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(Reuters) - Lech Walesa, head of the Solidarity movement that ended Communism in Poland, knelt in prayer on Friday at a Catholic funeral mass for General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the Communist leader who for decades was his sworn enemy.

Jaruzelski central to 1960s anti-Jewish witch hunt? 04.02.2010 11:00 The documentary Towarzysz General (Comrade General), shown on public television this week, accuses Wojciech Jaruzelski of participating in the anti-Semitic purges of late 1960s communist Poland. The documentary by Robert Kaczmarek and Grzegorz Braun accuses General Wojciech Jaruzelski - who eventually ruled Poland throughout the 1980s and ordered the martial law Solidarity-clampdown in 1981 - of being a Soviet agent. The film also accuses him of organizing the anti-Semite witch-hunt in 1967-68 which led to the exodus of what was left of most of the Jewish population in Poland to Austria...

New Evidence Shows Poland’s Ex-Dictator Jaruzelski Guilty Of High Treason By Marcin Sobczyk What should a democratic state do with an ex-dictator, the leader of a military junta, who, due to a shady political deal with dissidents, has gone unharmed for twenty years after the collapse of his regime, and suddenly a document gets revealed providing hard evidence that the dictator committed treason? This question has stopped being theoretical and begs an answer in Poland, whose ex-dictator Wojciech Jaruzelski, in the light of an archive document, appears to have begged the Soviet Union to occupy his nation to save his...

Trial of Poland's last communist leader for imposing martial law in 1981 begins By RYAN LUCAS | Associated Press Writer September 12, 2008 WARSAW, Poland (AP) _ Poland's last communist leader and other former top-ranking officials went on trial Friday for imposing martial law in 1981 as the Soviet-backed regime tried to crush the Solidarity pro-democracy movement. Prosecutors from the Institute of National Remembrance, a state body that investigates communist-era crimes, read out the official indictment in a packed Warsaw regional court against retired Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, 85, and seven other ex-officials for their role in the crackdown that put...

Report: Poland's Gen. Jaruzelski threatens to discredit Solidarity if brought to court The Associated Press Published: April 30, 2007 ROME: Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, Poland's last communist leader, said he would try to discredit the Solidarity freedom movement should he be brought to court on charges of imposing martial law in 1981, according to an interview published Monday. Polish prosecutors filed charges in March against Jaruzelski for violating the constitution by imposing martial law Dec. 13, 1981, as the Soviet-backed regime tried to crush Solidarity. If brought to court and convicted, the 84-year-old Jaruzelski could face up to 11 years in...

Jaruzelski – from General to Private? 05.02.2007 Work is under way on a bill which would automatically degrade all the high-ranking military officials who installed martial law in Poland in 1981. This would concern members of the erstwhile so-called Military Council for National Salvation. The council was headed by Wojciech Jaruzelski and also included generals Czesław Kiszczak, Florian Siwicki and the first Polish cosmonaut Mirosław Hermaszewski. The bill is to be completed in March, when it is to be tabled before Parliament.

The ex-General Jaruzelski? Joanna Najfeld reports On December 13, 1981 martial law was introduced in Poland. Phone lines went dead, military vehicles appeared on the streets, soldiers could be seen on TV. There was a wave of arrests of opposition activists who were imprisoned and persecuted. The solidarity movement was crushed. University historian prof. Pawe³ Machcewicz explains what martial law was for Poland. 'The martial law was a huge military and police operation against the 'Solidarity' movement, against all the reform movement in Poland at that time. This military operation crushed 'Solidarity'. 'Solidarity' was banned and more than ten thousand...

We remember 13.12.2006 We are standing here in front of the house of general Jaruzelski. It's just before midnight. There's a huge crowd of people who came here to protest against general Jaruzelski. It looks like there are several hundred people on this side of the demonstration. Joanna Najfeld reports There is also a small crowd of postcommunist and socialist activists who came here to support general Jaruzelski, unfortunately not available for comment. They say they do not speak any languages other than Polish and Russian. There are many elderly people among them and some young political activists. They're here...

Martial law: Communist apocalypse of 1981 25 years ago, on a freezing Sunday morning, Poles woke up to General Wojciech Jaruzelski announcing that martial law had been imposed. Report by Slawek Szefs 13.12.06 One hour before midnight on December 12th 1981, all telephone connections in Poland had been broken. Radio and television programs were discontinued at midnight. Army units with tanks and special riot police squads rolled out of their garrisons. During that night, with the official date of December 13th, the State Council issued a decree proclaiming martial law throughout the country. Communist party first secretary and Prime Minister...

We remember We are standing here in front of the house of general Jaruzelski. It's just before midnight. There's a huge crowd of people who came here to protest against general Jaruzelski. It looks like there are several hundred people on this side of the demonstration. There is also a small crowd of postcommunist and socialist activists who came here to support general Jaruzelski, unfortunately not available for comment. They say they do not speak any languages other than Polish and Russian. There are many elderly people among them and some young political activists. They're here to support the general...

