Poland's MFA calls on Belarus to release Polish activists arrested a year ago

"A year ago, in March 2021, Belarusian security services arrested activists of the Union of Poles in Belarus, Andżelika Borys and Andrzej Poczobut. Poland’s determined efforts to have the detainees released have been consistently ignored by the Belarusian side, despite its assurances of being open to dialogue and cooperation. This shows that the Belarusian authorities cynically use the detained Poles as a bargaining chip in contacts with Poland and more broadly the whole West," {Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement marking the anniversary of the arrest of the activists.

The ministry added that said detention "has proved to be but a prelude to further repressions against Poles in Belarus through which the Minsk authorities aim to gain full control over Polish community organisations and deprive them of the possibility to freely cherish their own culture, traditions, and ties with the country of their ancestors".

"We strongly oppose this approach and object to any harassment of Poles living in Belarus," the ministry stressed.

"Andżelika Borys and Andrzej Poczobut, along with over a thousand other political prisoners, symbolise Belarus’s disregard for its international obligations relating to the observance of human rights. By discriminating against national minorities, the Minsk authorities go against the idea of traditional Belarusian multiculturalism," we read further.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that it "continues to urge the Belarusian authorities to unconditionally release Andżelika Borys and Andrzej Poczobut, as well as all Belarusian political prisoners held in detention".

U.S. Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzeziński also expressed support for Poczobut and Borys, and assured the United States "condemns the systematic and blatant violation of human rights and glating disregard for the rule of law in Belarus".