Poland Says Belarus Gunmen Invade Territory
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Poland says it has summoned a high-level Belarusian diplomat over an “intrusion” into Polish territory of “uniformed individuals armed with long guns.”
Polish soldiers noticed three uniformed people with long weapons from neighboring Belarus, confirmed Stanislaw Zaryn, the spokesman for Poland’s security services.
“After meeting a Polish patrol, they reloaded their weapons and then departed towards Belarus,” Zaryn added in published remarks.
Zaryn told said in published remarks that the incident occurred about 300 meters (300 yards) into Poland from the border with Belarus.
However, “It was enough to assume that it was not a mistake,” he stressed.
The foreign ministry spokesman, Lukasz Jasina, explained that the incident took place on the night between Monday and Tuesday.
He said the Belarusian charge d’affaires, Alexander Chesnovsky, was summoned to Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday.
EXPLANATION DEMANDED
At the meeting, a deputy foreign minister, Piotr Wawrzyk, demanded an explanation. He reportedly stressed, “that the actions taken by Belarusian authorities in recent weeks have the increasingly evident hallmarks of a deliberate escalation.”
It comes amid a standoff between European Union member Poland and Belarus over migration.
Poland and Brussels say Belarus encourages illegal migration in retaliation for EU sanctions over Minsk’s poor human rights record.
Last week Poland’s parliament voted to build a 353 million euro ($407 million) anti-migration wall on its border with Belarus to halt an influx of people fleeing war, persecution, and poverty.
The government claims about 500 people are trying to cross into the country illegally from Belarus every day. There were reportedly just 120 in the whole of last year.
Amid the standoff, at least eight asylum seekers so far died along the Belarusian border, often due to exhaustion and hypothermia as winter sets in, according to United Nations sources.
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