Belarus. The Belarusian government only recognizes a breakaway faction of the Union of Poles which has declared its loyalty to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. 

Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, and human rights activists have criticized his authoritarian tactics, which he has used to stifle dissent.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Belarus arrests members of ethnic Polish group – 15 February 2010

RFE – Belarus Fines, Gives Jail Terms to Ethnic Poles – 15 February 2010

thenews.pl – Militia arrests more Poles in Belarus – 15 February 2010