MINSK, 1 March (BelTA) – The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemns plans to stage an event to commemorate the so-called ‘cursed soldiers' in the Polish city of Hajnowka, the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the far-right march in Hajnowka reads, BelTA has learned.
“We have already voiced our position on this matter on numerous occasions, and it remains unchanged: holding far-right events in places that are home to large communities of ethnic Belarusians is an open, cynical insult to the memory of the victims of the ‘cursed soldiers' units and encouragement of glorification of Nazism,” the ministry stressed.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out that one of people, who are presented as heroes by participants of such marches in Hajnowka, but are actually war criminals, Romuald Rajs (aka “Bury”) led a punitive operation in Belarusian villages 75 years ago. He and his accomplices murdered and maimed hundreds of civilians whose only fault was being Belarusians. Several villages were burnt down together with their residents. “The brutality of those crimes is shocking. Those actions cannot be forgiven or justified,” the ministry believes.
Belarus' position on this issue will be communicated to the Polish Embassy in Minsk. “We insist that Poland should fulfill its obligations to combat attempts to glorify Nazism. We will bear in mind Warsaw's approaches to the totally unacceptable practice of honoring war criminals in our future relations with Poland,” the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reads.
Belarusian diplomats who work in Poland always honor the memory of civilians who were murdered by Bury's unit, laying flowers to memorials in the village of Zaleszany and in Hajnowka that are home to many Belarusian.
The ministry also noted that in the light of the Polish authorities' tolerance of the far-right marches in Hajnowka, Poland's attempts to criticize Belarus for violations of human rights and calls for sanctions against Belarus are ridiculous. “Warsaw is so enthusiastic about attempting to discredit its neighbor Belarus that is has no time to address its own numerous problems with human rights and the justice system. The growing popularity of neo-Nazism, regular far-right events and acts of vandalism against memorials to Europe's liberators from Nazism have become a norm there,” the ministry stressed.
If we forget the war, it will happen again, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, quoting a line from Robert Rozhdestvensky's poem.
“We are keen to restore relations with our neighbor Poland, which, unfortunately, are far from being good neighborly right now. This is possible if Warsaw stops pressure and drops its patronizing tone, including in the field of history and commemorating efforts. As far as we know, public events are banned in Poland due to the epidemiological situation. We hope that the risks of COVID-19 spread will help combat the far-right ‘virus' in that country,” the statement reads.
