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.