(Moscow) The President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko assured Tuesday that he wanted to prevent the migration crisis on the border with Poland, which he is accused of having orchestrated, from degenerating into confrontation with his European neighbors.
In Poland, security forces in the village of Kuznica (east) fired tear gas at migrants throwing stones along the border with Belarus, the Polish Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
“Kuznica: migrants attacked our soldiers and officers with stones and are trying to destroy the fence and cross into Poland,” the ministry tweeted. “Our forces used tear gas to quell the aggression against the migrants.”
After a week of friction, Brussels and Washington announced on Monday that they wanted to expand punitive measures against Minsk, already sanctioned for the relentless repression since 2020 of the opposition, in the coming days.
The Belarusian regime, which the EU accuses of having organized since the summer the influx of thousands of migrants to the borders of Poland and Lithuania in revenge for these sanctions, has however given initial gestures of appeasement.
“The main thing today is to defend our country, our people and avoid clashes,” said the unpredictable Mr. Lukashenko on Tuesday, quoted by the state press agency Belta. “This problem must not turn into a fiery confrontation.”
These statements come the day after an interview with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a success for the Belarusian leader to whom Westerners have refused to speak since his criticized re-election in August 2020.
On the border between Poland and Belarus, more than 2,000 migrants, often from the Middle East, massed in front of the Brouzgui border post (about ten kilometers from Kuznica), spent another night outside in negative temperatures .
Clustered around campfires or bundled up in blankets, they waited in front of the barbed-wire fence that Poland had erected to prevent intrusions, between resignation and hope. In front of them, the Polish forces protected the border in numbers.
“We are tired and at the end of the line,” said a former Iraqi Kurdish truck driver, reached by phone by AFP. He has been stranded for several days at the border with his wife and three children, including an infant.
” De-escalation ” ?
A sign of the dangers that await them, a 19-year-old Syrian, Ahmad al-Hassane, who drowned last month in the border area, was buried on Monday in a cemetery in the tiny Muslim community in Poland.
After a prayer in the wooden mosque in the village of Bohoniki, a handful of witnesses attended the burial of the young migrant – the first in Poland since the start of the migration crisis this summer.
The latter takes place in a context of growing tensions between the Western powers and the Russia of Vladimir Putin in Eastern Europe, in particular around Ukraine and Belarus.
To stem the influx of exiles, which woke up in Brussels the memory of the migration crisis of 2015, European leaders have stepped up consultations.
In parallel with the interview between Mme Merkel and Mr. Lukashenko, French President Emmanuel Macron met Monday with Mr. Putin, godfather of the Belarusian regime, the two leaders saying they wanted “de-escalation”.
French Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune said Tuesday to see “the first signals”, while calling for “very careful”.
Humanitarian aid
It must be said that Mr. Lukashenko is used to blowing hot and cold. Last week, he threatened to cut the transit of Russian gas to Europe in the event of new European sanctions.
“They threaten us with new sanctions, to build a wall five meters high,” Lukashenko said on Tuesday. “If they have nothing else to do, let them do it,” he quipped.
He once again denied that his country favored the arrival of migrants. The day before, he promised to work on their return while underlining the reluctance of those concerned.
On Monday, Belarusian airline Belavia said Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and Yemenis were now banned from flying from Dubai to Belarus. Turkey imposed the same restrictions last week.
Baghdad also announced the organization on Thursday of a first repatriation flight for Iraqi migrants “on a voluntary basis”.
On the ground, many migrants, who have often gone into debt to pay for the trip, say they are determined to stay, despite limited access to food and basic necessities.
The Belarusian Red Cross said it delivered three tons of aid on Tuesday.