Polonium

Saturday, April 24, 2010

WE ARE MOVING!

With 600 posts and 500% increase in traffic we are very close to outgrow our current server. 

We have moved all our posts to: polonium.gazetagazeta.com

New address, new look, new possibilities, but the same concept: to present news about Poland as reported in English around the world. Now with new categories, starting with news about Poles living abroad, and more to come. 

Please update your RSS reader and bookmarks, and most importantly, come and have a look at polonium.gazetagazeta.com. If you like it, please invite your friends, if you don't - let us know how would you want us to improve it. And if you want to share your love and knowledge of Poland - please join us!

Friday, April 23, 2010

"NOVOSTI" about Katyn 2010


List of all news, comments and multimedia materials about crash in Smolensk as published by NOVOSTI:
http://en.rian.ru/trend/kaczynski_crush/


Poland uncertain whether to reveal Tu-154 black box records

Polish investigators have not yet decided on whether to make public data from flight recorders of the Tu-154 plane, which crashed on April 10 in western Russia, killing Poland's first couple and other top officials.
Poland's chief prosecutor Andrzej Seremet said Polish prosecutors will postpone revealing the black box contents until they obtain other necessary information from Russia. The final decision on whether to disclose flight details is expected in two weeks.
"As soon as they [flight recorders] are analyzed in Poland, we would probably decide to make their content public," he said.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

All victims in Polish plane crash identified

Poland's government says forensic experts have identified the last 21 bodies among the victims killed in the plane crash that claimed the life of President Lech Kaczynski.

Government Minister Michal Boni said Thursday that DNA tests in Moscow had helped in identifying 16 of the passengers and five crew members. The bodies are to be flown to Poland on Friday.

Read more:
 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h5HRIwocn5cLZn75suY8xsI5-1bgD9F81IK00

Polish 2009 Budget Deficit Widens, 2009 GDP Growth Revised Up


Poland’s general government deficit widened to 7.1 percent of gross domestic product last year, narrower than the government’s estimate of 7.2 percent, the Central Statistical Office said.

The budget shortfall totaled 95.7 billion zloty ($33 billion) last year, up from 46.9 billion zloty in 2008, as GDP growth slowed to 1.8 percent, revised from a preliminary 1.7 percent, the statistical office said. In 2009, the general government deficit was 3.9 percent of GDP, while the economy expanded 5 percent. European Union rules require member countries to keep their deficit ratios at or below 3 percent.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-22/polish-2009-budget-deficit-widens-2009-gdp-growth-revised-up.html

Russian Court Ordered to Hear Appeal in Katyn Case


Russia’s Supreme Court ordered the Moscow City Court to consider an appeal in which a rights group, Memorial, sought to force the authorities to declassify a 2004 decision by military prosecutors to drop an investigation into the massacre in the Katyn forest. A Memorial leader, Yan Rachinsky, said the ruling could lead to a court decision to open up secret documents providing details about the killings of thousands of Polish officers there. Poland also wants the documents declassified.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/world/europe/22katyn.html

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Polish investigators challenge Russian claim that pilot error caused crash that killed president


Polish investigators have challenged the Russian claim that pilot error led to the air crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski - and are refusing to rule out terrorism.

The revelation comes amid conflicting reports over whether 'screams' were heard from the passenger compartment shortly before the Tupolev-154 crashed, killing all 96 people on board.

Investigators admit that a prayer is heard on the black box tapes in the final moments before the plane crashed on April 10, and acknowledge that the pilots knew the presidential jet was doomed as it approached a military airport in dense fog near Smolensk.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1267811/Polish-investigators-challenge-Russian-claim-pilot-error-caused-crash-killed-president.html#ixzz0lmrjGldR

3 Auschwitz thieves are no-shows at Polish prison


A Polish judge says three men found guilty last month in the theft of the notorious Auschwitz sign failed to show up to the prison to start their sentences.

Rafal Lisak, a judge at a Krakow court that convicted the men, says they were due to show up at a prison in Wloclawek on Tuesday but didn't appear.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ii_ZLAJ4rZ0EsaYbE_Iotl7aPiVQD9F7GP700

What now for Poland?

