Poles in Belarus won't be left alone - dep FM

A Polish deputy foreign minister has declared that Poles living in Belarus, who are in need of aid, will never be left alone, and that Poland's main goal is to make Belarus release all arrested Poles.

"We will speed up actions which are designed to stop repressions against Poles living in Belarus, and which are to make Belarus release all the arrested people," Marcin Przydacz told a Polish public television programme on Friday.

Przydacz said that Poland had already launched two mechanisms regarding Belarus, and that one of them was designed to document all legal violations regarding Poles living in that country so that "all the peope, who are responsible, should face consequences."

He admitted that, at the moment, it was impossible to bring them to justice.

Three Polish activists of the Union of Poles in Belarus (ZPB), Irena Biernacka, Maria Tiszkowska and Anna Paniszewa, were released from prison by Belarusian authorities and arrived in Poland on May 25.

"This is also the result of the diplomatic and consular steps taken by the Polish government," Przydacz said.

But Andżelika Borys, the head of ZPB, and Andrzej Poczobut, a ZPB board member, are still in prison facing criminal charges.

Appeals for their release were also made by EU officials, including the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

Seated in Grodno, a city with a large Polish population, the ZPB is the biggest Polish diaspora organisation in Belarus. In 2005, the authorities in Minsk revoked its registration.

The union's statutory activities include nurturing Polishness and Polish culture, teaching the language and maintaining memorial sites.