Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Did Poland's Prime Minister cooperate with Communist secret services?

Professor Norman Davies, famous for his chronicles of Polish history, comments that Poland's Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, according to the new lustration law, surely had to have cooperated with the secret services, Eastern European Review writes. According to Professor Davies, the law (is) so "absurd" that, if properly applied, Jaroslaw Kaczynski would lose his job.
"Jaroslaw was editor of the Solidarity movement newspaper in 1989-1990. Obviously he had to co-operate with the communist censors. Formally the new law means he should lose his job and is no longer prime minister."
President Lech Kaczynski said very loudly and clearly in his speach on Constitution Day that no one is above the law. As such he can surely be depended on to ensure that his brother, the Prime Minister, reads the law properly and files’ lustration statement if he could be deemed to have been a journalist. With people such as Solidarity heros ex-minister Bronislaw Geremek and ex-Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki refusing to submit lustration statements and being severely criticised by the Prime Minister and his party, will the Prime Minister lead by example and file a statement and report his activities as editor of the Solidarity newspaper?
The deadline for submission of a lustration statement for journalists is 15 May, 2007. If he does not file and it later turns out that he should have, he could be removed from office and barred from holding office for 10 years.
Polish Reformed Christians have criticised current preoccupations with the screening of possible former communist collaborators in their country in a process known locally as "lustration", and they urged an end to a system they say is more abusive than just, ENI reported.
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