Poland’s last communist leader charged over martial law

PROSECUTORS filed charges yesterday against Poland’s last communist leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, in connection with his imposition of martial law in 1981 as the Soviet -backed regime tried to crush the Solidarity pro-democracy movement.

The National Remembrance Institute, a state body that investigates communist era crimes, said in a statement it had charged Jaruzelski, 82, with violating the constitution for the crackdown that began on December 13, 1981 and led to the jailing of tens of thousands of people.

The move comes under the new government of the conservative Law and Justice party, which won parliamentary and presidential elections six months ago with pledges to purge former communists from public life.

Legal proceedings against Jaruzelski, including a trial on different charges related to the shootings of communist-era strikers, stalled under the previous government of former communists.

Jaruzelski, the institute statement said, was charged with leading an “organised criminal group of a military nature having as its goal the carrying out of crimes that consisted of the deprivation of freedom through internment” and violating the “workers’ rights of Polish citizens, mainly focused in the social movement connected with Solidarity”.

If convicted, he could face up to 11 years in prison - three for violating the constitution and eight for “communist crimes,” the institute said.

Prosecutors are collecting further evidence and questioning witnesses.

Nearly 100 people died during martial law, while tens of thousands were arrested without charge and some 10,000 held in internment camps.

One of those jailed was Poland’s current president, Lech Kaczynski; another was Solidarity leader and Nobel peace prize winner Lech Walesa, who later served as president of post-communist Poland.

Martial law was a serious setback for Solidarity, but did not prevent the collapse of communist rule in 1989-1990.

Jaruzelski could not be reached for comment, but the former leader has maintained that he imposed martial law to prevent an invasion by the Soviet Union, which controlled Poland during the communist era.

In a 2005 interview with The Associated Press, Jaruzelski repeated his long-standing argument that martial law was the lesser of two evils.

“The greater evil would have been intervention” by Soviet troops, he said.

“That would have been preceded by an extreme destabilisation of the country, anarchy, economic catastrophe,” he said.

“I regret, deplore, apologise for what ... took place.”

Jaruzelski still faces trial for the 1970 shooting deaths of striking shipyard workers when he was defence minister. The trial began in 2001 but stalled on procedural issues.

He stepped down as the nation’s leader in 1990, formally ending communist rule in Poland, but remains a controversial figure. Vilified by conservatives for martial law, he is lauded by former communists for peacefully relinquishing power.