Over dozen Polish memorial sites destroyed by Belarus’ authorities – Polish foreign ministry

October 29, BPN. As of October 28, Belarusian authorities sanctioned the destruction of at least 13 Polish memorial sites, including war graves and monuments, Anna Kostrzewa-Misztal of the Polish foreign ministry told BPN. 

Such actions display hostility against Poland, she stressed. 

Media outlets started reporting the attacks on Polish soldiers’ graves and memorials in Belarus in June. 

On July 1, the Polish foreign ministry expressed serious concern at the desecration of Polish burial places in Belarus. According to Warsaw, these occurred mainly in the Hrodna region, where “some 550 burial sites exist with remains of Polish soldiers, insurgents fighting for Poland’s independence, defenders of Hrodna.”

However, demolitions of Polish memorial sites continued. On August 25, a Polish military cemetery was bulldozed in another act of vandalism near the village of Surkonty in the Hrodna region. 

On September 13, the graves of four Polish Armija Krajowa soldiers killed in a battle with German troops in 1943, were destroyed near the village of Pliabaniški in the Hrodna district. Local residents installed the cross at the place of soldiers’ deaths in the 1990s.  

As part of decommunization, Poland has been demolishing Soviet monuments, but this does not apply to burial sites.