By Alex Gryciuk
Tensions between conflicting nations, Belarus and Poland, have been brewing during the past few months. Tensions started when the EU, which Poland is a part of, imposed sanctions on Belarus for misconduct within their government. Claiming that the president acts under a dictatorship, the EU created these sanctions because the country was “identified as responsible for repression and intimidation against peaceful demonstrators, opposition members, and journalists in the wake of the 2020 election”. In other words, the EU placed sanctions on Belarus for the falsification of the Presidential Election winner Alyaksander Lukashenka and the government’s terrible actions. In 2020, police faked a bomb-threat to arrest journalist Roman Proasevich, a Polish-based journalist that was a strong opponent of the Belarusian President. In addition, Lukashenka allegedly falsified his election results, saying that he won 80% of the vote. In response to a rigged election, peaceful protests were made against the results of the Belarusian government. To fight protests, Lunkashenka sent a massive police force that arrested 35,000 protestors, beating many. Lunkashenka’s orders as dictator are not a new occurrence, but rather a continuation of past actions. In the past five of his terms, the dictator has falsified elections and cruelty repressed protests. Following the EU, more countries like the UK and United States had imposed stronger sanctions on Belarus.
In retaliation to sanctions, Belarus sent, and continues to send, Afghan migrants seeking asylum to Polish Borders. In fact, Lithuanian and European officials state that Lukashenka organizes migrant flows by flying migrants in from other countries and sending them towards the EU as a form of hybrid warfare and destabilizing the country. The EU sees the migrant flows from Belarus as a threat because of large migrant conflicts caused by huge surges of Syrian refugees in the EU. The conflict in 2015 created huge political and social conflicts. In order to protect political and social stability, Poland declared a state of emergency at the border, built a barbed fence, and sent military forces to protect the border. New emergency declaration resulted in stranded migrants that have limited humanitarian help and military standoffs at the border.
Contributing to rising tensions, Poland recently granted a humanitarian visa to Belarusian Sprinter, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya. During the Olympics, the athlete was placed in the 4x400m Olympic event by her coaches. But, when she refused to run the race, having never trained for it, her coaches barred her from competing in the 200m race and tried to force her flight home. Tsimoanouskaya never got on the plane after showing criticism to the team and her country for their unorganized actions in the Olympics. She feared coming home to her country because of insinuated punishment from the Belarusian government, similar to the form of punishment given to journalists that spoke out. Leaving Tokyo, the athlete and her family now find themselves in Poland. In retaliation to Polish support, Belarus sent even more migrants over to the border of Poland under the logic that if they can take a Belarusian, Poland can take migrants seeking refuge too.
In all, the conflict seems to only get worse as time goes on. As migrants “pile-up” at the border and military efforts rise, we can only hope that tensions deescalate soon.