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2 The Krakow Post R E G I O N A L N E W S Gazprom warns of possible tensions with Ukraine P O L A N D DECEMBER 20-JANUARY 9, 2008 Poland remembers introduction of martial law in 1981 Russian energy giant Gazprom late last week warned of a risk of “tensions” with Ukraine’s future government, two days before pro-Western Yulia Tymoshenko was voted in by the parliament as prime minister. “Today, the only place where there could be tensions is in Ukraine,” said Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kuprianov on the Russian news channel Vesti 24. Problems could arise “if a new government is elected that tries to modify the accord signed” earlier this month concerning the price of gas deliveries to Ukraine, he said. “There have been statements in that regard by the Ukrainian party and that worries us,” he added, alluding to comments by Tymoshenko’s party. On Dec. 4, Ukraine and Russia agreed on the price for gas deliveries in 2008 at $179.5 (122 euro) per 1,000 cubic meters. The current price for Russian gas paid by Ukraine is $130. However, a lawmaker from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, which is set to form Ukraine’s governing coalition, criticized the deal, saying it was proof of the “incapacity” of outgoing, pro-Moscow prime minister Viktor Yanukovych. Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in 2006 after Kiev refused to accept a much higher price for imports. The move subsequently disrupted gas supplies to EU countries further downstream, raising criticism that Moscow was using its energy resources to put pressure on neighboring governments. (AFP) cc:sa:Hiuppo Martial law was declared for 586 days until July 22, 1983. Gazprom sets price limit at $119 for Belarus Russian energy giant Gazprom late last week set a gas price limit for Belarus at $119 (82 euro) per 1,000 cubic meters for the first quarter of 2008, a day after President Vladimir Putin promised Minsk to freeze natural gas costs. Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kuprianov made the announcement on Echo of Moscow radio, saying it met with the conditions of the contract signed in Dec. 31, 2006. In comparision, gas prices in the first quarter of this year were at $100 per 1,000 cubic meters. In late 2006, relations between Moscow and Minsk soured over a sudden increase in gas prices. Until then the former Soviet state had benefitted from a special price, which had been a key way for Moscow to show support for Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko. Belarus is again on Moscow’s good side after Lukashenko, a political pariah in the EU and the U.S., told Putin at a summit that Minsk backed Russia’s opposition to U.S. plans to install part of a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. Putin reassured Lukashenko that Russia would not raise prices for natural gas, also promising there would be no obstacles to delivery of Russian supplies this winter through Belarus to the EU. (AFP) Norway takes over NATO patrols of Baltic skies Iwona Bojarczuk Staff Journalist On Dec. 13, 1981, the arrests and jailings started. Radio and television programs were halted. Newspaper publication was stopped. The government prohibited Poles from traveling. The borders were closed. So were airports. Curfews were imposed. Correspondence was censored. One hundred thousand police and soldiers enforced martial law. Their enforcement tools included 1,750 tanks and armored vehicles. Martial law, which the government declared after a Solidarity-led general uprising, lasted 586 days, until July 22, 1983. In the first week after the declaration of a security emergency, the government put 5,000 people in prisons or internment camps. At one time or another during martial law, about 10,000 people served time in 49 internment camps. Many were leaders of the trade union movement Solidarity and the advisers and intellectuals connected with it. Fifty-six people were killed during the strikes and demonstrations. Last week Poland marked the 26th anniversary of the introduction of martial law, the bitterly despised clampdown that hastened Polish independence. The anniversary included masses, historical re-enactments, meetings and exhibitions. It also included some supporters of martial law, who contend that Russian troops would have come into Poland to suppress the uprising if the Polish government had not declared martial law. The Civic Responsibility Foundation organized the re-enactment of a clash in Warsaw. The “government” forces included young men wearing uniforms, a SKOT armored vehicle, a Nysa military car and water cannons for dispersing crowds. The “military” pitched a tent in front of the Wizytki Church and Convent. The re-enactment of the clash between the ZOMO units and the anti-government forces came in the evening in the Bemowo district. “We need to show the dark side of history” so it won’t fade from our memories, said Artur Luszczak, who played one of the soldiers. “Many old people do not remember or do not want to remember” the uprisings, he said. “The young do not know” what happened. Poznan’s celebration included a special “war tram,” with a former Solidarity member at the controls. It transported high school