Eva Bertrand (Brussels)
· Facts. On the 10th of April, while Polish President Lech Kaczynski and a large part of Polish elite were going to Russia in order to attend the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, their plane crashes. None of the 96 passengers survive. The causes of the accident are likely to be multiple : bad meteorological conditions, a mechanical problem, an old plane Tupolev Tu-154 that the Polish government should have replaced, a pilot who ignored warnings not to attempt the landing. A judiciary investigation led by the Russian and Polish services is in progress in order to understand what happened.
· A political and military elite beheaded. Besides President Lech Kaczynski, the list of victims includes his wife, Maria, and a number of senior officials, political and historical Polish figures, such as the Army Chief of Staff Gen Franciszek Gagor, Central Bank Governor Slawomir Skrzypek and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer. The last Polish president in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, was also on board, together with Anna Walentynowicz, former prominent member of the trade union Solidarity.
· Katyn. This powerful Polish delegation was flying in from Warsaw to commemorate the Katyn massacre of thousands of Poles officers by Soviet forces during WWII. In the Spring of 1940, Soviet forces, following orders given by Stalin, killed a large part of the Polish elite in the Katyn Forest in order to weaken and control their enemy neighbor. The number of victims was estimated at about 22,000 including officers, doctors, professors, public servants, lawyers and priests. It was a tragedy for the Polish intelligentsia. For more than 40 years, the Soviet regime has refused to admit its responsibility for the massacre, instead accusing Nazi forces of the crime. The commemoration in 2010 was held in order to move on from that political past, yet some observers continue to evoke the accident as a ‘second Katyn tragedy’ in spite of Russian demonstration of solidarity.
· Funerals. The Polish presidential couple was buried on the 18th of April in the Wawel Cathedral, the resting place of Polish kings, during an emotional funeral service marked by solemnity. The choice of such a symbolic place was criticized by some Polish political figures, as was badly felt the absence at the ceremony of many foreign leaders. Ultimately, Polish leaders had to face their sorrow alone, as the block of European airspace caused by a volcanic ash cloud had prevented numerous foreign leaders from attending the funerals. Among the absentees were the President of the United States Barack Obama, the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the President of France Nicolas Sarkozy, and the King of Spain Juan Carlos. On the contrary, the presence of the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, was felt as a strong force of conciliation between Warsaw and Moscow. A day of national mourning was declared in Russia in honor of Polish victims, which is quite outstanding for foreign citizens. According to some observers, not since the attacks on New York on September 11th 2001 has Russia responded with such respect for another country.
Reactions
· Around Europe. Beyond official reactions of top international leaders, the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and many other senior Polish figures has provoked a strong emotional wave around Europe. In each country of the Euroforum network the pain has been strong…
· In Armenia, members of the government remembered with a minute of silence the Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and other delegation members killed in a presidential plane crash.
· In Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev expressed his condolences to acting President of Poland Bronislaw Komorowski.
· In Belarus, despite the official refusal to declare a national day of mourning in honor of Polish victims, the Belarusian civil society actively expressed its solidarity with Poland. Many people have come to the Polish embassy to lay flowers.
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