A plane carrying Poland's president and dozens of Polish political, military and religious leaders crashed in western Russia on Saturday, killing all 96 on board. Are you in Poland? What is your reaction to this news? How might this impact the Polish political landscape? Send us your views.
Follow this discussion: http://english.aljazeera.net/your_views/europe/2010410103743106654.html

June presidential poll for Poland

Poland will hold a presidential poll on June 20 to elect a successor to Lech Kaczynski who died in a plane crash in Russia earlier this month.

Bronislaw Komorowski, the country's parliamentary speaker and acting president, announced the widely-expected poll date on Wednesday.

A number of opinion polls released this week have given Komorowski - a member of the prime minister's Civic Platform party - a wide lead over other candidates in the election.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/04/2010421151735482570.html

Citigroup to Expand Polish Investment Bank Business

Citigroup Inc. says it will expand its Warsaw-based investment-banking operations in Poland to take advantage of planned government asset sales.

The U.S. bank joins Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Credit Suisse Group AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. in vying for advisory work for the government, which is preparing to sell stakes this year in its energy, insurance, chemical and phone companies to raise $10 billion to finance the widening budget deficit.

Poland’s government is urging banks to set up shop in Warsaw if they want business from the state. Citigroup, which is based in New York, bought a majority stake in Bank Handlowy SA, Poland’s biggest corporate bank, in 2001. Citigroup has about 5,800 employees in Poland.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-21/citigroup-to-expand-polish-investment-bank-business-update1-.html

Polish Borrowing Costs Drop to 3-Year Low as Bond Demand Surges


Poland’s borrowing costs fell to the lowest in three years in a sale of five-year bonds as economic recovery and slowing inflation bolstered demand to the highest since the month Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed.

The Finance Ministry sold 3 billion zloty ($1.04 billion) of bonds due in April 2015 at an average yield of 4.987 percent, the lowest since March 2007, down from 5.778 percent at the previous auction on Dec. 2. Investors bid for 6.62 billion zloty of bonds, the biggest demand for similar-maturity debt since September 2008, when Lehman’s bankruptcy led to a deepening of the global financial crisis, according to the ministry Web site.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-21/polish-borrowing-costs-drop-to-3-year-low-as-bond-demand-surges.html

Poland's airspace reopens but will take days for normal traffic to resume


Polish aviation authorities say the country's airspace has been reopened and many flights are resuming.

Jaroslaw Niewinski, the deputy director for Poland's state body that oversees air navigation, warned on Wednesday that it will still take several days for air traffic to return to normal.

Read more: http://www.todayonline.com/BreakingNews/EDC100421-0000216/Polands-airspace-reopens-but-will-take-days-for-normal-traffic-to-resume

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Reaction to tragedy showcases changes in Polish-Jewish relations


The Jewish reaction to the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other senior Polish officials in an air tragedy highlights a remarkable change in how the Jewish world views Poland.

The prayers, public statements and personal tributes, including a special remembrance during the March of the Living, were normal expressions of grief and solidarity for a close friend and ally -- in short, heartfelt sentiments that probably could not have been made 20 or even 15 years ago.

Read more: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/04/20/1011664/reaction-to-tragedy-showcases-changes-in-polish-jewish-relations

Polish Investigators Have 4 Versions of Plane Explosion


The polish investigators consider four versions of plane explosion, the Russian press says.
According to Prosecutor General Anjey Semereti, there were four versions of air catastrophe – terrorist act, technical crash, pilot’s mistake and coincidence of the last two.
‘None of them has been ruled out yet’, the Prosecutor said.

Read more: http://www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=21308

Poland gives aid to kin of plane crash victims


Poland's government has started providing financial help to families of the victims of the April 10 plane crash that killed the president and first lady, an official said Tuesday.

Eighty-seven families have so far gotten 40,000 zlotys ($13,800) each, and the government intends to provide additional help to families with children and widowed spouses without jobs, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Malgorzata Wozniak said.

Also Tuesday, prosecutors investigating the crash said it could take several months to determine the exact cause.

