[Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Downwithcapitalism <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2001 6:30 PM Subject: [downwithcapitalism] FW: Reaction in Poland Reuters. 15 May 2001. Poland's Communist - Era Leader Back in Court. Excerpts. WARSAW Poland's last communist-era leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, appeared in court on Tuesday to fight accusations that he was responsible for a massacre of protesting workers in 1970. The aging general, who 11 years later imposed martial law to crush the Solidarity trade union, was to hear if the Warsaw court would officially reopen his trial or ask prosecutors to gather more evidence as requested by his defense lawyers. The court decided to answer the defense motion Thursday. The repeatedly postponed trial is to determine whether Jaruzelski, who was defense minister in 1970, should be held responsible for the deaths of 44 shipyard workers shot dead by security forces during [alleged] protests against food price rises. The case has reopened old political rifts between left and right more than a decade after the end of communism. Those rifts could deepen in the run-up to a general election this autumn. The stern-looking general, his face hidden behind his trademark dark glasses, declined any comment while leaving the courtroom. If convicted, he could face life in prison. The last court session in the trial was in 1999. The delays were the result of Jaruzelski's declining health and wrangling over whether he should be tried in a military or civil court. The Supreme Court ruled it should be conducted in a Warsaw provincial court. The governing right-wing parties, descendants of the Soviet bloc's first free trade union, say Jaruzelski, 78, should be treated as a criminal. But the post-communist left wants the case to be left to historians. Dozens of Jaruzelski's supporters, mostly his aging brothers-in-arms from World War Two, attended the court hearing, accusing the ruling right-wingers of political revenge. "The general is Poland's true patriot. He did what was best for the country under the former political system," said Aleksander Chmielewski, who fought Nazi Germans along with Jaruzelski and the Soviet Army at the end of the war. Poland was liberated from Nazi German occupation in 1945 by the Soviet Union. Jaruzelski had been rising through the ranks of the communist party and became its leader in 1981. Jaruzelski admits moral responsibility for the wrongs of the communist system. But he denies involvement in criminal acts. There is little public support in Poland for prosecuting former communist bosses. The opposition party of reformed communists, the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), is riding high in the polls -- despite objecting to the Jaruzelski trial. SPAM TO FOLLOW Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
