Poland charges Jaruzelski for 1981 crackdown

Polish prosecutors yesterday filed charges against former communist strongman General Wojciech Jaruzelski for illegally imposing martial law in December 1981 to crush the pro-democracy Solidarity movement.

Mr Jaruzelski's communist government imposed army rule which lasted until 1983, rolling tanks out onto the streets and jailing thousands of dissidents, including charismatic Solidarity leader Lech Walesa.

"We have presented charges against General Jaruzelski in our probe into the illegal imposition of martial law," Przemyslaw Piatek, a prosecutor from the National Remembrance Institute, which examines Nazi and communist-era crimes, said.

Jaruzelski, 82, who was questioned by the prosecutors yesterday, will soon be officially charged with a "communist crime" - an offence punishable by up to three years in jail.

The institute believes the communists may have acted illegally when imposing martial law, a decision which remains controversial nearly 25 years later.

The investigation is part of Poland's attempt to come to terms with its turbulent past now that the central European state, which has a population of 38 million, completed a tiring trek from communist satellite to European Union member.

Some Poles see the decision to impose martial law as a crime which led to widespread violation of human rights, while others say Jaruzelski triggered army rule to prevent a Soviet invasion similar to those in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

Jaruzelski, who some see as a tragic figure, has always defended his decision, arguing it was necessary to prevent a violent confrontation between the 10-million-strong Solidarity movement and Soviet troops which could have divided Poland.

"I don't have a guilty conscience, to the contrary I am deeply convinced, now even more than before... that martial law was needed," Jaruzelski told public television in an interview.

"This will be a 'moral' court over me and my comrades and the thousands or even millions of people who expected martial law and backed it." Jaruzelski later oversaw the peaceful democratic revolution in 1989 that brought Solidarity to power and has since largely withdrawn from public life.

Earlier this week, staunchly anti-communist President Lech Kaczynski - a former Solidarity activist - mistakenly awarded Jaruzelski a prestigious medal for patriotism.

Poland's last communist leader at first welcomed the award, describing it as a gesture of reconciliation between people who once stood on different sides of the barricade. But he returned the medal on Thursday after a presidential spokesman said the award resulted from a clerical error.