Poles are eager to understand exactly what caused the worst tragedy to strike the country since World War II. Officials have so far pointed to human error but Col. Zbigniew Drozdowski, one of the military investigators, told a news conference in Warsaw that all theories are still being considered.

Read more
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h5HRIwocn5cLZn75suY8xsI5-1bgD9F6RC9O2

Barack Obama insults Poland – again

Last week I wrote a piece urging President Obama to attend the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, the Polish First Lady, and 94 senior officials who perished in the Smolensk air disaster. I noted at the time:
The Obama administration has on numerous occasions failed to acknowledge the importance of Washington’s allies, and has often appeared indifferent, even hostile towards America’s closest friends. It is important at this time of tremendous pain and suffering in Poland, that the President of the United States sends a clear message that the American government and people are with them in heart and spirit.
The White House did subsequently announce that the president would attend the funeral ceremony in Krakow this past weekend, but like many world leaders he was unable to do so due to the grounding of flights over much of Europe.
One would have thought that President Obama might have used the time he would have spent in Poland paying his respects to the Polish fallen. For example he could have visited the recently erected Victims of Communism memorial in Washington, or at the very least have signed the condolence book at the Polish Embassy. But what did he choose to do instead? Play yet another round of golf.

Tomasz Adamek dedicates heavyweight fight to native Poland


Former world light-heavyweight and cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek has dedicated his Saturday night heavyweight bout against Riverside's Cris Arreola in Ontario to the late president of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, and all countrymen affected by the tragic plane crash that killed the president and 95 others earlier this month.

"Before this tragedy, I was invited to a breakfast with the president after this fight," Adamek said Monday at San Manuel Indian Casino in Highland, as he promoted his bout against Arreola, which will be fought at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario. "He loved fighting.

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2010/04/tomasz-adamek-cris-arreola-boxing.html

Polish plane crash probe starts


Technical experts have begun examining the debris of Poland's presidential plane to determine what caused its deadly crash.

Ninety-six people, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and many top state and military leaders, died when the plane went down in dense fog in Smolensk, Russia, on April 10.

Russian and Polish forensic experts working in Moscow still need to identify 20 of the victims, including the members of the cabin crew, using DNA tests, said military prosecutor spokesman Col. Zbigniew Rzepa.

Read more
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/19/poland-crash-investigation.html#ixzz0ldUrkCFs

Monday, April 19, 2010

Pole wins key award for protecting forest valley


A Polish conservationist won a key environment prize Monday for leading a campaign that halted a giant expressway that would have sliced through one of Europe's last swaths of undisturbed wilderness.

Malgorzata Gorska, 37, an activist with the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds, was one of six winners of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize, a $150,000 (euro110,000) cash award informally dubbed the "Green Nobel."

She was recognized for her leadership in harnessing European Union regulations to stop the planned expressway from cutting through the Rospuda Valley, wetlands set amid a virgin pine forest that is home to endangered bird species, orchids, eagles, lynxes, wolves, elk, wild boars, otters and beavers.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9038165

Poland heads to fierce election campaign

Poland is facing a fierce election campaign to find a successor to the late President Lech Kaczynski.

While many Poles are still in shock over the crash of the presidential airplane in Russia, politicians are gearing up for the vote that decides the succession of Kaczynski.

"The campaign will start in the coming weeks and I expect fierce verbal sparring," Anna Quirin, a Poland expert with the German Council on Foreign Relations, a Berlin think tank, said in a statement.

Read more:
 http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/04/19/Poland-heads-to-fierce-election-campaign/UPI-20011271706101/

EU Leaves Polish CO2 Cap Intact, Ends Legal Wrangle

The European Union approved Poland’s proposal to leave its carbon-dioxide emissions cap unchanged, putting an end to a legal wrangle that threatened the world’s biggest carbon market.

Poland asked for an annual limit of 208.5 million tons in a revised proposal. The country, which successfully challenged the commission’s authority to review national plans for allocating carbon allowances in an EU court last year, dropped demands earlier this month for a higher cap after the recession reduced industrial discharges.

