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  • Writer's pictureHanna Sähka

FOX NEWS: Poland has a lot of evidence, but what are the real intentions of Belorussian government?

Author: Dominykas Dilys

THE PHOTO IS ILLUSTRATIVE Migrants at the Polish-Belarussian border: seratuslinkas.blogspot.com


After the 2020 presidential election, in which Lukashenko won by an enormous 80%, the EU suspected that the election was rigged and imposed sanctions on Belarus. In 2021, Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko opened the borders of Belarus for immigrants from the Middle East and retaliated by flooding neighboring countries, especially Poland, with migrants.


Belarus is now taking Poland to the ICJ because according to Belarussian government, Polish authorities committed crimes by treating migrants badly.


In the court there were seven delegations with each representing a specific country. Belarus was prosecuting and Poland was defending. In the questioning part there were delegations from Somalia, United States, Morocco, Lebanon and France.


The first part was Poland and Belarus each giving their arguments and denying each other’s statements. First topic that was discussed was Belarus' involvement in helping migrants reach the Polish border. Poland clearly accused Belarus of violating international border laws, but the prosecution team denied everything and stated that Poland could not build a border fence, because that’s illegal and violates EU laws.


Belarus censorship problems were also discussed and Poland openly called Lukashenko ,,the last dictator of Europe”. Belarus defended themselves by stating that the journalist Roman Protasevich, who was one of the opposition leaders, was a threat to the government and needed to be arrested. In the closing statements, Belarus called Poland “an unfriendly country” and stated that by placing sanctions, the Polish government wanted to make Belarus and her people suffer. Poland said that Belarus violated international law by hijacking a plane with Roman Protasevich and arresting him at the airport and thus Lukashenko committed an act of terrorism.


Then the five deliberating countries questioned Polish and Belarussian delegations. Majority of questions were about Belarussian government’s involvement in helping the migrants storm EU borders. Belarus justified this by saying that involvement was minimal and they only wanted to help migrants get to Europe and reach a better quality of life.


Russia’s involvement was also questioned, Belarus clearly stated that Russia and Belarus are two different nations with separate governments and Russia’s involvement was little to none. Also when asked about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, Belarus said they believe the official outcome and no credible evidence was brought that showed the illegitimacy of Lukashenko's outstanding victory.

Questioning from the United States delegation sounded like an interrogation, probing to find the truth. When asked about the casualties at the border, each side gave different data. Poland said that exactly 12 people died and 90 were injured. But according to Belarus, there were only “a couple of deaths and injuries”.


When asked about why Polish authorities used violence on the fleeing refugees, Poland replied that migrants didn’t have any visas and tried to cross the border illegally. Therefore, they had no choice but to use force to protect the country. There were also a few questions about why Belarus didn’t consult with the EU before taking actions. In response the Belorussian delegates claimed that because of sanctions put in place by the EU, Belarus couldn’t make contact with Europe.


Near the end of the committee sessions, Belarus was presented with evidence contradicting almost all of their previous statements, but Belarus stated that the evidence was ,,insufficient’’ and that Belarus’ intentions were good from the beginning.


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