Polish-language press seized from leaders of Union of Poles of Belarus

Leaders of the Union of Poles of Belarus Mieczyslaw Jaskiewicz, Ihar Bantsar, Andrzej Pisalnik, and Andrzej Poczobut had to spend three hours at a militia station in Shchuchyn.

Militia officers confiscated Glos znad Niemna na uchodzstwie newspaper and Magazyn Polski, printed by the Union of Poles of Belarus headed by Andżelika Borys, Radio Svaboda reports.

A report of seizure was drawn up. Militiamen said the activists had been detained as militia had received information they were carrying anti-state materials. The department on ideology of the Shchuchyn district executive committee would check the newspaper and the magazine, journalist of Gazeta Wyborcza Andrzej Poczobut said. He also told the militia officers tried to hinder them to get to Ivyanets for a session of the local UPB branch.

Poczobut thinks the authorities began to press on activists of the Union of Poles to persuade them into participation in a session of the pro-governmental union of Poles led by Iosif Lucznik scheduled for September.

The UPB leaders were detained on Hrodna-Minsk road near Shchuchyn at 4:30 p.m. June 23.