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Poland Uses Water Cannons and Tear Gas as Tensions Rise at Belarus Border Melee Erupts Between Migrants in Belarus and Polish Border Forces
(about 4 hours later)
BRUZGI, Belarus — The tense standoff on the border between Poland and Belarus descended into a dangerous melee on Tuesday morning when Polish border guards used water cannons and tear gas to repel what they said was an attempt by migrants to breach the heavily guarded frontier. BRUZGI, Belarus — He has spent 28 nights, each colder than the one before, choking on campfire smoke and despair on Europe’s doorstep. He made it across the razor wire into Poland three times, only to be grabbed in the forest and forced back into Belarus. His visa for Belarus expired 12 days ago, leaving him at the mercy of a repressive police state.
The use of water cannons and tear gas on Tuesday only added to the brutal conditions in the increasingly desperate situation for the migrants stranded on the border. On Tuesday, Rawand Akram snapped.
Tensions have been building along the European Union’s eastern front for weeks as thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, have flown to Belarus in the hope of finding a path into the bloc. The E.U. member states that share a border with Belarus — Latvia, Lithuania and Poland — have accused the government of Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the Belarus leader, of orchestrating what they say is a “hybrid attack” using human beings as weapons. He and hundreds of other desperate and increasingly angry migrants, marooned at the border — and egged on, he said, by Belarusian security officials — stampeded toward a frontier checkpoint, hurling stones and debris at Polish security forces massed just a few yards away. What began around noon as just another attempt to breach the border fence spiraled into a dangerous melee, and Polish officers responded with volleys from water cannons and blasts of tear gas.
After several nights of tense standoffs, tensions flared on Tuesday morning. “I am angry. Everyone is angry. This is the last thing we could do. There is no other solution if we ever want to get to Europe,” Mr. Akram said.
The Polish authorities, in a series of Twitter messages, said that border guards at the border crossing between Bruzgi and Kuznica in Poland had been assaulted by people throwing “stones, bottles and logs” and firing “stun grenades.” Hours later, Belarus border guards suddenly began moving hundreds of migrants from their frozen encampment to the shelter of a nearby warehouse. It was not immediately clear what plans the authorities had for those they were moving, but many feared that the relocation was a prelude to deportation, not just a humane gesture.
“The entire aggressive behavior is coordinated by Belarusian services and monitored by drones,” the Polish authorities said, posting videos of the confrontations. “As a result of an attack by people inspired by the Belarusian side, one of the policemen was seriously injured.” Tuesday’s clash, the worst in a monthslong standoff on the European Union’s eastern flank, underscored the perils of a standoff between Belarus, a close ally of Russia, and Poland, a member of NATO and the European Union, each determined not to bend. At least 11 people have died at the border in recent weeks.
The officer was being treated at a hospital for what was believed to be a skull fracture, the authorities said. “We are just a stick that they are beating each other with,” said Mr. Akram. “We are in the middle of their fight.”
Since the Polish government has banned journalists from reporting at the border, it was impossible to verify the authorities’ claims or the veracity of the scores of videos that appeared on social media purporting to show snippets of the confrontation. He said Belarusian security officers had instigated the melee by telling migrants marooned in a fetid, frozen encampment just yards from Poland that Warsaw’s hard-line nationalist government would never let them enter unless forced to do so.
And the Polish government has come under criticism from humanitarian organizations for a legal amendment it passed in October that allows migrants to be pushed back at the border and for asylum claims made by those who entered illegally to be ignored. But he also blamed Poland for putting its determination to resist pressure from Belarus’ authoritarian leader, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, ahead of the lives of desperate people.
Late Tuesday, Belarus border guards began moving hundreds of migrants from the fetid and frozen encampment on the border with Poland, and to the shelter of a nearby warehouse. It was not immediately clear what plans the Belarus authorities had for the migrants they were moving. “Nobody wants to look weak,” he said. “We have become a ball kicked about in their big political game.”
Some of the migrants heading for the warehouse seemed to be giving up. E.U. officials have called the crisis a “hybrid war” engineered by Mr. Lukashenko to punish Poland for sheltering some of his most outspoken opponents and pressure the bloc into lifting sanctions on his country. Belarus insists, for its part, that it is a humanitarian catastrophe created by Europe’s refusal to abide by international law and give people fleeing war and despair the right to at least apply for asylum.