Read more:
 http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-19/eu-leaves-polish-co2-cap-intact-ends-legal-wrangle-update2-.html

Experts look for answers in Polish plane crash

Technical experts were examining the debris of Poland's presidential plane on Monday in search of clues for why it crashed earlier this month killing 96 people, including the country's president.

Military prosecutor spokesman Col. Zbigniew Rzepa said that Russian and Polish forensic experts working in Moscow still need to identify 20 of the victims, including the members of the cabin crew, using DNA tests.

Read more:
 http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100419/poland_plane_100419/20100419?hub=World

Polish bishop dies in car crash after president's funeral

The deputy head of Poland’s Protestant Church was killed in a car accident while returning home from state funeral ceremonies for President Lech Kaczynski, the church said Monday.

Read more:
 http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/04/19/13635826.html

European airports and airspace closed by ash cloud

POLAND - Four Polish airports including Warsaw and Krakow have reopened.

Elaborate State Funeral Held for Poland's First Couple

An elaborate state funeral for Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, was held Sunday bereft of many world leaders whose travel plans were paralyzed by the plume of volcanic ash that blanketed Europe.

An elaborate state funeral for Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, was held Sunday bereft of many world leaders whose travel plans were paralyzed by the plume of volcanic ash that blanketed Europe.

The couple's bodies were flown from Warsaw to Krakow early Sunday for the tradition-laden ceremony and burial in the nearby Wawel Cathedral, the final resting place for Poland's kings, poets and statesmen, including Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski, the exiled World War II leader who died in a mysterious plane crash off Gibraltar in 1943.

President Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were among the leaders who canceled at the last minute because of the expanding volcanic ash cloud, dangerous to airplane engines, that has enveloped Europe and closed nearly all of the continent's airports since late Thursday.

"All the French people will be, in their thoughts, with the Polish people" on Sunday, Sarkozy said in a letter sent to acting President Bronislaw Komorowski expressing his regret for being unable to attend.

The volcanic ash from Iceland did not deter everyone. The leaders of Baltic and Balkan states, came by car for the stately event.

Polish police estimated the number of mourners in and around Krakow at nearly 150,000.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev flew by plane from Moscow for the funeral. His presence was a further sign of the warming ties between the two countries, which had been strained for centuries, most recently because of communism and the 1940 Katyn massacre.

Read more: 
 http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/18/bodies-polish-leader-wife-flown-krakow-burial/

Sunday, April 18, 2010

UK's foreign secretary, Prince Charles cancel journey to Poland for president's funeral

Britain's Prince Charles and Foreign Secretary David Miliband have cancelled their trip to Poland for the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski because of flight disruptions caused by volcanic ash plumes drifting from Iceland.
The pair had been due to join world leaders for Sunday's ceremony, to be held in the southern Polish city of Krakow.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Truth rises from Poland’s tragedy


Norman Davies: Last week’s plane crash has brought an ignored nation and a harrowing episode in its history to world attention

...Nonetheless, several good things may come from the disaster. Poland, so often ignored, has found its way onto the lips of the world. The gathering of leaders at today’s funeral will do more than 20 years of dogged diplomacy. Its government, relatively unscathed, is functioning normally. And the meaning of Katyn will be pondered by millions who previously had never heard of it.

Katyn is the supreme symbol of honesty in European history. It is far from being the largest of European atrocities. But it is the test of whether people are prepared to face their denial, to bear the pain and to tell the truth. It is the archetype of all the many tragedies of the second world war that never reach the headlines but whose absence distorts our understanding.

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7100800.ece

100,000 in Warsaw Mourn Dead Polish President


Sirens wailed and church bells rang as an estimated 100,000 people gathered in the Polish capital to say goodbye to their former president.

Many filed into Warsaw's Pilsudski Square carrying red and white Polish flags with black ribbons to mourn President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and 94 other people, including many top officials, killed in last Saturday's plane crash in Russia.

Interim President Bronislaw Komorowski told the crowd that with the accident, their world came "crashing down."

Poles draw strength from tragic past


Although in mourning for the loss of life in the Russian air disaster, young Poles are philosophical about Poland's ability to pull through this crisis.

