19 April 2007
Gorbachev sends letter to Polish Sejm in support of Jaruzelski
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has sent a letter to the Polish parliament, the Sejm, to express support for Wojciech Jaruzelski, a former leader of Poland, who has recently been officially indicted for «a Communist crime».
«Today, after more than a quarter century has passed since the well-known Polish events of 1981, to interpret his role in those extremely difficult times in an utterly biased and even criminal tone is, in my view, nothing but an unseemly attempt to settle political scores», Gorbachev's letter says.
«It is hard to distinguish between such persecutions and an increasing desire to rewrite modern history to take political revenge and create new areas of influence and new separating barriers in Europe», he said.
«Like many Polish people, I know for sure that General and later President Jaruzelski made an indispensable and constructive contribution to advancing political reconciliation and national accord in Poland, the first in Eastern Europe's bloodless transition to democracy, and to its acquisition of independence and sovereignty», Gorbachev said.
«I know that, in making a number of his critical decisions, General and President Jaruzelski displayed outstanding personal courage, restraint, and responsibility in overcoming dangerous pressure of hard objective circumstances and influential conservative forces», Gorbachev said.
Jaruzelski has also done a lot to promote Polish-Russian relations, Gorbachev said.
«This inevitably prompts the question as to whether this might be one of the key reasons for long-standing attacks on Jaruzelski by those political forces that design their game to permanently exacerbate Polish-Russian relations and those who would like to maintain certain tensions on the continent and discipline in their own military-political bloc», Gorbachev said.
«If this is the case - and it looks like it is - then this game could turn at least into provoking a far-reaching mutual Polish-Russian estrangement with all possible negative implications», he said.
Gorbachev also described Jaruzelski as a hero in the war against Nazism and his longstanding ally and friend.
«Sending this message to you, my honored ladies and gentlemen and my friends, I hope that you will take it into account both in the practical context of the grim realities of the past and the urgent need to create a better future for our countries», Gorbachev said.
Jaruzelski, 83, has been accused of imposing martial law in Poland in 1981 to deal with the independent trade union Solidarity. The prosecution authorities forwarded all documents related to this indictment to the Warsaw court.
If Jaruzelski is found guilty, he could face up to 10 years of imprisonment.