Bilal, 23, a migrant from Iraq who would only provide his first name: “It is too impossible to get to Europe, we want to go home.” To give some credence to its own version of events, Belarus has allowed a few foreign news organizations, including The New York Times, to visit the border and witness the squalor and desperation. Poland, eager to keep despair out of the public eye, has sealed off its own side of the border, barring aid workers, journalists and even doctors from getting within miles of the scene of Tuesday’s troubles.
But as night fell, hundreds of people could still be seen in the open in the area near the border crossing, preparing for another freezing night. Instead, Warsaw has left it to government officials to describe events and blame Belarus for all the suffering. “The entire aggressive behavior is coordinated by Belarusian services and monitored by drones,” the Polish authorities said, posting videos of the confrontations. They said a police officer was seriously injured and was being treated at a hospital for what was believed to be a skull fracture.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia on Tuesday called the actions of Polish forces “absolutely unacceptable,” at a news conference. Mr. Lavrov said that the forces “violate all conceivable norms of international humanitarian law and other agreements of the international community.” A migrant on the Belarusian side lost consciousness, apparently after being hit by a blast from a Polish water cannon, four of which are lined up by a closed border checkpoint decorated with emblems of the European Union and Poland.
Moscow has stood steadfastly by Belarus as international condemnation has mounted. Poland’s tough stance — “we are not talking about a humanitarian crisis but a threat,” the head of the National Security Bureau said over the weekend — has won strong support from its allies. The European Union decided on Monday to expand sanctions imposed on Belarus earlier this year, after Mr. Lukashenko’s military forced down a passenger plane carrying a prominent dissident.
Warsaw’s hard line has also played well at home, particularly among supporters of Poland’s governing party, Law and Justice. The Polish national bank announced this week that it would issue new commemorative coins and notes to honor “the defense of the Polish eastern border.”
But the Polish government has come under criticism from humanitarian organizations for a legal amendment it passed in October that allows migrants to be pushed back at the border and for asylum claims made by those who entered illegally to be ignored.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia on Tuesday called Polish forces’ treatment of migrants “absolutely unacceptable,” at a news conference. Mr. Lavrov said that the forces “violate all conceivable norms of international humanitarian law and other agreements of the international community.”
Belarusian authorities have silenced nearly all independent voices since a contested presidential election last year that was widely viewed as rigged. But they have become more open to scrutiny at the border than Poland, a democracy with a vibrant media, now blindfolded in the border zone.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, said on Tuesday that the alliance is “deeply concerned about the way the Lukashenko regime is using vulnerable migrants as a hybrid tactic against other countries, and this is actually putting the life of the migrants at risk.”Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, said on Tuesday that the alliance is “deeply concerned about the way the Lukashenko regime is using vulnerable migrants as a hybrid tactic against other countries, and this is actually putting the life of the migrants at risk.”
There are limits, however, to how far Mr. Lukashenko can ratchet up tensions and even some signs that he may be trying to dial them down. The flow of migrants is slowing as airlines either halt flights to Minsk, the Belarusian capital, or ban Iraqi and Syrian passengers.
In Minsk early Tuesday, scores of migrants were still staying at the Yubileiny Hotel, operated by the president’s property department, but some said they had been forced to check out and feared expulsion.
The Lukashenko government has denied allegations, including from the United States, that it has engineered the crisis and is directing the movement of the migrants.The Lukashenko government has denied allegations, including from the United States, that it has engineered the crisis and is directing the movement of the migrants.
“We cannot let this so-called problem lead to heated confrontation,” Mr. Lukashenko told a government meeting on Tuesday, according to Belta, the state news agency.“We cannot let this so-called problem lead to heated confrontation,” Mr. Lukashenko told a government meeting on Tuesday, according to Belta, the state news agency.
“The main thing now is to protect our country and our people, and not to allow clashes,” he added. Belarus said it was investigating the actions of the Polish border guards. “The main thing now is to protect our country and our people, and not to allow clashes,” he added. Belarus said it was investigating the actions of Polish border guards but avoided its previous belligerent talk of an imminent attack by NATO.
Tuesday’s skirmish took place at a crossing that had until recently been a busy and vital link between Europe and Belarus. The Iraqi government is organizing an evacuation flight for later this week from Minsk back to Iraq.