It was late in the evening, but in a scruffy building in south-west Warsaw, groups of young people - some holding babies - were huddled in urgent meetings.

Polish scouts from the local district organisation were preparing for another day of national mourning. I had noticed them since the weekend of the fatal crash.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8625509.stm

Volcanic ash cloud forces Harper, Obama to cancel trip to Poland

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the leaders of all three opposition parties were forced to cancel their trip to Poland to attend Sunday's state funeral for the country's late president because of the expanding cloud of volcanic ash hovering over much of Europe.

Hours after Canadian leaders called off their trip Saturday morning, U.S. President Barack Obama made a similar announcement.

"Given the dangers of flying through volcanic ash, it is simply not possible. We've been advised that the dangers are real and for security purposes obviously it remains impossible for the prime minister to be able to travel there," said Dimitri Soudas, Harper's director of communications.


Read more
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/cloud+forces+Harper+Obama+cancel+trip+Poland/2920144/story.html#ixzz0lOa54Hs0

Volcano ash may disrupt Polish president's funeral


A spreading cloud of volcanic ash emanating from Iceland is threatening to derail the funeral of Polish president Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, on Sunday in Krakow.

The volcanic ash has disrupted European air travel and forced Poland to close most of its airspace on Friday.

As a result, it is unclear whether state leaders planning to attend the funerals will make it.

Read more
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/16/poland-funeral-iceland-delays.html#ixzz0lMNN1wIk

After the crash


WARSAW's candles are short and thick, and protected from the wind by little lanterns made of red or yellow glass. Each evening, thousands of them are left outside the presidential palace. The visual effect is of a sea of lava. On a chilly spring night they create a warm breeze that welcomes pedestrians on Krakowskie Przedmiescie, one of the city's main thoroughfares. Thousands have walked here to add their flame: second world war veterans in uniform; young career women in heels and suits; tattooed, thick-necked heavies in leather jackets; children being taught history by their fathers; angelic nuns, in spectacular clothing; punks.



Conversation turns to the foreign reaction to the crash. “Obama, Prince Charles, Merkel and Sarkozy are coming to Krakow,” says one gentleman to his friend. Receiving sympathy from international statesmen matters to Poles, who feel that throughout history they have been let down and even betrayed by the West. Passengers within earshot murmur their approval. “No they won’t,” butts in a teenager. “Didn’t you hear about the volcano in Iceland? The ash is going to stop them.” The youngsters laugh at the mayhem in the adult world. Older passengers can’t believe the unhappy coincidences taking place. “What a curse,” says an old lady. “God is angry.”

Friday, April 16, 2010

Kaczynski family wants state funeral held Sunday


The family of late President Lech Kaczynski has urged that his state funeral be held Sunday in Krakow as planned, despite fears that a volcanic ash cloud emanating from Iceland may keep some world leaders from attending.

"It is the will of the family that, under no circumstance, the date of the funeral be changed," Presidential Palace spokesman Jacek Sasin said on the family's behalf.

A national memorial service will be held Saturday at 12 p.m. (1000 GMT) in Pilsudski Square in Warsaw, followed by a Mass at St. John's Cathedral at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) for the first couple.

Sunday's state funeral in mostly Roman Catholic Poland will begin at 2 p.m. (1200 GMT) with a Mass at the 13th-century St. Mary's Basilica. The bodies of the first couple will then be carried in a funeral procession across the Old Town and to the historic Wawel Cathedral, where they will be interred.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/16/poland-closes-air-space-volcanic-ash/


Polish funeral to go ahead despite ash cloud


"I wish to say that the (Kaczynski) family's will is that the date of the funeral should not be postponed under any circumstances," presidential aide Jacek Sasin told reporters.

As well as Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkoy and Britain's Prince Charles are among dignitaries from an estimated 96 countries expected to attend the funeral.

