Gazeta Wyborcza: KGB forced UPB congress delegates in Vaukavysk

29.08.2005.

"Poland does not recognize the new UPB leadership", "Congress orchestrated by Lukashenka" – these are the headlines in the Polish newspaper today that cover the Saturday congress in Vaukavysk.
The Polish newspapers underline that the congress worked under close supervision of the police and Belarusian government officials, without guests from Poland and some of the Union activists, and the new UPB chair was elected according to the order of the official Minsk.
"When delegates were leaving the congress hall, their faces reflected no happiness. Outside the congress building there were several dozens of police officers in plain clothes, who attempted to prevent photographing the congress participants. Even when Lukashenka came here for the harvest festivities, such security measures were not enforced", says the Reczpospolita.
Another large daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza calls the Saturday congress "false" and quotes one of the delegates, who anonymously confessed to the newspaper that he did not want to take part in the congress but was made to by KGB agents.
"Before the congress I received several phone calls a day with threats that unless I did not come to the congress, both my family and I would be eliminated. The atmosphere inside the congress hall is terrible, half of those inside are police", said a UPB congress delegate to the Polish newspaper.