But the site has been transformed as government helicopters and drones circle high above a maze of barbed wire and concrete walls. “I would rather die here in the cold than go back to Iraq,” said Rekar Hamid, a 32-year-old Iraqi Kurd who spent around $10,000 to get himself, his wife and two-year-old son to the edge of the E.U. and still hopes to make it the last few yards. He sleeps in a flimsy green tent beside the road to the border checkpoint. Behind it sprawls an apocalyptic vista of campfires and shivering people in filthy clothes.
Trapped between armed soldiers from Poland and Belarus, some migrants struggling to keep warm in makeshift shelters were suspicious of the offer of a warm place to sleep by the Belarusian authorities. Belarus’s border guards estimates that there are at least 2,000 people stranded in the Bruzgi area.
Reker Hamid, 32, said it was a ruse to empty the migrant encampment against the border fence and prepare for what he thinks will be a mass deportation to Iraq. Some of those given shelter in a warehouse on Tuesday — reached through a narrow corridor guarded by Belarusian soldiers with automatic weapons — seemed to be giving up.
“I prefer to die here in the cold than go back to Iraq,” he said. Bilal, 23, a migrant from Iraq who would only provide his first name said: “It is too impossible to get to Europe, we want to go home.”
He said he had spent $10,000 dollars, most of it borrowed, to get himself, his wife and 2-year-old son to Europe’s door and was not turning back. Mr. Akram, too, said he had enough, despite having spent $4,700 to get within yards of his goal. With temperatures at night dropping to below freezing, he said he could not face any more days waking up feeling like a mummy trapped in a sleeping bag stiff with ice. “It is finished, all finished,” he said.
Others, cold and hungry, were resigned to failure and ready to go. But as night fell, hundreds of others could still be seen in the open near the border crossing, dragging wooden logs and straw as they prepared for another freezing night.
“It is all over. We stay here and die or give up.” said Diyar Hassan, who has made four unsuccessful attempts to get into Poland.
While the crossing at Bruzgi has been the focus of some of the most intense standoffs, the border between Belarus and Poland stretches some 250 miles and the heartbreaking tales of suffering and loss have been growing by the day as the standoff shows no signs of being resolved.
At least 11 people have died at the border in recent weeks.
The number of migrants at the border started to grow after Belarus eased its visa rules in August. Western leaders say that Mr. Lukashenko — who is facing E.U. sanctions for his brutal crackdown on the political opposition and the forcing down of a Ryanair flight over Belarus to arrest a dissident journalist — is using migrants to gain leverage over the bloc.
Since the migration crisis of 2015, when more than a million migrants and asylum seekers tried to enter the European Union, the bloc has tightened border controls and declared that uncontrolled migration is no longer possible.
But the issue remains potentially explosive, and Poland’s nationalist government, which has been steadily losing support in the polls, has moved to seize the moment.
Poland’s chief central banker, Adam Glapinski — a longtime friend and ally of Poland’s de facto leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski — announced this week that the National Bank of Poland would issue a collectors’ note and coin dedicated to the “defense of the Polish eastern border.”
Mr. Kaczynski recently announced a meeting in Warsaw next month for like-minded right-wing leaders — including Victor Orban of Hungary and Matteo Salvini of Italy — to discuss the future of the European Union and the need for stronger emphasis on national sovereignty and “traditional values.”
The border crisis comes as relations between Brussels and Warsaw have tanked, with the European Union accusing the Polish government of undermining the rule of law and dismantling the independence of the judiciary.
But as the migrant crisis has grown, the bloc has lent its full support to Poland and the other nations on its eastern border.
With Russia lending support to Belarus, the humanitarian crisis unfolding at the border threatens to spiral into a broader regional conflagration. And as colder temperatures begin to grip the region, there are fears of further tragedy among the migrants, with thousands of men, women and children stranded in freezing conditions between the razor wire and border guards.
Andrew Higgins reported from Bruzgi, Belarus and Marc Santora from Warsaw. Anatol Magdziarz contributed reporting from Warsaw and Valerie Hopkins from Moscow.Andrew Higgins reported from Bruzgi, Belarus and Marc Santora from Warsaw. Anatol Magdziarz contributed reporting from Warsaw and Valerie Hopkins from Moscow.