Krakow's Balice airport, due to handle most arrivals, shut down on Friday because of the volcanic ash cloud, which has caused air traffic disruption across northern Europe on a scale not seen since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

The decision to bury the Kaczynskis at Wawel, usually reserved for Poland's kings and national heroes, was already controversial. Some Poles believe Kaczynski does not deserve such an honour and have staged noisy protests against the move.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Polish+airport+shuts+down+before+Kaczynski+funeral/2914497/story.html

Polish air crash: pilots made one last broadcast as plane went down


The crew of the aircraft carrying the Polish president managed to broadcast one final message before the plane plunged into woodland killing all 96 on board, the first analysis of black boxes shows.

Investigators disclosed that the pilots were aware they could do nothing to prevent their demise.

"On the basis of the data in the possession of prosecutors one could say that the crew was aware of the inevitability of the coming catastrophe," said Andrzej Seremet, Poland's chief prosecutor. He added that the passengers probably remained oblivious to the danger until the very last second.

Investigators believe that as the aircraft approached Smolensk airport just a few metres off the ground its left wing was sheared off by a tall tree, and pictures taken near the crash site showing a tree cut in half appear to corroborate this.

Minus a wing, the stricken aircraft rolled to its left before slamming into the ground roof first and breaking into pieces. Experts estimate that only three to five seconds elapsed between hitting the tree and the plan's destruction.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/7594165/Polish-air-crash-pilots-made-one-last-broadcast-as-plane-went-down.html


Volcano ash


Germany and Poland closed most of their airports early on Friday and the no-flight zone now extends to Austria in the south and Lithuania in the east.

Smolensk Airport -The Polish Presidents Last Kilometer


Russian pictures of the Polish Presidents last kilometer from Poland to the Smolensk Airport show the sequence of collisions with trees as the plane descended to its final resting place.

There is a large picture of the Smolensk Russia crash site below that you can see by clicking on the image. For your convenience it will open in a new window.

Read more: http://www.masterpage.com.pl/outlook/201004/smolensk-last-kilometer.html

Iceland's volcanic ash halts flights across Europe

It was unclear whether the ash cloud would affect the arrival of President Barack Obama and other world leaders planning to attend the state funeral Sunday of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash. Polish authorities banned flights over part of northwestern Poland late Thursday, the country's PAP news agency reported. The funeral is to be held in Krakow, in southeastern Poland.
The Icelandic plume lies above the Atlantic Ocean close to the flight paths for most routes from the U.S. East Coast to Europe, and over northern Europe itself.
Meteorologists from the AccuWeather forecasting service in the U.S. said the current ash plume will threaten air travel over Europe through Sunday at the least. Einar Kjartansson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, said the problem might persist for weeks, depending on how much wind carries the ash.

Body of exiled Polish leader returns to Warsaw

Hundreds of Poles gathered in grief at Warsaw's airport Thursday for two state ceremonies honoring 35 more victims of the plane crash in Russia, among them the last man who led Poland's government in exile when the country was ruled by communists.
A military plane traveled from Russia with the body of Ryszard Kaczorowski, whose casket was draped in the white-and-red Polish flag, and laid out on the tarmac flanked by a saber-bearing honor guard. His widow and daughters, dressed in black, wept at his coffin and kissed it.
Kaczorowski, who headed the exile government from London shortly before communism's demise in Poland, was among the 96 people killed in a plane crash last Saturday in western Russia en route to ceremonies to honor Polish victims of the World War II Katyn massacres of Polish officers by the forerunner of the Soviet secret police. He was 90.
His body was driven in a black hearse to lie in state in Warsaw's Belvedere palace until a funeral is held for him on Monday. The exiled leadership was established during the Nazi occupation of Poland and continued to declare itself the rightful government during the decades of communism, until Lech Walesa became Poland's first popularly elected president in 1990.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Obama's Poland trip still on, but watching ash


US President Barack Obama is keeping his plans to fly to Poland for the funeral of president Lech Kaczynski despite a huge volcanic ash cloud over northern Europe, the White House said Thursday.

"It's something that we are keeping an eye on," White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters aboard the presidential jet Air Force One, which was carrying Obama to Florida for a speech.

"Right now our schedule is still on. We have every intention of making it to Poland," Burton added.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j3fXCfZ78hNjKi24tOGFfQ7yHhaw

Stephen Harper travelling to Poland

Dear Friends,

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has invited all three Opposition leaders to accompany him to the State Funeral for Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland; Maria Kaczynska, First Lady of Poland; and the Polish political, military and civil leaders killed in a plane crash on Saturday.