Jaruzelski charged with ‘communist crimes’ General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the man who mercilessly thwarted the Solidarity movement for almost a decade, has been charged by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) with committing communist crimes against his own nation. Slawek Szefs 03.04.06 The retired general, former communist party leader and former Polish president has been presented with the charges by prosecutors of the Institute of National Remembrance barely days after he received the coveted Siberian Cross. The distinction is given to Poles who suffered the repressive ordeal of Soviet gulags during World War Two. When criticised by the media for the...

Jaruzelski to Be Charged for Martial Law By RYAN LUCAS ASSOCIATED PRESS WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Prosecutors said Tuesday they were preparing charges against the nation's last communist leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, for his imposition of martial law, as Poles marked the 24th anniversary of the clampdown. Prosecutors argued that Jaruzelski violated the constitution when he imposed martial law in 1981, said Ewa Koj, a prosecutor with the National Remembrance Institute, which pursues communist-era crimes. Jaruzelski, 82, also could face charges for harassment, the internment of thousands of government opponents and the deaths of almost 100 people during some 18...

Martial Law remembered December 13th is an anniversary of the imposition of martial law in Poland....How do Poles look today at the events of 24 years ago? Report by Michal Kubicki 16 months after Solidarity's self limiting revolution began, General Jaruzelski, the communist party leader and prime minister, went ahead with his plan to crush a movement which by then embraced almost ten million people. Martial law was proclaimed. According to historian Antoni Dudek, what lay behind the general's decision was the defence of the communist regime. General Jaruzelski introduced martial law to allow the communist party to hold on...

Poland, patriotism, remembrance - 13 December 1981 Fr Ireneusz Skubis 13 December 1981 is a tragic date for Poland. The imposition of the marshal law brought about many family dramas, it stopped the development of economy and paralyzed ordinary lives of people. Let us recollect the situation when telephones were suddenly switched off, the curfew was imposed and General Wojciech Jaruzelski appeared on television, addressing the nation in an ominous way...We were deprived of freedom, the newspapers stopped appearing, out thinking were to be controlled. Everything was fairly precisely planned. Thousands of those who were not humble - innocent people...

Jaruzelski to answer for martial law of 1981 07.09.2005 The Silesian Office of The National Remembrance Institute is considering charging former communist ruler general Wojciech Jaruzelski with illegal introduction of martial law in December 1981. However, in the opinion of its spokesperson Ewa Koj, the official indictment might not be filed in October, as suggested by the press. Before that could happen thousands of documents have to be reviewed by the Institute’s prosecutors to confirm the absence of arguments used by the general in the past that he made the decision to avert the imminent and direct threat of Soviet...

Strongman sorry for Prague Spring From correspondents in Prague August 22, 2005 FORMER Polish communist strongman, Wojciech Jaruzelski, has apologised to the Czech Republic and Slovakia for Poland's role in the Soviet-led invasion in August 1968 that crushed a pro-democracy movement. "I have felt bad, I have been tormented by that," said Jaruzelski during a broadcast on Czech public television, 37 years to the day after the invasion of then Czechoslovakia. Troops from the Soviet Union and four former Warsaw Pact countries squashed the so-called "Prague Spring", a movement led by Slovak reformer Alexander Dubcek that tried to put "a...

Award for Pole Criticized THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Czech President Vaclav Klaus on Monday criticized the honors bestowed on the former Polish head of state Wojciech Jaruzelski during celebrations in Moscow to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Jaruzelski was among six former heads of state who received a medal of honor from President Vladimir Putin, CTK news agency reported. "Jaruzelski is - despite his merit in defeating Nazism - a different symbol for our citizens," Klaus said in a statement. "As Poland's Defense minister he was a symbol of...

Jaruzelski recalls Honecker's 'disgusting' kisses Tue May 3,11:01 AM ET BERLIN (Reuters) - Being kissed by East German Communist leader Erich Honecker was "disgusting," former Polish communist leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski was quoted as saying Tuesday. In an interview with Germany's Die Welt newspaper, Jaruzelski said that meetings with Honecker always began with hugs and fraternal socialist kisses on the cheeks. "I exchanged many embraces with Honecker. He had this disgusting way of kissing," Jaruzelski, who was prime minister of Poland from 1981 to 1985 and president from 1985 to 1990, was quoted as saying. Honecker, who ruled East Germany...

...But this crisis is more than a test for Ukrainians. It is a test for those in the West who claim to favor democracy. Will the West sell out the Ukrainians? Does the West accept the notion that Ukraine belongs in Russia's sphere of influence, if not its actual empire? And will the West hold Mr. Putin to account if his ally Mr. Kuchma is allowed to steal the election for his designated successor? On present evidence the answers are not encouraging. The Europeans were quick to call the November 21 ballot a fraud, and some EU governments -- particularly...

Was Reagan the 1st neoconservative? Posted: June 14, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc. Would Ronald Reagan have invaded Iraq? Would he have declared a doctrine of preventive war to keep any rival nation from rising to where it might challenge us? Would he have crusaded for "world democratic revolution"? Was Reagan the first neoconservative? This claim has been entered in the wake of his death. Yet, it seems bogus, a patent forgery, a fabricated claim to the Reagan legacy, worked up in the same shop where they made the documents proving Saddam was buying up all...