students dressed in ZOMO uniforms. Another group of students was distributing leaflets about the anniversary of martial law. When the tram arrived at the stop where the leaflet distributors were, sirens began blaring. The ZOMO forces rushed from the tram to arrest those distributing leaflets. In Krakow, Defense Minister Bogdan Klich joined the head of an uprising memorial organization in opening an exhibition titled “Poland’s Undergound State – Solidarity.” Wladyslaw Bartoszewski is chairman of the Committee to Preserve the Memory of Fighting and Martyrdom. A Jagiellonian University exhibition dealt with the Independent Student Association’s role in the uprising and in battling martial law. Priests at the Church of Saint Anna said a mass to commemorate martial law victims. Another memorial mass was held at the Mariacka Basilica. Afterwards, mass participants, politicians and former Solidarity members marched to the Katyn Cross in Saint Idzi Square to pay homage to those who had fought to free Poland. As has become a tradition, on the nights of Dec. 12 and Dec. 13 opponents of martial law gathered in front of the Warsaw home of General Wojciech Jaruzelski to protest. The man, whom many Poles despise for declaring martial law, is still alive. As in previous years, those who gathered outside the house included martial law supporters. They used candles to spell out the message: “We remember.” Then they fired flares and sang the national anthem and the patriotic song “Rota.” At the end they shouted “Murderer” and “Down with Communists.” Jaroslaw Krajewski, chairman of the Law and Justice party’s Warsaw Forum of The Young, said Poles have an obligation to remember the victims of the uprising. “That is why we come here every year,” he said. Jaruzelski’s supporters rallied behind the slogan “Let history judge the general.” They contended that Jaruzelski chose the lesser of two evils. If he had not introduced martial law, they say, the Russian army would have entered Poland, causing enormous bloodshed. “Jaruzelski should be respected for making such a hard decision and bearing the responsibility for it with honor and dignity,” said Krzysztof Mroz of the organization Right of the Polish Left. Norway late last week took over a NATO mission patroling the skies of the three Baltic states bordering Russia, the Lithuanian Defense Ministry said. Norwegian pilots will patrol the air space of the alliance’s new members using four F-16 fighters deployed at the Zokniai air base in northern Lithuania. Some 60 members of the Norwegian military will be deployed at the base, the ministry said. This is Norway’s second time as head of the security mission which it took over from the Portuguese military. Other members of the 26-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organzation (NATO) have taken turns patrolling the skies of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania since the three Baltic states joined the alliance in March 2004. The three Baltic republics which regained their independence from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991, lack the aircraft and personnel to police their skies themselves. (AFP) Russian stands accused of killing 40 women in Ukraine The trial of a Russian ex-convict accused of raping and killing dozens of young women and girls has opened in Ukraine, a court official said late last week. Sergey Tkach, a 55-year-old father of five who has been married three times, is accused of committing some 40 murders in the east and south of the country, the regional prosecutor’s office said. Tkach is also suspected of 40 other murders currently under investigation, while another 60 crimes, some committed in Russia, have not been investigated yet, the prosecutor’s office said. “The trial of Sergey Tkach started behind closed doors to protect the rights of victims’ relatives,” a spokeswoman for the prosecutors, Svitlana Tchorna, told AFP. Tkach was arrested in southern Ukraine in 2005, where he had been living. He came to Ukraine in 1982 from Kemerovo in Siberia, Russia, where he had worked for the police. Young women and girls started disappearing in 1984 in the Dnipropetrovsk region where Tkach was living, the Interior Ministry said. His lawyer Yuri Syrotynko said he had confessed but did not specify exactly to what. Tkach was judged sane and will stand trial, which is expected to last at least six months. He faces a lifetime in solitary confinement if found guilty, as the death penalty in Ukraine was abolished in 2000. (AFP) Valuable primeval forest under threat Zofia Owczarek Staff Journalist Environmental organizations are raising the alarm about the management of Poland’s – and Europe’s – most valuable primeval forest: the Bialowieska Forest. Ecologists are alarmed by the heavy logging in areas of the forest not protected by the Bialowieski National Park. The World Wide Fund for Nature has already collected 100,000 signatures in an appeal to protect these areas. The appeal is to be handed to President Lech Kaczynski. Bialowieska Forest is without a doubt the oldest and most precious woodland in Europe. It constitutes an area of 150,000 hectares. Most of the forest – 87,500 hectares – belongs to Belarus, with only 62,500 hectares being situated within