All three leaders have accepted the Prime Minister's invitation.

Le Premier ministre Stephen Harper a invité les trois chefs de l'opposition à l'accompagner aux funérailles nationales du président Lech Kaczynski, de la première dame Maria Kaczynska, et de dirigeants politiques, militaires et civils polonais décédés samedi dans un écrasement d'avion.

Les trois chefs ont accepté l'invitation du Premier ministre.

Best Regards,
 
J____ C_________
Regional Communications Advisor
Office of the Prime Minister

Body of exiled Polish leader returns to Warsaw


Hundreds of Poles gathered in grief at Warsaw's airport Thursday for a state ceremony honoring another victim of the plane crash in Russia: the official who led Poland's government in exile when the country was ruled by communists.

A military plane traveled from Russia with the body of Ryszard Kaczorowski, who headed the country's government in exile in London shortly before communism's demise in Poland.

His casket was draped in the red-and-white Polish flag, flanked by a sabre-bearing honor guard. His widow and daughters, dressed in black, wept at his coffin and kissed it.

Kaczorowski was among the 96 people killed in a plane crash last Saturday in western Russia en route to ceremonies to honor Polish victims of the World War II Katyn massacres of Polish officers by the forerunner of the Soviet secret police. He was 90.

His body was driven in a black hearse to lie in state in Warsaw's Belvedere palace until a state funeral this weekend.

The exiled leadership was established during the Nazi occupation of Poland and continued to declare itself the rightful government during the decades of communism, until Lech Walesa became Poland's first popularly elected president in 1990. It was not legally recognized, but played a symbolic role in keeping alive the hopes of one day throwing off Soviet-imposed communist rule.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h5HRIwocn5cLZn75suY8xsI5-1bgD9F3GRA80

From Poland's Tragedy, Hope (By Zbigniew Brzezinski)


For decades the word Katyn, for the Poles, has stood for an unspeakable crime as well as tragedy. Henceforth, it will stand also for an additional national disaster — but perhaps also for hope.

In the past, Katyn signified mass murder committed in 1940 in a forest just west of the Russian town of Smolensk by troops of the Soviet Union, who killed defenseless Polish prisoners of war. The victims of the atrocity accounted for much of Poland's military as well as intellectual elite. The second Katyn tragedy — the April 10 crash on the approach to Smolensk airport of a plane carrying dignitaries to a ceremony commemorating that very 1940 massacre — led to the death of nearly 100 of the top political personalities of a newly independent, and once again democratic, Poland. Those who died on this modern pilgrimage of peace included Poland's President, Lech Kaczynski.


And yet it is possible that future historians will see in these combined events — and especially in the consequence of the second one — the beginning of a truly significant turning point in Polish-Russian relations. Should that come to pass, it would represent a geopolitical change in Europe of genuinely historic proportions.
(Read more about the Polish-Russian relations.)


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1981930,00.html#ixzz0lAOfoRZH

Pilot recordings before Polish crash 'were dramatic'



Experts have examined two of three black boxes in the probe into what caused the plane crash that killed Poland's president and 94 other people, a Polish military prosecutor said.

The third black box recorded the conversation between the pilots.

"Experts are now trying to understand the words spoken during the last half hour of the flight," Col. Zbigniew Rzepa said.

Read more:
 http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Pilot+recordings+before+Polish+crash+were+dramatic/2908689/story.html#ixzz0lALiRECb

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

In Memoriam: Lech Kaczynski

The death of Poland's president carries a terrible echo of his country's past

HE WAS a figure from another age. Weekend guests at Lech Kaczynski’s presidential retreat on Poland’s Baltic coast often found the conversation turning to the opposition politics of 1970s Gdansk.

That is indeed a fascinating subject, though not necessarily the most burning one for the head of state of eastern Europe’s most important country nearly 40 years later. Mr Kaczynski, who died along with 95 others, including many of Poland’s military and political elite, in a plane crash in Russia on April 10th, epitomised some of the best and the worst features of Polish politics.

