POLAND - EAST

Bieszczady. Church in Hoszów. Photo: Radosław Paszkowski

Historical events were the cause. For a private suggestion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, that Russian side should apologize to the Poles for not helping the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and therefore allowing the German occupants to destroy Warsaw, Russian Federation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement in which he described Polish approach as based on ‘biased and subjective assessment of historical events’. He reminded also that ‘for liberating Poland from fascism over 600 thousand Russian soldiers gave their lives’. From the Polish point of view however, Russian soldiers died not for ‘liberating of Poland’ but for the possibility of its constraining by another, this time Soviet occupant.

Both sides differently interpret Katyń crime. For Poles the 1940 murders of 22,000 Polish officers, doctors, professors and clergymen that were interned by the Soviets in September 1939, was an act of genocide, and that means that it does not have a statute of limitations and there is a possibility of prosecuting all the participants of the crime, which number is estimated at 2,000. Russian authorities however, treat this crime as a murder, so as a prescribed act, which charges only decision makers, and therefore already dead members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Politburo.

Amont the murdered, 15,000 were the prisoners of Kozielsk, Starobielsk and Ostaszkowo camps. They all were slaughtered in spring 1940 in Katyń (Belarus), Charkow (Ukraine), and Twer (Russia). There graves of approximately 7,000 civilians are still to be accounted for. Russian authorities are promising to finish the investigation after additional documents are provided by Ukraine. The Russian prosecutor’s office does not disclose what documents they asked for from Kiev. Most likely it is about 270 Polish officers, whose bodies were found in Bykownia, near Kiev. The spokesperson of Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office Serhij Rudenko stated that Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s Office is not engaged with searching for materials concerning Katyń case, as the Russian side did not ask for any documents whatsoever.

During the visit in Moscow of Chairman of the National Memory Institute (Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – IPN), professor Leon Kieres and the Chief of the Inquiry Department of IPN, Professor Witold Kleszy, it turned out that Russian Military Prosecutor’s Office has another 63 volumes of inquiry files not known to the Polish side, although in 2001 the Russian side assured of providing the copies of all 93 volumes. Now these new files are to be made available for the Polish side.

During the visit in Poland (August 7-8) President of Lithuania Vladas Adamkus promised to take care of two conflicting issues: the spelling of Polish surnames – Lithuanian citizens in Lithuanian documents, which as for now were spelled in a Lithuanian form and orthography; and returning land to Polish farmers. According to President Adamkus, this last issue is ‘a strictly a legal issue, which should be considered on both sides, Polish and Lithuanian’. The fact remains that the farmers with Lithuanian citizenship were returned the land nationalized during the Soviet era, however Polish farmers – Lithuanian citizens have been waiting for 14 years for the return of their property, which is delayed due to ‘lack of documents’. In case of citizens of Lithuanian nationality, there is no problem with the lack of documents. According to a Lithuanian Pole, Czesław Okińczyc, who is president Adamkus’s Advisor for Contacts with Poland, these issues should be taken care before the year 2005.

Both presidents Kwaśniewski and Adamkus were discussing endless projects of infrastructure that is to connect both countries, now within the EU. Those talks are about gas and road network (still discussed Via Baltica), as well as a power bridge.

The most interesting Polish investor in Belarus is Inco Food company, which employs 800 employees and so far invested 5 million dollars. Inco Food was processing meat imported from Poland and ready products exported to Russia. Belarusian officers fined the Polish company 6 million dollars, and the court in Brześć decreed the foreclose of 2 million dollars worth of commodities. The pretext was storing the meat imported from Poland without paying the customs duties, in the warehouse of another company which does not enjoy the status of resident of special economic zone. Such practices were not questioned for the past three years.

In connection with introducing by the Belarus custom duties on particular Polish commodities, the shops in Białystok have noticed significantly smaller turnover. Meanwhile, the Belarusian side made another attempt to limit exchange with Poland by introducing obligatory ‘green card’ for the drivers, 65 euro each, while on the Polish side this cost 25 euro. Several drivers were blocking for a dozen or so hours the border checkpoint in Kuźnica Białostocka. The protest ended with success and Belarusian authorities drew back.

During 7 and 8 July 200,000 Poles and Ukrainians took part in joint pilgrimage to Sanctuary of St Mary in Zarwanica, Ukraine. Among the pilgrims there were Polish Primate Cardinal Józef Glemp and the Superior of the Greek Orthodox Church Cardinal Lubomyr Huzar. Cardinal Huzar was calling to ‘clear accounts with the past, leave it to God and begin new life together, in which like good neighbors we want to go towards the future in peace and love’. The politicians still cannot close the past, because is in the way there is separate assessment of the character of Polish-Ukrainian War in Wołyń, during German occupation.

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