Democratic Poles
By KAMIL TCHOREK
EURASIA
The Wall Street Journal
August 5, 2005
MINSK — While western Europe focuses on terrorism in London, the
terror state of Belarus, dominated by dictator Alexander Lukashenko,
is treated in the tradition of Neville Chamberlain’s “faraway country
of which we know little.”
This is a mistake. Aside from the close though little-known historical
and cultural ties that the West has with Belarus — Tadeusz Kosciuszko,
a leading figure in the American Revolution and an early advocate
of democracy and emancipation, was born and bred in these parts —
the Moscow-backed regime in Minsk poses a security risk to Europe.
Two years ago Saddam Hussein’s closest aide, Abid Hamid Mahmud
Tikriti, was captured carrying Belarus passports for himself and
Saddam’s notorious sons. After a recent state visit from Tehran,
the flag of Iran has been left to decorate the main thoroughfare in
Minsk. Mr. Lukashenko is arming himself with cutting-edge Sukoyev
Su-30s.
Last week, in a chilling echo of the Balkan conflict, Belarus special
forces stormed buildings used by the nearly 500,000 strong ethnic
Polish community — some of whom live in the village of Kosciuszko’s
birth. The woman who leads the Union of Poles, Andzelika Borys,
yesterday was questioned by police; her deputy and four other
Union activists are in prison. Minsk is trying to replace her with
a quisling. In protest, Warsaw last week withdrew its ambassador
from Minsk.
Poland, Belarus’ western neighbor and the EU’s largest new member,
is taking a far tougher line with Mr. Lukashenko than much of
Europe. Poland has provided refuge for Belarusian émigrés who support
the democracy movement, and has allowed the Belarusian opposition
to use Warsaw as a place to work with Western NGOs and diplomats,
assemble and speak freely without fear of reprisal.
This policy is buoyed by American legislation. Washington’s Belarus
Democracy Act 2004 grants financial backing to promote human rights
and democratic development in Belarus. But as evidenced by a letter
from the Polish foreign ministry to European leaders last month,
at the start of the crisis, Poland is having to work to get the EU
to follow suit.
In private, some EU diplomats emphasize that it is important not to
antagonize Russia, an ally of Belarus, and dismissively claim that
Poland has an interest in raising its profile through conflict.
But Poland’s Eastern policy is set to get tougher still. After
elections next month, Poland’s ruling ex-communists are likely to be
replaced by the conservative opposition. When I recently interviewed
a leading candidate for prime minister, Jan Rokita, he spoke of
foreign policy in positively neoconservative terms. “This now ends
the period of mild politics,” he said of the crackdown on the Polish
minority. “Ours will be a simple message: Lukashenko must go. I will
do all I can to help the Belarus opposition and I will want the EU
to engage rather than look the other way.”
On Monday, Mr. Rokita’s colleague and presidential candidate Donald
Tusk crossed into Belarus to show the Polish community there that they
aren’t alone. Since then, Belarusian Poles who met with Mr. Tusk have
been jailed, and one of the prisoners, Andrzej Pisalnik, who edits
the Polish-language newspaper, has responded by going on hunger strike.
Meanwhile, also on Monday, an emerging opposition leader, Alexander
Milinkevitch was in Poland. “This is not an ethnic minority problem,”
Mr. Milinkevitch told me. “This is a civil rights problem for all
Belarusian people from whatever background. Lukashenko is destroying
civic society and we’ve got to stop him.”
Mr. Milinkevitch believes that there is a European tendency to consign
the current crisis between Warsaw and Minsk to the realm of bilateral
relations. To continue to believe this, he argues, would play into
Mr. Lukashenko’s hands. His immediate wish is for Europe to rally
round Poland in support of democracy in Belarus.
The shared vision of Jan Rokita and Alexander Milinkevitch is rooted in
history. From the sixteenth century, Belarus was united with Lithuania,
Ukraine and Poland in a state known as the “Rzeczpospolita Polska,”
or Polish Commonwealth. Much like in the United Kingdom or the U.S.,
citizens could belong to any or several cultural groups but swear
allegiance to one state.
In such traditions tolerance is born. It is no coincidence that
European Jews, Armenians and Protestants thrived in the Rzeczpospolita
when they were hounded elsewhere. The Rzeczpospolita also produced
Europe’s first written constitution, which was defended militarily by
Kosciuszko, who was born in Belarus of Lithuanian stock, spoke Polish,
and was awarded American citizenship.
It is also unsurprising that the Czarist and Soviet empires attempted
to rub out this history. “Until perestroika I thought I was Russian,
and a minor Russian at that,” commented Mr. Milinkevitch. “All my
life, like everyone in Belarus and Ukraine, I’d been told that Russian
history was our history, and that we didn’t have our own. Now that
we have learnt about ourselves, we want change.”
As a means of coercion, President Lukashenko is doing everything to
russify the nation and make sure the historical links with Poland
aren’t restored. He has changed the national flag from the medieval
red and white Belarusian banner it was in the 1990s to a near copy
of the Soviet era symbol. He has closed Jewish, Polish and Belarusian
schools and established Russian replacements. For years he has touted
plans to reunify with Russia, though they’ve never gone far.
Europe can stand by and watch Belarus, a European country, plunge
into a totalitarian abyss. Or it can recognize and support the immense
effort of so many Belarusians to become a democracy.
Mr. Tchorek is a freelance journalist.
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