The situation of Poles in Belarus is deteriorating. Following the seizure by the state authorities of the Grodno headquarters of the Association of Poles in Belarus and the arrest of the activists and Polish and Belarusian journalists that were present there on 27 July, this week consecutive members of the Association’s authorities were placed under arrest.

Last Wednesday, (27 July) Jozef Porzycki, the vice-president of the Association of Poles in Belarus, Andrzej Poczobutt, an associated journalist, and Mieczys³aw Jaskiewicz, the head of the municipal circle of the Association in Grodno, were taken into custody. They were punished for organizing the presumably illegal picket of 3 July 2005. They were joined this week by Tadeusz Gawin, the former chairman of the Association of Poles in Belarus (the cause was not stated), Wieslaw Kiewlak, Angelika Borys’s deputy (the cause was his meeting with the speaker of the Polish Sejm, Donald Tusk) and Andrzej Pisalnik, the editor-in-chief of “Glos znad Niemna”.

Only the Association’s chairwoman, Angelika Borys, remains at liberty, but she continues to be summoned for questioning by the prosecutor’s office. In addition to this, she is also being interrogated by the police, because Tadeusz Kruczkowski has testified against her for illegally appointing Andrzej Pisalnik the head of “Glos znad Niemna”, and then illegally publishing the paper.

The Belarusian state authorities have refused to recognize the elections for the Association authorities, which were held in March 2005. According to their orders, the former head of the Association, Tadeusz Kruczkowski, wants to organize a renewed convention, which would elect different authorities. Angelika Borys has appealed to Poles residing in Belarus to boycott this convention.