RFE/RL: Senators Call for Cooling Relations with Lithuania over Sentenced Poles
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Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 09:33:38 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: RFE/RL: Senators Call for Cooling Relations with Lithuania over Sentenced Poles
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: RFE/RL <[email protected]>
RFE/RL: Senators Call for Cooling Relations with Lithuania
over Sentenced Poles
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report
Vol. 1, No. 13, 24 August 1999
A Survey of Developments in Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine by the Staff
of RFE/RL Newsline
POLAND
SENATORS CALL FOR COOLING RELATIONS WITH LITHUANIA OVER SENTENCED
POLES. The Appeals Court in Vilnius on 17 August sentenced four ethnic
Poles and one Latvian - all former local government councilors from
the Salcininkai (Polish: Soleczniki) region south of Vilnius - to up
to three-and-a-half years in prison for trying to create the so-called
Polish territorial autonomy in 1990. In April, they were sentenced by
a district court to up to six months in prison; the Appeals Court,
however, increased that sentence following an appeal by the Lithuanian
Prosecutor-General's Office.
In November 1990, a congress of councilors from the Salcininkai and
Vilnius districts (inhabited mostly by ethnic Poles) passed a
resolution declaring Polish autonomy in the Salcininkai district. The
congress ruled that the 11 March 1990 parliamentary act restoring
Lithuanian independence did not extend to the Salcininkai region, and
it pledged to remain loyal to the USSR Constitution.
Several weeks later, the Salcininkai council obeyed Moscow's order to
recruit for the Soviet Army, while the rest of Lithuania ignored that
order. After the breakup of the USSR in 1991, the main Salcininkai
district opponents of Lithuania's independence - Salcininkai council
head Czeslaw Wysocki and two other persons - fled to Belarus or
Russia. According to "Gazeta Wyborcza," those sentenced now were "less
important members" of the Salcininkai council.
Three Polish senators who observed the trial - Anna Bogucka-Skowronska
(Freedom Union), as well as Stanislaw Marczyk and Zygmunt Ropelewski
(Solidarity Electoral Action) - told journalists that the verdict was
a political decision. "The verdict is a hostile act toward Poles
living in Lithuania, it is a distinct signal that the [Lithuanian]
state looks unfavorably at their national aspirations. ..As a senator,
I think that Poland should now look at Polish-Lithuanian relations
with less enthusiasm," "Gazeta Wyborcza" quoted Bogucka-Skowronska as
saying.
Former Polish Senat chairman Andrzej Stelmachowski, head of the
"Polonia" association for maintaining ties with Poles abroad, said the
trial had a "pure political nature," adding that "we should take
political actions in Poland," according to BNS.
Janas Senkevicius (Jan Sienkiewicz), a Lithuanian parliamentary deputy
of Polish origin and leader of Lithuania's Polish Electoral Action,
said the four detainees will appeal to the Supreme Court. He pledged
that his party "will do everything to make sure that the trial reaches
the international level," BNS reported.
Former Polish Ambassador to Lithuania Jan Widacki told the 18 August
"Gazeta Wyborcza": "I think that the verdict of the court is self
evident, while the behavior of the senators is stupid. ...Lithuania
has the right to be independent and to judge those who were against
[its independence] by taking the side of the Soviet state. ...I regret
that the Polish senators came to Lithuania...and commented on the work
of the independent court. The appeal to worsen relations with the
Lithuanian people is political nonsense. Besides, it is not true that
Poles in Lithuania identify themselves with the autonomy-seekers. Many
Poles were indignant about their attempts from the very beginning."
On 20 August, Jan Widacki and five Polish prominent public figures -
Marek Edelman, Jerzy Giedroyc, Jacek Kuron, Adam Michnik, and Jan
Nowak-Jezioranski - published an open letter to Lithuanian President
Valdas Adamkus asking him to pardon the five detainees "in the name of
good future Polish-Lithuanian relations." The letter criticizes those
politicians in Poland who "in a brutal way" try to pressure
Lithuania's independent judiciary. At the same time, the signatories
say: "It is our deepest conviction that Lithuania is able to make a
generous gesture toward the persons who - regardless of their past
culpability - in no way threaten its independence or territorial
integrity any longer."
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