On January 14, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met with the President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki. This was the first bilateral meeting in Warsaw since Mr. Nawrocki was elected; previously, the leaders had met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya thanked President Nawrocki and Poland for their support for Belarus and the Belarusian people, for their consistent and principled position, for providing aid to released political prisoners and those subjected to repression, as well as for backing the democratic movement. She noted that the Belarusian issue in Poland unites both the government and the opposition, as well as all political parties. Ms. Tsikhanouskaya outlined the priorities of the democratic forces, both abroad and inside the country.
Karol Nawrocki and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya discussed the releases of political prisoners, the situation of Andrzej Poczobut, relations with the US administration, and regional security. Ms. Tsikhanouskaya expressed hope that the releases would continue and that Poland would continue to provide the necessary support to those released, as it has done throughout the year, including with legal documents and assistance with residency issues. She thanked Poland for continuing to receive Belarusians facing persecution at home.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya proposed several joint initiatives to President Nawrocki in support of the Belarusian community in Poland, in the areas of historical heritage, culture, and literature. She invited him to take part in Belarusian festivals and amateur sports competitions organized by Belarusians, and suggested involving Belarus in regional-format initiatives such as the Lublin Triangle.
She presented the President with the draft Concept for the Establishment of the Institute of National Remembrance of Belarus, developed by the democratic forces. The Institute would help people learn the truth about repression during the Soviet period and in recent years through access to archives and testimonies, and would also help the state cleanse its bureaucratic system of flawed practices inherited from the past. Ms. Tsikhanouskaya noted that the democratic forces are working on the New Belarus Vision, developing reform packages, and drawing, among other things, on the experience of Poland’s transformation.
In conclusion, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya presented President Nawrocki with a set of books by Sergiusz Piasecki translated into Belarusian. Piasecki, one of Nawrocki’s favorite writers, was born in the territory of present-day Belarus, was a dissident, and wrote about the lives of Belarusians and Poles in the interwar period, as well as about Belarusian and Polish resistance to Soviet occupation.
Also on January 14, a meeting with the Belarusian democratic community took place at the Belvedere Palace. More than 150 people attended, including journalists, bloggers, cultural figures, human rights defenders, politicians, actors and musicians, and athletes.
