Another chapter in place of tragedy
Source: Agencies |
April 12, 2010, Monday
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HE died en route to the most sensitive mission possible - a visit to the place that has driven a wedge between Poles and Russians for three generations.
Lech Kaczynski, Poland's president, and dozens of his high-level countrymen, died in a plane crash on their planned visit to the Katyn forest on Saturday. The Polish-only memorial service was to mark the 70th anniversary of the killing of thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals by the Soviet secret security during World War II.
"It is an accursed place," former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski told TVN24 after the crash.
Janusz Bugajski of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said that Saturday's crash had put Katyn at the center of Polish-Russian relations.
"It brought to the forefront again an event that Moscow would like to forget or, if not to forget, to sideline," he said, noting that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took a significant step by attending the Katyn commemorations last Wednesday with Polish counterpart Donald Tusk.
After attending the solemn event with Tusk, Putin said Soviet leader Josef Stalin ordered the killing as revenge for the death of Red Army soldiers in Polish prisoner of war camps in 1920.
For half a century, Soviet officials claimed that the mass executions had been carried out by Nazi occupiers during World War II.
Putin offered a gesture of reconciliation to Poland by becoming the first Russian leader to commemorate the Katyn killings with a Polish leader.
He said earlier that the two nations' "fates had been inexorably joined" by the killings.
Poles took deep satisfaction in Putin's presence at the memorial.
"It was a step forward. He could have not shown up, he could have not invited Tusk," Bugajski said.
Kaczynski, who was not invited to the memorial, and others made their own trip on Saturday for Polish-only commemorations.
"Without a doubt, there is evident symbolism in this tragedy that we cannot even grasp now," said Slawomir Debski, the head of Poland's Institute of International Affairs. "At a time when it seemed we were reaching a conclusion of the Katyn issue between Poland and Russia, after the ceremonies and good gestures, we have another tragedy."
Lech Kaczynski, Poland's president, and dozens of his high-level countrymen, died in a plane crash on their planned visit to the Katyn forest on Saturday. The Polish-only memorial service was to mark the 70th anniversary of the killing of thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals by the Soviet secret security during World War II.
"It is an accursed place," former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski told TVN24 after the crash.
Janusz Bugajski of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said that Saturday's crash had put Katyn at the center of Polish-Russian relations.
"It brought to the forefront again an event that Moscow would like to forget or, if not to forget, to sideline," he said, noting that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took a significant step by attending the Katyn commemorations last Wednesday with Polish counterpart Donald Tusk.
After attending the solemn event with Tusk, Putin said Soviet leader Josef Stalin ordered the killing as revenge for the death of Red Army soldiers in Polish prisoner of war camps in 1920.
For half a century, Soviet officials claimed that the mass executions had been carried out by Nazi occupiers during World War II.
Putin offered a gesture of reconciliation to Poland by becoming the first Russian leader to commemorate the Katyn killings with a Polish leader.
He said earlier that the two nations' "fates had been inexorably joined" by the killings.
Poles took deep satisfaction in Putin's presence at the memorial.
"It was a step forward. He could have not shown up, he could have not invited Tusk," Bugajski said.
Kaczynski, who was not invited to the memorial, and others made their own trip on Saturday for Polish-only commemorations.
"Without a doubt, there is evident symbolism in this tragedy that we cannot even grasp now," said Slawomir Debski, the head of Poland's Institute of International Affairs. "At a time when it seemed we were reaching a conclusion of the Katyn issue between Poland and Russia, after the ceremonies and good gestures, we have another tragedy."
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