Read more: http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15891381

Tragedy in Smolensk



POLAND’S awful history makes it no stranger to tragedy, grief and shock. But not for decades has it suffered a trauma such as the death of President Lech Kaczynski, along with dozens of other senior Polish politicians and officials, in an air crash on April 10th.
The presidential plane was carrying a delegation to Katyn, to commemorate the mass murder of a previous Polish elite: the 20,000 reservist officers murdered by Stalin’s NKVD in 1940.
The symbolism of the tragedy to many Poles is almost unbearable. In 1943 General Wladyslaw Sikorski, the leader of the Polish wartime government, died in a plane crash in Gibraltar. No foul play was proved there, but many Poles believe that he was murdered because of his resolute determination to expose the Katyn massacre—which the Soviet Union blamed on the Germans. Now another Polish president, closely involved in the same issue, has died in an all too similar manner.
Polish historical sensitivies about Russia mean that many see the coincidence as sinister rather than tragic. But the plane tried to land four times, in bad weather. Accident is the overwhelmingly likely cause.

As Poland Mourns, Leaders Ponder New Election


Polish leaders have decided to wait until after Sunday's state funeral for President Lech Kaczynski to decide when to hold an early election to replace him.

Polish leaders have decided to wait until after Sunday's state funeral for President Lech Kaczynski to decide when to hold an early election to replace him. But officials said June 20 now appears all but certain to be the date.

Komorowski said party leaders in parliament held consultations Wednesday and decided to wait with an announcement, given that two presidential candidates were killed, Kaczynski and Jerzy Szmajdzinski, a long-serving lawmaker and respected former defense minister who was to have represented the Democratic Left Alliance.

The most likely date for balloting appears to be June 20 because of a timeline dictated by the constitution.

"If the date is not announced by Monday, then the elections will be held on June 20, according to the regulations," said Lech Czapla, who oversees parliament's administrative issues.

A second round would be held two weeks later if no candidate musters at least 50 percent of the vote in the first round.

Though the country remains in deep mourning, Komorowski's remarks show that officials were returning to day-to-day business of running the country. There was even a willingness to grapple with contentious issues.

There is a growing debate about whether Kaczynski and his wife should be interred at the 1,000-year-old Wawel Cathedral - the main burial site of Polish monarchs since the 14th century and more recent heroes, including the 20th-century Polish statesman and military leader Jozef Pilsudski

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/14/poland-mourns-leaders-ponder-new-election/

Dynamism and tragedy

The crash of a Polish military aircraft in Russia on Saturday served, in one terrible moment, to extinguish much of Poland’s civil and military leadership. Among the dead are the country’s President, Lech Kaczynski, the chief of the general staff of the Polish Armed Forces, the head of Poland’s central bank, the head of the Polish Olympics Committee, and many other representatives of Poland’s elite. There was an awful poignancy in the fact that the officials were travelling to Russia in order to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of Polish officers by the Soviet Union. This is a moment of darkness for Poland, a country that has emerged from the shambles of Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe to become a shining European power. For all the mourning, however, it is important to recognize that even a blow of this magnitude will not slow the country’s progress.

Political scientist George Friedman, founder of Stratfor, a U.S. strategic and tactical intelligence company, has for several years been predicting that Poland will emerge as a “great power” in the 21st century. It might seem far-fetched, except when one considers how far Poland has already come in the past two decades, building up its democratic institutions, constructing an army capable of meaningful contributions in far-off places like Afghanistan and Iraq, forging a distinctive voice in the EU, and along the way fostering a dynamic economy that is among the world’s 20 largest.

Poland’s performance during the global recession eclipsed its neighbours, particularly the other former Soviet satellites, growing by 5 per cent in 2008, and by another 1.7 per cent last year. In contrast, no other EU economy grew at all last year. Its banks are stable. The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, who was not on the aircraft, is a champion of the free market, seeking to lower taxes and reduce bureaucracy. His government aims to raise about $10-billion from sales of public assets. Little wonder that growth predictions abound.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/e-poland-john-13/article1532200/