MINSK (Sputnik) – Polish ambassador in Minsk, Artur Michalski, was summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry on 12 March to explain a recent decision of Polish authorities to acquit Polish anti-Communist insurgent Romuald Rajs of war crimes against the Belarusians, Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz said.
“We expect official comments from the Polish authorities on whether this assessment of Bury’s actions is [Poland’s] official position and how it agrees with the steps to build dialogue, including the historic one, that both sides have recently taken. The Polish ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry to give relevant explanations”, Glaz said in a statement.
Romuald Rajs, also known under the nickname “Bury”, was sentenced to death in 1949, charged, in particular, with the mass killing of Polish Belarusians.
On 11 March, Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) published a statement revising the actions of Rajs and saying that the institute’s earlier conclusions on the case were faulty.
The IPN said Rajs “did not intend to destroy the Belarusian community living in Poland within its present borders”.
According to the institute, he was guilty of “creating the situation he could not cope with and as a result of which… the people, who under no circumstances should have suffered, were killed”.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
