The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is outraged at the reports of a demolition by order of the Belarusian authorities of a cemetery of Polish soldiers in Mikulishki, Grodno Region. In 1944, soldiers of the 3rd and the 6th Brigades of the Home Army, an integral part of the Polish Army, participants in the Operation Gate of Dawn, fought to liberate Vilnius from German occupation and paid the highest price for it. It is particularly appalling that the Belarusian side has resorted to this unprecedented attack shortly before an anniversary of the operation’s launch on 7 July.

This particularly disgraceful event is an example of how the current authorities of Belarus are violating all the commitments the country has made about the memorial sites in its territory. The act resembles the darkest episodes in the history of communism, and given the earlier accounts of the devastation of Polish war graves, it can only be construed as done on purpose in order to further degrade the mutual relations between Poland and Belarus.

The liquidation of Polish tombs and memorials is yet another example of the Minsk regime’s actions targeting the Poles in Belarus, and the most blatant one. We strongly condemn this anti-Polish campaign of the Belarusian authorities having as its aim the elimination of Polish traces in Belarus.

The destruction of war graves will neither change history nor wipe away the memory of the past. It only demonstrates to the world – yet again – the barbarism of the current regime.

 

Łukasz Jasina
MFA Press Spokesperson