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| The General's Dark Past? | |
| 2005-06-15 | |
| The private television TVN news service Fakty reported June 8 that Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, the former president from 1989-90 and architect of martial law in 1981 as the head of the Military Council for National Salvation (WRON) and leader of the communist Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), was a secret collaborator of the Military Intelligence (IW). This organization was one of the most hated criminal formations operating in Poland during the Stalinist period. A document from the National Remembrance Institute (IPN) accessed by reporters reveals that Jaruzelski's cooperation with the IW started in 1946. The document, dated May 9, 1949, presented by the media contains information that is missing from Jaruzelski's official biography. The biographic note prepared by an IW officer reads that secret informer "Wolski" was enlisted March 23, 1946. From the note it appears that Jaruzelski was marked as a candidate for a "resident," an agent that supervises a network of secret informers. Jaruzelski refused to comment, saying that he is ready to clarify the matter only before "an independent and objective commission." The IW, established and supervised by the Soviet NKVD, was a counter-intelligence structure, the political police in the Polish Army, with more than 24,000 collaborators. Along with the Public Security Ministry (MBP), the IW was responsible for mass repressions among soldiers of the Polish Army, the Home Army (AK) and the civilian population. After the death of Joseph Stalin, followed by the thaw of 1956, the IW was transformed in 1957 into the Military Internal Service of the National Defense Ministry (WSW MON). The news release caused a political storm. Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jarosław Kaczyński called for a commission within the IPN to examine the issue. At the same time, the PiS upheld its earlier motion to demote Jaruzelski and deprive him of the privileges due a former president. Civic Platform (PO) leader Jan Rokita also agrees that IPN President Leon Kieres should immediately appoint a team to thoroughly review both IPN and Military Information Services (WSI) archives, declassifying all documents referring to agent "Wolski." The IPN archival team will search for materials concerning Jaruzelski. | |
| (The Warsaw Voice) | |