the Polish borders. The forest’s value lies primarily in the fact that, thanks to early protection, until the 20th Century the vast majority of the forest escaped the detrimental influences of civilization and agriculture. But after World War I, illegal logging began posing a threat to the integrity of the natural woods. “There is no other forest like this throughout Europe,” Stefan Jakimiuk of WWF Poland told the newspaper Dziennik. However, only 17 percent of the priceless area is protected as Bialowieski National Park. The rest is still being logged. The management of the area by State Forests was already questioned by the Supreme Chamber of Control at the beginning of this year. Now, the alleged mismanagement might result in the loss of a prestigious FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certificate given for quality management. And of even greater concern, Bialowieski National Park could cease being registered by UNESCO as Poland’s only natural item on the list of the world’s cultural heritages. In 2006 the forest was visited by professor Eckhart Kuijken from the European Council, who was displeased with the management by State Forests. “I found that the policies of the area’s supervisors are still aimed at financial profit,” he told Dziennik. “Procedures applied here were valid years ago, while now ecological recommendations are of higher importance.” Kuijken’s report might result in the Bialowieska Forest being deprived of the certificate of the European Council. To prevent further loggings of the old-growth forest, WWF has launched a campaign to extend the Bialowieski National Park to cover the entire forest. However, the campaign is certain to meet resistance from the local people, because many employers depend on the timber economy. “No other trees are being logged other than the ones attacked by bark beetles,” said Bogumil Olszynski, a retired forester from Hajnowka, a town adjacent to the forest. “There is no other way to fight the insect, as no chemicals are allowed in the park area.” Still, WWF and other environmental organizations hope that the new Polish minister of the environment will take their appeals into account. Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! We wish our readers, journalists and advertisers a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous New Year. Thank you all for being with us through 2007. We will be suspending our weekly news service for the holidays, and rejoin you on Jan. 10 of the New Year. We look forward to seeing you in 2008!
DECEMBER 20-JANUARY 9, 2008 Polish PM wants troops out of Iraq in October 2008 agence france-presse Prime Minister Donald Tusk said late last week he wants to end the country’s Iraq deployment in October 2008 in line with his election pledge. “At the request of the minister of defense, we, as the government, are submitting a request with the president to prolong the mandate until October 2008 to enable us to complete the mission,” Tusk told journalists. He also said he would visit Iraq before Christmas to announce the end of the mission to Polish soldiers. Tusk said he hoped President Lech Kaczynski, whose party was defeated by Tusk’s Civic Platform in the October elections, would not block the withdrawal. Kaczynski has repeatedly said he wants Polish forces to remain in Iraq. The previous government, led by Kaczynski’s twin brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski, also supported maintaining Poland’s deployment in Iraq. Tusk’s liberal party dealt a stinging election defeat to the Kaczynskis’ right-wing Law and Justice party. During the election campaign, Tusk had promised to withdraw from Iraq, and in a speech outlining his policies to parliament on Nov. 23, he promised that Poland would wind up its mission by the end of 2008. Tusk had made political capital of the issue in a pre-election televised debate with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, demanding: “What gives you the right, you and your brother, to extend the mission in Iraq ... to put the lives of Polish soldiers at risk?” Jaroslaw Kaczynski had responded that Poles “have never been deserters or cowards.” According to a recent poll, some 85 percent of Poles are against their soldiers being deployed in Iraq, while only 12.1 percent back the deployment. Polish forces have been present in Iraq since the start of U.S.-led military action in 2003. It had 2,600 troops in Iraq in 2003 but the number has been slashed to 900 at present. Twenty-two Polish soldiers have been killed in Iraq. P O L A N D The Krakow Post 3 Major political changes in 2007 cc:sa:Marek Silarski Agriculture Minister Andrzej Lepper (Center). Michal Wojtas Staff Journalist The year 2007 brought many changes to Poland’s political scene. Some people and parties gained power. Others suffered heavy losses or even dropped out of the political scene. The main turning point for all of the players was the parliamentary elections of Oct. 21. The voting came after the Law and Justice party-led government dissolved parliament and scheduled a snap election after two years in office. Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski had little choice. His coalition with two smaller parties – the Self-Defense party and the League of Polish Families – disintegrated in August due to several scandals and ongoing tension. That led to the Civic Platform party ousting Law and Justice. In the 2005 elections the Law and Justice party won the most seats with 27 percent of the vote. Its main rival, the Civic Platform party, got 25 percent. Four other parties earned seats in the lower house that year: the: populist Self-Defense party, with 11 percent of the vote; the Alliance of the Democratic Left, with 11 percent, the League of Polish Families with 8 percent and the Polish Peasants’ Party with 7 percent. Two years later, voter sentiment had changed, with more favoring the two largest parties over the smaller ones. Political journalists maintained that this shift was bringing Poland closer to a two-party system. Law and Justice’s former coalition partners, the Self-Defense party and the League of Polish Families, had almost no support in October’s elections. A key reason the Self-Defense party was battered was scandal. The most prominent party member to be accused of a crime – bribery – was Agriculture Minister Andrzej Lepper, the Self-Defense chairman. Law and Justice capitalized on Self-Defense’s disintegration by picking up many of its conservative voters. Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party won big in the elections, obtaining 42 percent of the vote. While having to give up the reins of government, Law and Justice topped its 2005 performance with 32 percent of the votes. The voter turnout was 54 percent of the electorate – or roughly 17 mln people. That made it the biggest in post-Communist Poland. Two other parties managed to get seats in the lower house: the Left and Democrats with 13 percent and Polish Peasants’ Party with 9 percent. The Civic Platform party asked the peasants party to join it in forming a governing coalition. The Self-Defense party got two percent of the vote and the League of Polish families one percent – far below the 5 percent threshhold needed for lower-house seats. Neither is likely to play an influential role in Polish politics again, analysts say. Law and Justice leaders are looking for a new strategy for returning to power. Law and Justice attracted few of Poland’s young voters in the 2005 election. It also fared poorly in the big cities. One of its biggest challenges will be reversing those trends. Another problem the party needs to deal with is what some complain is the leadership’s inability to accommodate diverse views. The membership recently re-elected Kaczynski as chairman. But some members say they are unhappy with his refusal to listen to other views. Prominent members Kazimierz Ujazdowski and Pawel Zalewski left the party last week after an argument with the former prime minister. Civic Platform’s future appears bright but major challenges await Tusk and his cohort. Doctors’, nurses’ and teachers’ strikes last summer diminished popular support for Kaczynski’s government. The issues that caused the strikes are still unresolved. The opposition will be ready to pounce if the ruling coalition is unable to deal with medical practitioners’ and teachers’ grievances – and any other important domestic matter. As in previous years, 2007 brought scandals that decreased Poles’ trust in politicians. The biggest was what government investigators say was Agriculture Ministry officials’ efforts to obtain bribes. The bribes were to be taken for changing the status of rural land in Mazury, a region in northeast Poland. The Central Anti-Corruption Bureau was investigating the issue when the situation became public. News of the investigation led to potential witnesses clamming up. So far the government has failed to bring any charges in this case. Tomasz Lipiec, the sports minister in the Kaczynski government was arrested on allegations of bribery in October. Prosecutors accuse him of taking bribery in the awarding of the contract to build the National Sports Center. In July, Self-Defense parliamentarian Stanislaw Lyzwinski was charged with raping of Urszula K., who claimed she was raped after asking Lyzwinski for a job. During the election campaign, prosecutors charged Civic Platform parliamentarian Beata Sawicka with bribery for setting up a tender of a parcel in Hel, a city in northern Poland. In the year 2007 high-profile politicians announced their withdrawal from public life. Former two-term President Aleksander Kwasniewski came back to lead Left and Democrats party’s election campaign. When the party faltered in the balloting, he said he would not return to politics again. Jan Rokita, whom some political analysts in early 2007 believed would be Civic Platform’s prime minister if the party pulled off an election victory, left the party shortly before the October elections. One reason was that several run-ins with Tusk had hurt his standing in the party. Another was that his wife Nelly had taken an important in President Lech Kaczynski’s office. In January, Leszek Balcerowicz ended his term as chairman of the National Bank of Poland and decided to found a non-governmental organization. He was the key author of the plan to turn Poland into a free-market economy in the early 1990s and also former chairman of the centrist Freedom Union party. Young Poles remember