Belarusian Foreign Ministry invited the consul of Poland to leave the country

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus invited the Polish consul Jerzy Timofejuk to leave the country because of his participation in the commemoration ceremony for the participants of the anti-communist underground in Poland.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus is going to expel Polish consul in Brest Jerzy Timofeyuk because of his participation in an unofficial event. This is stated in a statement from the department on March 9.

According to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, Timofeyuk took part in an unofficial event in Brest dedicated to the "Day of the Damned Soldiers members of the anti-communist underground in Poland during and after World War II.

The message said, the glorification of war criminals, the cynical justification of the genocide of the Belarusian people, the gross violations of the obligations of the Polish side to prevent the glorification of Nazism are absolutely unacceptable for us.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry recalled the crimes of the cursed soldiers under the command of Romuald Rice, nicknamed Bury, whose detachment killed several dozen Orthodox peasants in eastern Poland.

The diplomats said, by their crimes in the places of compact residence of the Belarusian national minority, the damned soldiers under the command of Romuald Rice have placed themselves on a par with the Nazi punishers. The memory of burnt villages, hundreds of killed and maimed civilians is sacred for our country. Both Belarus and Poland paid a colossal the price for the survival of their peoples in that terrible war.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said, by participating in this event, the Polish representative grossly violated the norms of international law, in particular the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

In the winter of 1946, Rice's department burned down five villages near the Polish town of Belsk Podlaski, where the majority of the population was Orthodox Belarusians. The Investigation Department of the Institute of National Memory of Poland, which investigated the burning case, claims that 79 people were killed, Belsat TV reported.

According to members of the public committee of the families of the victims, the number of those killed is three times higher. The Institute conferred genocide status on this crime. In 2005, the investigation was closed.