Eliza Olczyk, “Wprost”: President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the Ukrainian ambassador appear during celebrations for this year’s anniversary of the Volhynian massacre. “We want graves that are correct and well-maintained,” the president said. The Imam has been fighting for this for years, why the bitterness in the Imam’s comments after this celebration?

Fr. Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski: For 30 years, events in Volhynia were surrounded by a conspiracy of silence. Repeatedly politicians of various options promised to bury the victims and to no avail. Ukraine has been on the world map as a free nation for 31 years, Poland has been independent again for 33 years, and only a few burials have occurred during that time. Most of the victims are still in the anonymous death pit. There were no excavations, because for several years Ukraine was forbidden to bury not only victims of this genocide, but even Polish soldiers from the First and Second World Wars.

It is very painful for the family that Ukraine has imposed such a ban. Poland has supported Ukraine for 30 years, and still has not won approval on such an important issue. I believe that if one gives and gives a lot, then at least the problem of burying the dead should be solved. As for the current ruling team, a special promise was made by the president in 2015 Andrzej Duda and PiS. But for seven years this burial did not take place. That’s why I’m not satisfied with the next President’s promise, because so far he hasn’t done anything.