THE RIGHTS OF POLISH PEOPLE IN LITHUANIA ARE BEING RESTRICTED

All the major Lithuanian media suddenly began to quote the words that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Radosław Sikorski had uttered last week in Polish Senate. Sikorski presented the senators with data regarding the ways of providing protection for the Polish diaspora and Polish people living abroad, promoting the country, financial cooperation between countries in which Polish immigrants live, and promoting returns to the homeland. Sikorski stressed vast differences in the situations of Polish people abroad, and touched upon the problems which Poles in Lithuania and Belarus struggle with.

Lithuanian media particularly emphasize Sikorski’s statement that ‘in Lithuania these rights, which could be almost sufficient, are nonetheless being restricted.’

‘It appears, however, that Lithuanian media were particularly offended by how the situation of Polish minority in Lithuania was equated with the situation in Belarus. Sikorski remarked upon the situation of Poles in Lithuania and Belarus thusly: ‘[The Polish] in both countries have a minority status, and similarly formulated set of rights. In Lithuania the scope of these rights is almost sufficient, however they are gradually being restricted; whereas in Blearus they were never enforced to begin with.’

Lithuanian journalists also took note of minister Sikorski’s objections towards the situation of  Polish people in Germany, where they “struggle, among other things, with the issue of ethnic minority status and the disproportion between the treatment afforded to the Polish by German government and how Poland treats its own German minority.’

Sikorski also pointed out the vast differences in treatment of Polish people abroad, e. g. when it comes to education. ‘On the one hand we have, for instance, the Swedish model in which, if there are five willing parents, it is enough for the community which they live in to organise the teaching of their native language; conversely, we have the Belarusian model, where teaching the language of a minority numbering hunderds of thousands, such as the Polish, is restricted and the language itself gradually removed from two Polish schools.’

In his speech, Radosław Sikorski discussed not only the actions undertaken by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but also those of the resorts of national and higher education, social work and politics, culture and national heritage, industry, and tourism and sport. He revealed that in 2011 the ministries had spent 169 million PLN on various undertakings for the benefit of Polish people abroad. According to Sikorski the funds spent on Polish people abroad ‘are not great, considering the number of our compatriots living in foreign countries but hey are not small considering the capacity of our budget.’

Sikorski stressed that the essence of relationships with Polish diaspora should be cooperation rather than protection. ‘Protection should be reserved for situations when our compatriots are unable to exact their due rights and for cooperating with meritorious independence movements,’ he explained.

http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/na-litwie-prawa-polakow-sa-uszczuplane 

Tłumaczenie Andrzej Rola w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Andrzej Rola within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.