martial law on streets of Warsaw agence france-presse Tanks and militiamen sporting Kalashnikovs appeared on the streets of Warsaw late last week in events marking 26 years to the day since the 1981 Communist crackdown against Poland’s Solidarity movement. “Learning about that time from books is one thing, but we want to bring history alive, to make people remember and to learn directly from their experience,” Damian Pietrzyk told AFP. Dressed in the khaki green military garb of a Communistera militiaman, the 20-year-old Warsaw University law student is keen to hear the stories of passers-by who, unlike himself, remember communism all too well. “Its not easy for my generation to imagine that time,” says Pietrzyk. “Bringing it back to the streets is a good way to remember those who died and how far Poland has come.” The young Pole took part in the “Youngsters Remember” event organized by the Polish Foundation for Civic Responsibility. A re-enactment of a street-clash between pro-Solidarity protestors and infamous ZOMO militiamen was planned for later Thursday along with seminars and a Catholic mass commemorating martial law victims. In one of the most dramatic episodes of modern Polish history, then prime minister General Wojciech Jaruzelski ordered the military crackdown on the fledgling anti-Communist Solidarity trade union movement. While opponents contend it was designed to re-enforce the Communist party’s grip on power on the heels of a massive wave of unprecedented strikes organized by Solidarity, Jaruzelski himself argues it was the only way to prevent a potentially catastrophic invasion by Soviet troops. However, few historians believe any such invasion was on the cards. Key Solidarity members including union leader Lech Walesa and Poland’s current President Lech Kaczynski were imprisoned along with thousands of other dissident. Telephone lines were cut, media blacked out, borders closed and public mobility was severely restricted by curfews and strict travel restrictions. Tragically, 56 people are known to have perished during the brutal crackdown. Martial law was formally lifted on July 22, 1983. The Solidarity movement re-surfaced nationwide in a fresh wave of strikes during the late 1980s paving the way to Poland’s famous Round Table talks which brought a bloodless end to communism in watershed elections in 1989. Czech-U.S. deal within view on anti-missile radar sites Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Tomas Pojar. agence france-presse Czech and U.S. negotiators late last week said they had made progress in talks aimed at a deal over the siting of part of a U.S. anti-missile defense shield in the Czech Republic – but refused to set a target for their completion. “I think we are making very good progress I do not think we will need a tremendously large number of future [negotiating] rounds if we continue to make the progress we have made so far,” commented U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Rood in a joint news conference with Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Tomas Pojar. “The finish line is certainly within view but predicting exactly when we will reach those dates is something I have cautiously avoided so far,” he added. A final deal looks possible “within a few small months, but we do not rule out that it could be within a few weeks,” Pojar said, adding that the Czech side was still studying similar deals between the U.S. and other countries to “get the best possible result.” Pojar said six of the 18 negotiating chapters being discussed had been closed and another three or four were close to being sealed. “On about half of the text there is no accord,” he added. Progress in the latest talks had been made on “safety aspects” such as the provision of emergency flights to the base and the obligations of Czech authorities to police a security zone around it, Rood added. The proposed Czech radar would be paired with 10 interceptor missiles in neighboring Poland which could counter the threat of an attack from “rogue” states, such as Iran, according to Washington. Rood said that the U.S. still holds the view that “the missile threat from Iran and similar countries is real and growing and continues to evolve.” Iran was continuing its missile development program. “It remains a concern to the U.S. and poses a threat to our NATO allies,” he added. As well as two general agreements setting out the framework for the radar’s operation and the rules governing the foreign base, a third agreement allowing Czech firms and businesses to take part in the general anti-missile development is also being discussed, Pojar said. Czech opposition to the U.S. radar has however climbed to 68 percent according to a survey by the CVVM institute published this week, compared with 65 percent in June. A referendum on whether to host the base is wanted by 73 percent of the population according to the same survey. The center-right government in power since the start of the year has resolutely refused a referendum saying lawmakers in parliament should approve the project.
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Traditional feast held in city center for haves and have ... - Krakow Post

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