Interpellation on the Dispersal of the Meeting in Pruzhana

Interpellation by Deputies Yaremich and comrades of the Belarusian Club to the Minister of the Interior concerning the armed dispersal by the police of a report meeting in the town of Pruzhana and the bandit attacks of military settlers on that meeting.

On 6 May of this year a report meeting of the deputies took place in the town of Kartuz-Biaroza, Pruzhana county. The local population was informed there that on 25 May of this year a report congress for Pruzhana county was to be held in the town of Pruzhana, and the Starostwo was also notified of this.

As early as the morning of 25 May one could see groups of military settlers strolling about who had arrived in Pruzhana in order to wreck the meeting.

Representatives of the local population of Pruzhana county, wishing to attend the report meeting of their deputies, came in considerable numbers: more than 2000 delegates from individual villages arrived at the congress. In view of such a number of delegates and the difficulty of finding suitable premises (the police usually harass the owners of premises where the meetings of Belarusian deputies are held), the congress was opened under the open sky. In opening the congress I declared that the settlers, gathered in Pruzhana in large numbers, were intending to wreck this meeting. And indeed, during the first speech, by Deputy Valoshyn, a group of settlers began to whistle and to push through the crowd towards the platform, but the delegates, standing like a wall, did not let the adventurers reach their goal. Then the settlers, breaking up into separate fighting squads of 10 to 15 men each, under the command of men senior in rank who wore red-and-white armbands and cockades, began an organized attack on the participants of the meeting.

They began to beat the people with stones, cudgels and revolver handles. When the Belarusian crowd, thus attacked, was about to subdue the uninvited guests, the military settlers, a mounted police force appeared which, instead of disarming the settlers who were breaching the peace, began to attack the defenseless people and to disperse the participants of the congress, striking with rifle butts on heads, faces and wherever they happened to hit. As a result the congress was dispersed and several persons, participants of the congress, were arrested, among them not a single settler.

After the dispersal of the congress by the police and the organized settlers, I turned to the starosta. Starosta Hel declared to me that it had been known as early as 9 o'clock in the morning that the settlers were to make an attack on the report congress of the Belarusian deputies. Yet the starosta did not warn me of this at 11 o'clock on the day of the congress, when I spoke with the starosta about the meeting that was to take place.

It came out that the settlers had been drawn to Pruzhana for 25 May from three counties, namely Pruzhana, Kosava and Drohichyn, and that the starosta knew well of the intentions of the military settlers.

Thus the administrative authority, instead of ensuring peace and safety for the participants of the congress, was in league with the armed bands of military settlers, helping them to liquidate the congress completely. This incident has finally convinced all participants of the congress and the deputies that the Polish administration in Belarusian lands does not want to ensure the public safety of the Belarusian population when the latter is attacked by Polish settlers, and, on the contrary, that the organs of public safety go hand in hand with the attackers.

On account of the above, the undersigned ask the Minister: 1) Does he intend to suspend Starosta Hel from his duties for his participation in the armed dispersal of the report meeting? and 2) Does he intend to permit organizations of military settlers whose aim is to make attacks on the report meetings of the Belarusian deputies?

Warsaw, 3 June 1924.