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Warsaw wants to blacklist Belarusian officials for crackdown on Polish minority

The Polish foreign ministry has announced plans to draw up a list of Belarusian officials to be banned from entering Poland and other European Union member countries for their involvement in the crackdown on Warsaw-backed activists of the ethnic Polish minority.

Stanislaw Siemaszko, leader of the "official" Union of Poles in Belarus that is backed by the Belarusian government, may be placed on the list, Polish media said.

According to the report, Warsaw pledged to support Minsk in the international arena if it stops the harassment of activists of the Polish minority.

When meeting with Belarusian Foreign Minister Syarhey Martynaw in Warsaw on February 12, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslw Sikorski handed him over a letter for Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The letter outlines areas where Poland could offer its support for Belarus, with Warsaw suggesting helping Minsk obtain the next tranche of the International Monetary Fund`s loan, push for the abolition of the EU`s visa sanctions against Belarusian officials and get membership in the Council of the Baltic Sea States, the media said.

Piotr Paszkowsk, spokesman for the Polish foreign ministry, said that the full text of the letter could be soon made available for the media.

According to the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Mr. Martynaw told his Polish counterpart that Minsk "did not initiate the conflict in Ivyanets and the reasons behind the escalation of the conflict remain unclear for the Belarusian authorities," when he was commenting on the February 8 police seizure of the Polish House in Ivyanets, a small city some 30 miles west of Minsk.

European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, a former Polish prime minister, on Friday did not rule out that the EU could break off relations with Belarus if human rights continued to suffer there.

"We have to act carefully, but breaking off relations is not ruled out" if Belarus continues to violate fundamental freedoms, Mr. Buzek said in Torun, central Poland, as quoted by the Polish PAP news agency.

On Saturday, Andzelika Borys, leader of the Warsaw-backed "unofficial" Union of Poles in Belarus, met in Minsk with Hans-Gert Poettering, former president of the European Parliament, and Jacek Protasiewicz, chairman of the European Parliament`s Delegation for Relations with Belarus. Mr. Protasiewicz, a Polish MEP, said that the EP might adopt a resolution on the Belarusian authorities` treatment of the Polish minority. //BelaPAN