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  • Poland Concerned Over Georgia

    POLAND CONCERNED OVER GEORGIA

    Poland.pl
    2008-08-11, 12:24

    The armed clash between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia
    has alarmed Polish authorities and public opinion alike. Besides
    declarations of sympathy and solidarity with Georgia, Poland and
    its people are undertaking concrete steps to defuse the conflict and
    render assistance to the victims of the aggression.

    Following a series of wide consultations with government and foreign
    partners over the weekend Polish president Lech Kaczynski has sent
    a special envoy to Tbilisi to present a detailed peace plan he has
    discussed with his Lithuanian and Ukrainian opposite numbers. Just
    before departure for the Georgian capital Piotr Kownacki, who is
    the deputy head of the Presidential Chancellary, told reporters that
    the primary intention of this international initiative is bringing
    true peacekeeping forces into Georgia: 'It's grotesque and ironic
    in the present situation that it is the Russian forces which are the
    peacekeepers there. In the face of Russian aggression against Georgia
    this simply cannot be continued. The plan envisages international
    presence under European Union auspices.'

    While in Tbilisi, the Polish envoy is to meet with Georgian president
    Saakashvili and that country's foreign minister and possibly with the
    French head of diplomacy who has a similar mission both in Tbilisi
    and Moscow.

    Mariusz Handzlik, another official of the Presidential Chancellary in
    Warsaw, added that the presidents of Poland and other Baltic states
    have not excluded visiting Georgia should such need arise from the
    nearest developments.

    Meanwhile, a group of 96 people have been evacuated from conflict
    threatened Tbilisi by bus to Erevan in neighboring Armenia and then
    transported on board a Polish government plane. Landing in Warsaw
    early Monday morning, they told reporters at the airport: 'Each
    person received an SMS with the time and place of evacuation... I
    have a French passport, so I went to the French embassy. They told
    me to come the next day... Now I'm calm, I'm home... I'm here, but
    my family is still there.'

    The group comprised mostly Poles, but it also included 8 Czechs
    and two other nationals. They all praised the exemplary manner in
    which Polish consular services in Tbilisi handled the situation:
    'The Polish embassy did a really fine job. It extended help not only
    to Polish citizens, but to all who asked for assistance regardless
    whether they were Czech, French, German or other European nationals.'

    The Polish government plane is departing on two more evacuation
    missions to the region still on Monday.

    Polish Red Cross (PCK) representatives were waiting for the evacuees
    from Georgia ready to help the tormented people, Marcin Rudnicki told
    our Radio Information Agency reporter: 'The Red Cross in Poland has
    considerable experience in such actions, to recall the evacuation
    of Polish citizens from Lebanon two years ago. We have pledged all
    necessary medical and psychological assistance fro those returning
    from Georgia. We are ready to work with state administration services
    as well as the interior and foreign ministries in this operation.'

    The Polish Humanitarian Organization (PAH) was also quick to react.

    Its leader Janina Ochojska says the famous Polish NGO with 7 years
    of experience in Chechnya will be targetting - on the spot - all
    those who need help in South Ossetia: 'We are preparing to assist
    Georgian citizens and that means Georgians and Ossetians, because
    we're thinking about both sides of the conflict. I'm still hoping
    for a stop to the war actions so that the help needed will be limited
    to organizing their return home and clearing the destruction. I wish
    for that very much. We'll be following the developments there.'

    Not only organizations in Poland have been responding to the tragedy
    of the military conflict in Georgia. Individual gestures of sympathy
    for the Georgian cause have been manifested by Poles in front of
    the Embassy of the Republic of Georgia in Warsaw. Participants of a
    rally have written a letter of support and handed it to the diplomatic
    officials: 'We want to encourage Georgians not to surrender. The world
    shares their grief. Even if not all politicians have voiced support, or
    have given too little of it, we are strongly with the Georgian people.'

    In response to the letter of support the Georgian embassy in Warsaw
    has stated that the Russian attack is an attempt at punishing the
    country for its western oriented and pro-Atlantic aspirations.
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