On Thursday morning, a group of people, allegedly on the order of the Belarus government, began leveling a cemetery of soldiers from the Polish World War II Home Army in the village of Surkonty.
This claim has been confirmed by Łukasz Jasina, the spokesman of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Local people also informed Belarusian journalist Tadeusz Giczan that police forces started demolishing the cemetery.
The ZPB stated that the whole operation bears a military hallmark with road blocks nearby. Locals outraged at what is happening are being intimidated and threatened with arrest; therefore, photos were not easy to take.
Łukasz Jasina accused the officials of the Lukashenko government of devastating the Polish cemetery. “Those who think that the memory of heroes can be eradicated are very wrong. The regime will pay for these acts of barbarism,” he wrote on Twitter.
The military cemetery in Surkonty is the place of burial of 35 Home Army soldiers, including their commanding officer who fought against the Soviet NKVD units in 1944.
In July, ZPB stated that the Belarusian authorities had destroyed the grave of the Home Army soldiers in another location.
Earlier in the Grodno region, 22 graves of Polish servicemen had been destroyed by the Belarusians as well.
