Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's policy towards the Polish minority has caused friction Courtesy of the EU Council

A diplomatic row has erupted over the treatment of the Polish minority in Belarus
The EU has weighed in on Belarus’ repression of its Polish minority. In a statement issued last week, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton warned Belarus that disregarding human rights could threaten its relations with the EU.

“I condemn police action against the Union of Poles and what appear to be attempts by the authorities to impose a new leadership on the Polish community,” she wrote. “These developments undermine our efforts to strengthen relations between the European Union and Belarus.”

Ms Ashton stated that continuing EU engagement with Belarus, as evidenced in the country’s inclusion in the Eastern Partnership program, “Is conditional on steps towards democratization and upholding human rights, including minority rights, taken by the government of Belarus.”

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has already met once with his Belarusian counterpart, Sergei Martynov, to discuss the matter, and the Foreign Ministry has issued a stern warning. At Mr Sikorski’s request, the situation in Belarus was to be included in the agenda of an EU summit of foreign ministers on February 22.

Meanwhile, European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek met with Belarusian opposition leader Aliaksandr Milinkevich in Warsaw last week. Mr Buzek said he supported the idea of making economic aid to Belarus conditional on the success of democratization.

The conflict in context

The conflict in Belarus erupted two weeks ago, when police closed a Polish cultural center in Ivyanets, detaining seven activists. These people and the occupants of the cultural center belonged to a faction of the Union of Poles in Belarus (ZPB) which is not sanctioned by the Belarusian authorities.

Last Monday another 40 activists were detained and three were sentenced to five days in jail in a fast-track trial. On Wednesday, another 30 ZPB members were held and a Belarusian court decided to hand over the cultural center in Ivyanets to the ZBP faction supported by the government.

The rift in the ZPB harks back to 2005, when the Belarusian authorities refused to recognize Andżelika Borys as the newly chosen chair of the union. Another vote was forced and a new management group, which is not recognized by Poland, was installed.

Poland has long spearheaded the effort to reach a rapprochement between the EU and Belarus, which has a Polish minority of 400,000 among its 10 million citizens.