God Honour, Fatherland!

"We are heating Europe, and they are threatening to close the border."

"What if we cut gas to them? Therefore I recommend that the leaders of Poland, Lithuania and others who have lost their heads think before speaking."

"We should not stop at anything to defend our sovereignty and independence."

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko

 

"As  perceived by the other side ... since we have to act on almost two fronts -- to secure both the Independence March and the border -- it could mean that we'll be weak somewhere."

Bartosz Grodeck, Polish deputy interior minister

Thousands of people are stranded in freezing conditions at the Belarusian-Polish border   EPA

 

Migrants from the Middle East, from Afghanistan, from Africa keep turning up at the Belarus-Polish border, the frontier of the European Union. Thousands were stranded last night along the Polish border, coping with freezing weather and while their position is fragile, more migrants continue to arrive in Minsk on their way to the EU border. Their wishes to become citizens of the European Union has the full approval of the Belarusian president, who goes out of his way to accommodate them.

They have, in fact, in their migrant plight, become a human asset to Mr. Lukashenko in his "hybrid war" against the EU and his closest neighbours. Payback, if you will, for their sanctions against his regime. Their chickens coming home to roost for their malicious condemnation of his 're-election' to the presidency of  his country, re-installing him as its resident tyrant. And nor has his treatment of Belarusian protesters gained him any support in the EU. 

The stand-off at the Poland-Belarus border continues, as concerns of potential violence intensify.

 

And so the stalemate plays out vulnerable human beings the movable, dispensable pieces in this game of one-upsmanship. Just as Russia punished Ukraine and the EU for years with its erratic winter deliveries of gas at critical seasons to deliver the message of their need to treat Russia with a modicum of care and respect not sanctions over Crimea, now Belarus is playing from the same songbook. 

Fifteen thousand Polish troops have been stationed at the frontier, and the Polish government has closed a key border crossing. Social media have been showing videos of large crowds gathered in Minsk with sleeping bags and backpacks. Tens of thousands of migrants arrived in the Belarusian capital, flown in from countries like Iraq, Syria and Yemen. And Lukashenko arranges for them to be bused to the Polish border.

"Lukashenko is responsible for this suffering. He abuses people to put the EU under pressure", stated Heiko Maas, foreign minister of Germany. And according to the European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, there will be a widening of sanctions on the Belarusian regime for Minsk's "cynical geopolitical power play" fuelling the migrant crisis.

 

Members of far-right groups light flares as they try to dominate the annual Independence Day march in Warsaw, Poland, on November 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

 

And in celebration of Poland's Independence Day, far-right marchers strutted through the streets of Warsaw, defying a court order banning the march ... raising their arms in fascist salutes, shouting "Pure Poland, white Poland" and "Refugees, get out!" along with imprecations against the LGBTQ crowd, Jews, and any other  groups they could muster contempt against. Spurred on, no doubt, by government ministers who spoke of imminent "attacks" on the country's border with Belarus.

Police officers take position as they clash with demonstrators during a march marking the National Independence Day in Warsaw, Poland November 11, 2020. The sign reads: "God, Honour, Fatherland". Slawomir Kaminski/Agencja