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OSCE head vows diplomatic effort to help Poles in Belarus: official

21.04.2021 08:05
The head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has told Poland's president that the body will use all available diplomatic means to help Poles in Belarus, a top aide to the head of state has said.
Audio
OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid.
OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański

OSCE Secretary-General Helga Schmid held talks with President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw on Tuesday on issues including Belarus, where several leaders of the Polish ethnic minority were detained last month.

"The OSCE secretary-general said that the OSCE would use all available diplomatic means to improve the situation of Poles in Belarus," said Krzysztof Szczerski, a senior aide to Duda and the head of a new International Policy Office in Poland.

Szczerski added: "The president emphasized that the situation is not improving and repression against the Polish minority is worsening."

The European Commission last month called on the Belarusian authorities to free and drop all charges against several leaders of the Polish ethnic minority in that country.

The EU executive said the detained members of the Association of Poles in Belarus, including Andżelika Borys and Andrzej Poczobut, should be released immediately and unconditionally.

(pk/gs)

Source: PAP

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