Belarus 'trained Afghan and Iraqi veterans' for EU border attacks

Belarus has trained Afghan and Iraqi war veterans to carry out armed attacks on the Polish border, a former regime collaborator has warned.

“The migration crisis is being used by (Belarusian President Alexander) Lukashenko to introduce into the EU territory people who have (military) experience and who have undertaken training on Belarusian territory to carry out terrorist acts,” Pavel Latushka, former Belarusian ambassador to France and Poland and former culture minister, told EUobserver.

He spoke about the escalating clashes between migrants and Polish border guards, which caused international alarm on Monday (November 8th).

"Then, Lukashenko will instigate a local military conflict on the border with the EU and in the meantime sell the world the picture of a humanitarian crisis, for which the Europeans are to blame," Latushka, who fled to Warsaw after joining the pro-democracy movement in Belarus, said.

“This is a form of Nazi-era propaganda,” he said.

The Afghan and Iraqi veterans were selected and sent to Belarus between July and September, he noted.

They were trained at a base near the village of Opsa, in northwestern Belarus, belonging to the Department of Special Active Measures of the Belarusian State Border Committee 'Osam', he added.

The training was conducted with the help of Belarusian special forces from the "Marjina Horka" brigade, which had fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and with advisors from the Russian military intelligence "GRU", Latushka added.

"Iraqi citizens were trained there (Osam base), now they are training Afghans from the territory of Tajikistan, who have combat experience. Of course, it is not dozens of people who are being trained, but units of individuals," he said.

"They are preparing clashes on the Belarus-EU border with the use of weapons," he added.

The role of Russia

Meanwhile, Latushka's mention of Russia's GRU officers at the training camp in Belarus came amid Polish accusations that the Kremlin had orchestrated the border crisis.

"Lukashenko is the contractor, but he has his own director, who is Russian President Vladimir Putin," the country's Prime Minister, Mateusz Moraviecki, told the Polish parliament on Tuesday.

"What is Russia's game? Russia aims to destabilize the EU ... they want an instrument of influence and blackmail against Europe," added Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński.

But for his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the EU should pay Belarus for caring for migrants it has brought from the Middle East if it wanted a break.

"Why, when refugees were coming from Turkey, did the EU provide funding for them to stay in the Turkish republic? Why is it not possible to help Belarusians in the same way?" Lavrov told the press in Moscow, referring to the EU-Turkey agreement on Syrian refugees, a deal worth billions of euros.