The desecration of the graves of Polish soldiers in Belarus is a reprehensible act that contradicts a whole series of treaties on respect for the rights of national minorities at international, regional and bilateral level. This is another and the most striking example of the Minsk regime’s actions against national minorities in Belarus, said Dagmāra Beitnere-Le Galla, Deputy Speaker of the Saeima, on Thursday, July 28.

The Deputy Speaker of the Saeima stated that the Members of the Saeima had received alarming news about the destruction and desecration of the graves of the Polish Home Army soldiers in Belarus. “Lukashenko’s regime is increasingly propagating among the domestic population its negative attitude towards the Baltic States, as well as Poland, and the information war has turned into a barbaric and immoral action against the memorial sites and cemeteries of Polish soldiers in Belarus,” said D. Beitnere-Le Galla. “They are committed by vandals inspired by the Belarusian authorities, as well as by local authorities themselves. In some cases, the graves are levelled with the ground using heavy road-building machinery.”

“For almost two years, we have witnessed the Belarusian regime’s brutality towards its people after the presidential election, followed by indirect participation and support for the violent Russian invasion of Ukraine, and now desecration of the graves of Polish soldiers. Belarus is our neighbour, and that is why we must not remain silent," said the Deputy Speaker of the Saeima. D.Beitnere-Le Galla calls on the accredited embassies in Latvia to pay attention to the fact that Belarus continues to systematically and extensively violate its international obligations regarding international human rights law, including the rights of national minorities.

According to the Polish side, at least nine Polish memorial sites in Belarus have been destroyed in June and July this year, and such activities are ongoing. “We have received information about a particularly brutal case where the remains of Polish soldiers were extracted from the graves,” said D. Beitnere-Le Galla. “The destruction of military graves will not change history or erase memories of the past. It only once again reveals the barbarism of the current Belarusian regime to the world.”

Saeima Press Service