Bronislaw Komorowski, speaker of Poland's Sejm, has promised to support Belarus' non-state media, especially the Belsat TV channel, in cooperation with all political forces in his country, said Poland's news agency PAP, BelaPAN said.
Mr. Komorowski reportedly made the promise following his meeting Friday in Warsaw with Andzelika Borys, leader of the so-called unofficial Union of Poles in Belarus.
To help the Polish minority in Belarus, the Sejm can express its solidarity, promptly respond to Belarusian authorities’ repressive measures, and adopt a resolution "that would list sanctions against Minsk," Mr. Komorowski said.
Such sanctions would not necessarily lead to a suspension of cooperation but could block Belarus from receiving loans, he said.
Meanwhile, "the independent media" will receive financial assistance, Mr. Komorowski said. The Sejm can be of help because it adopts the budget, he explained.
Ms. Borys reportedly welcomed an agreement to set up a group of experts to find solutions to the Polish minority conflict in Belarus. "This is the first step toward improving relations between the authorities and the Union of Poles," she said. "We hope for positive developments."
Poland and Belarus will set up a team of experts to resolve the Polish minority conflict, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters following his meeting with Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Kyiv on February 25.
“The President of Belarus assured me that the group of experts would try to find solutions satisfactory to both parties,” Polskie Radio quoted Mr. Sikorski as saying. “I accepted this in good faith... I think I managed to convince President Lukashenka that this is a matter of urgency.”
Messrs. Lukashenka and Sikorski were staying in Kyiv to attend the inauguration of President-elect Viktor Yanukovych.
Mr. Sikorski noted that he had arrived in the Ukrainian capital city with a special view to meeting with the Belarusian leader. The meeting reportedly lasted more than an hour instead of the expected half an hour.
The fact that Mr. Lukashenka agreed to the meeting suggests that Belarus “takes seriously the Belarusian-Polish relationship and the Belarusian-European relationship,” Mr. Sikorski said.
He called on the Polish media and politicians not to stir up passions and let the experts do quiet behind-the-scenes work so that they will be able to generate solutions in an atmosphere free of provocations. In the meantime, the Polish community in Belarus would have two autonomous organizations and the two countries would be able to develop their economic, cultural and political relations, the minister said.
“I believe the dialogue and our conversation are proof that the government of Belarus realizes the seriousness of the situation and wants to find a solution,” Mr. Sikorski noted.
“While tackling any issues that exist between Poland and Belarus and especially the issues that you are talking about, you should proceed from the fact that those 200,000 people of Polish origin are my Poles and my voters, and I’m responsible for them personally.” Mr. Lukashenka said. “And I’ll do everything so that they will have a good life in Belarus.”
The Belarusian leader seemed surprised at a question about the recent brief police detentions of dozens of activists of the unrecognized “unofficial” Union of Poles in Belarus (UPB). “There were no arrests,” he said. “No one went to prison. Well, maybe a few persons. But they themselves wanted to show that they were in a bad way.” //BelaPAN
Many vehicles have lined up at the Pryvalka checkpoint, waiting to cross the border from Lithuania into Belarus.
A driver stuck in the line told BelaPAN by phone on Friday afternoon that he had been waiting for three hours to undergo customs formalities after completing the procedure within three minutes on the Lithuanian side.
When asked to comment, Alyaksandr Tsishchanka, spokesman for the Belarusian State Border Committee, said that the line was, perhaps, due to the enactment on February 25 of new rules governing the temporary importation of vehicles in the Belarusian-Russian Union State.
Under the rules, foreign registered vehicles entering Belarus or Russia temporarily shall undergo customs formalities only once, at the external border of the Union State.
“It is a new procedure for vehicles and it may extend customs formalities a bit,” Mr. Tsishchanka said.
He said that Belarusian customs officials were operating as usual and the line could also be due to the coming weekend.
Belarus had a national budget surplus of 163.2 billion rubels ($56.5 million) in January 2010, the finance ministry said.
It linked the surplus to "budget policy measures aimed at saving public funds."
The government’s national budget revenues amounted to 2.2 trillion rubels, or 6.2 percent of the target set for the entire year. As much as 700.4 billion rubels came from value-added tax, 576.4 billion from taxes on “external economic activities” and 211.6 billion from the profit tax, or 5.6, 5.7 percent and six percent of the respective targets for the year.
As of February 1, tax arrears stood at 102.1 billion rubels, 43.4 billion more than on January 1.
The national budget's expenditures totaled two trillion rubels, or 5.4 percent of what was projected for the entire year.
Expenditures on the national economy amounted to 700 billion rubels, 5.7 percent of the amount projected for the entire year.
Around 700 billion rubels, or 4.4 percent of the projected amount, reportedly went toward "general state activities."
A total of 400 billion rubels, or 6.4 percent of the projected amount, went to the "social sphere," which includes education, the media, public health, culture and sports, the finance ministry said. //BelaPAN
The Council of European Union is concerned about the human rights situation in Belarus, Diego Lopez Garrido, the Spanish foreign ministry’s secretary of state for the EU, said when speaking at a debate that was held in the European Parliament on February 24 to discuss the country’s situation.
Mr. Garrido said that the situation had “degraded” amid “a lack of freedom of expression and association, increased pressure on media and opposition activists.”
The EU and all its bodies share the concern, he noted.
He said that the EU endorsed the criticism over the authorities’ crackdown on activist of the Polish community. “Human rights are universal and indivisible,” he stressed.
At the same time, he emphasized the need for the EU to continue its dialogue with the Belarusian authorities, noting that “it is important for Belarus to start heading in the right direction.”
He said that the EU foreign policy chief’s February 16 statement over Minsk’s treatment of the Polish community had been sent to the Belarusian authorities through diplomatic channels.
Kristalina Georgieva, the EU commissioner for international cooperation, said that “respect for human rights is the cornerstone of relationship with Belarus, the foundations on which the relationship is built.”
She stressed that the human rights situation in the country's had started worsening last year, "not two weeks ago." //BelaPAN
26 February 2010
3