November of memory: Poland remembers those who ... - Krakow Post
November of memory: Poland remembers those who ... - Krakow Post
November of memory: Poland remembers those who ... - Krakow Post
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NOVEMBER 1-NOVEMBER 7, 2007<br />
Polish Germans suffer<br />
worst election result <strong>of</strong><br />
minority since 1991<br />
P O L A N D The <strong>Krakow</strong> <strong>Post</strong> 7<br />
<strong>Poland</strong> demands<br />
answers from Canada<br />
in immigrant’s death<br />
CC:2.5:IDuke<br />
Vancouver International Airport where Robert Dziekanski was waiting for his mother.<br />
Michal Wojtas<br />
staff journalist<br />
Last week’s high voting turnout<br />
was good news for <strong>Poland</strong>, but a major<br />
disappointment for the German<br />
population in <strong>Poland</strong>, <strong>who</strong> managed to<br />
get only one place in Sejm- the lower<br />
house <strong>of</strong> the Polish parliament.<br />
The leader <strong>of</strong> the German minority<br />
in <strong>Poland</strong>, Henryk Kroll, <strong>who</strong> was<br />
an MP for all five previous terms <strong>of</strong><br />
Sejm, failed to secure a seat this year.<br />
Kroll lost by just 297 votes to<br />
Ryszard Galla, a colleague from the<br />
German minority-voting list.<br />
He plans to step down as chairman<br />
next spring, and Galla, <strong>who</strong> has<br />
already revealed plans to reform the<br />
organization, will almost surely take<br />
over. This year’s result was the poorest<br />
showing in parliamentary elections<br />
since <strong>Poland</strong> was freed from Communist<br />
dictatorship.<br />
In 1991, Germans had seven seats<br />
in Sejm, and one in the Senate. Two<br />
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years later, they had four MPs in<br />
Sejm, and one in the Senate. The last<br />
three elections brought them two places<br />
in Sejm.<br />
Unlike other voter committees,<br />
ethnic minorities<br />
do not have to meet the<br />
standard <strong>of</strong> receiving at<br />
least 5 percent <strong>of</strong> the nationwide<br />
vote totals to get<br />
a place in Sejm.<br />
Unlike other voter committees, ethnic<br />
minorities do not have to meet the<br />
standard <strong>of</strong> receiving at least 5 percent<br />
<strong>of</strong> the nationwide vote totals to get a<br />
place in Sejm.<br />
Kroll said the defeat stemmed from<br />
two causes. First, many Germans have<br />
left <strong>Poland</strong> for better-paying jobs in<br />
other EU countries, including Germany.<br />
Second, the two biggest parties<br />
– Civic Platform (PO) and Law and<br />
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Justice (PiS) – dominated the public<br />
debate before the elections.<br />
Even though the German candidates<br />
aired their spots on local TV,<br />
many voters turned to the Civic Platform.<br />
According to the last nationwide<br />
census <strong>of</strong> 2002, Germans are<br />
the second-largest ethnic minority in<br />
<strong>Poland</strong> after Silesians. Silesians are<br />
not, however, recognized as a nation<br />
by the Polish state.<br />
Five years ago 160,000 people living<br />
in <strong>Poland</strong> declared themselves<br />
as Germans, most <strong>of</strong> them living in<br />
Opole Voivodeship, where they make<br />
up 10 percent <strong>of</strong> the population.<br />
Silesians comprise 0.45 percent <strong>of</strong><br />
the inhabitants <strong>of</strong> <strong>Poland</strong> while Germans<br />
account for 0.4 percent. Other<br />
ethnic minorities are: Belarusians<br />
(0.13), Ukrainians (0.08), Romanians<br />
(0.03), Russians, Lemkos and Lithuanians<br />
(all – 0.01). Some 1.23 percent<br />
<strong>of</strong> people living in <strong>Poland</strong> declare<br />
other nationalities while 2.03 percent<br />
don’t specify ethnicity.<br />
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The death <strong>of</strong> a Polish emigre after police stunned<br />
him with a taser at an airport in Canada sparked a<br />
diplomatic incident, with <strong>Poland</strong> demanding full<br />
details <strong>of</strong> the subsequent investigation.<br />
The Polish government issued a diplomatic<br />
note asking “Canadian authorities to provide us<br />
promptly with full and transparent results <strong>of</strong> the investigation<br />
<strong>of</strong> this tragic accident,” Maciej Krych,<br />
<strong>Poland</strong>’s consul general in this western Canadian<br />
city, told AFP.<br />
Robert Dziekanski, 40, died on Oct. 14 after a<br />
brief struggle with security guards and police, <strong>who</strong><br />
were called after he started throwing things and<br />
screaming in the airport’s arrival zone.<br />
A preliminary coroner’s report Friday showed<br />
there were no drugs or alcohol in Dziekanski’s<br />
body, said the lawyer for Z<strong>of</strong>ia Cisowski, the dead<br />
man’s mother.<br />
Dziekanski, a construction worker, had flown<br />
from Frankfurt to live with his mother in Canada.<br />
He spoke only Polish, had never traveled before<br />
and was “scared” and “stressed” by the journey,<br />
said the lawyer, Walter Kosteckyj.<br />
Dziekanski waited for his mother in the airport’s<br />
luggage area, but she was not allowed to enter the<br />
secure zone and could not find anyone to tell her if<br />
her son had arrived, said Kosteckyj. After several<br />
hours, she left.<br />
A few feet away from her, on the other side <strong>of</strong><br />
the security zone wall, Dziekanski waited for 10<br />
hours, said the lawyer.<br />
“It’s unbelievable you have a guy sitting in what<br />
is supposed to be a secure area for 10 hours ...<br />
without immigration or airport authorities at least<br />
asking the guy or finding out what the problem is,”<br />
he said.<br />
When Dziekanski finally emerged into the public<br />
arrivals area, there was no one to meet him<br />
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and it had been 25 hours since he left home, said<br />
Kosteckyj.<br />
“He was not a sophisticated traveler... He was<br />
a fellow simply lost in an English-speaking world<br />
unable to communicate.”<br />
Police statements on Oct. 14 said “he was<br />
sweating pr<strong>of</strong>usely, behaving irrationally, throwing<br />
chairs, tipping his luggage cart over, pounding on<br />
glass windows ... and screaming in what sounded<br />
like an Eastern European language.”<br />
Documents obtained by CTV news showed that<br />
within two minutes after police arrived, they used<br />
a stun gun on Dziekanski. Ambulance attendants<br />
arrived 12 minutes later and were not able to revive<br />
him.<br />
“Our Polish community (is) in a state <strong>of</strong> shock,”<br />
said Krych. A public inquest will be carried out,<br />
Jeff Dolan, the province’s assistant deputy chief<br />
coroner, told AFP.<br />
The death has fueled controversy about taser<br />
stun guns, which have been linked to other deaths<br />
in the country, including one in the same week as<br />
Dziekanski’s.