POLAND TO HOST RADIO FREE BELARUS.

Belarusan Foreign Ministry officials publicly protested yesterday against Poland’s reported intention to host a Radio Free Belarus. The officials cited Polish press reports that the radio is to be financed by the United States and the European Union and will use the transmitters of Radio Bialystok in eastern Poland. According to those press reports, the prime minister’s senior adviser Jerzy Marek Nowakowski and other Polish officials support the plan. (Russian agencies, July 14)

Poland’s Foreign Ministry had said on the previous day that the nation “feels responsible for maintaining a dialogue with the people of Belarus.” (AP, July 13) Polish Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairman-in-office Bronislaw Geremek has indicated in recent days that the OSCE office in Minsk will maintain contacts with the democratic opposition after the forced departure of Western envoys. Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek stated last week in Washington that Poland “will not close its eyes to oppression in its immediate neighborhood”–an allusion to Belarus. Geremek, Buzek and Nowakowski are veterans of Poland’s Solidarity movement.

FATAL CRASH OF UKRAINIAN AIR FORCE PLANE MARS OTHERWISE SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM.