The Essay on the March of Hate
My good Jewish friend has called me from Canada:
“Mr. Pazniak, you are constantly defending the Polish people. Well, look now how the Polish fascism is dancing on the Belarusian bones in Hajnowka. Look at the Internet, your Svaboda is showing this”.
I have looked at the Internet. I didn’t find any fascism, but the show was regretful. I’d say it’s extraordinary for XXth century and for an EU country. The point is that February 24, this year the Polish chauvinists have carried on a march to commemorate the Polish organizer of the genocide of the Belarusian population in Bialystok region Romuald Rajs (alias “Bury”), the chief of the Armia Krajowa (Home Army) detachment. They have presented him as a hero and a fighter against the communism. By his order the members the Armia Krajowa burned the Belarusian villages with the inhabitants in the Bialystok region in 1946. They killed the small children, required that the Belarusian population escaped on the other shore of the river Bug, shoot the persons in accordance with their nationality and religion. The Polish Institute of the National Memory has qualified these actions as the killings defined as the genocide.
The march of hate in Hajnowka is shocking. It is a cynical and immoral action. Its participants have chosen a criminal motto We Don’t Care About the Grief of Others as a slogan of their behavior. They came to glorify a killer to the region where are the tombs of his victims and live the witnesses of the tragedy.
Such behavior is deeply immoral and is provoking the hate. The administration of any democratic country would institute proceedings against the organizers of such march of hate. But the state administration doesn’t react. This fact raises considerations.
The members of the organization Citizens of RP have saved the Polish honour to some extent. They have created a sensitive and intelligent video clip in Belarusian language and come to Hajnowka to support the victims. And what we have seen? The police surrounded a small group of these activists which have come to support the Belarusian people in this region of Poland. The police forces have opened the road to the chauvinists. But the more notable action took place after the column of the pseudo-fighters in stylized military uniforms had walked away. Without any reason the police begun to grasp the protesters against the chauvinist march and pull them to the police cars. Moreover, the police acted mostly against the women. All this reminded me of the Lukashenka regime.
It is no doubt on which side is the state power (by the way, the administration could forbid this march of hate). Nevertheless, the human blood is not water. This event is a disturbing message for all the Belarusians. The Polish state power should explain this situation.
The Belarusian journalists have asked some Polish intellectuals about the glorification of the acts of genocide carried on by Rajs. Their answers were shocking. It seems, these persons are not educated. They do not know the elementary norms of the jurisprudence. They have said that Rajs had fought against the communism and that he had done not only the bad things, but good things as well. This is XXth century. The chauvinism always made stupid.
The criminal is on trial for his criminal act. It is no provision made for the fact that he has made some good things as well. Hitler has fought against the communism as well. The talented producer, who has created the works of art, is on trial because he had raped the minors. Any merits could not save him of the responsibility before the Law for his criminal acts, moreover for his criminal acts against the humanity.
Recently Poland has complicated relations with all its neighbours, even with the EU. Poland has good relations only with Belarus – with Belarus which represents an alternative to the Lukashenka regime. Probably, the marches of hate are intended to get rid of this friend in the East. And, well, that’s when Russia will remain the unique friend. This seems a paradox, but the history has many paradoxes.
Matter of fact, the repentance is the unique road to put out of the hate against the humanity. It is necessary to repent and to draw the line. The Germans are the unique nation which has made this. Their country was annihilated, destroyed and humiliated. After the war Germany was forced to pay the colossal reparations for generations. Well, as a result the God has compensated so generously their sincere repentance.
Zianon PAZNIAK
Chairman of the Conservative Christian Party – BPF and
The Belarusian People’s Front “Adradzhennie”,
Chairman of the parliamentary Opposition of the Belarusian People’s Front
in the Supreme Soviet of Belarus of 12th convocation
February 26, 2018