Poland's Walesa to Publicly Debate Communist Spy Allegations

[lobo221]

Poland's former president and Solidarity union leader Lech Walesa will publicly defend himself against allegations that he was in league with the Soviet era communist police, the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) said Monday.

Marcin Weglinski, a spokesman for the IPN, told AFP that the debate which was requested by Walesa himself will be held on March 16 in the northern city of Gdansk.

At the request of Walesa, the institute invited the Nobel Peace laureate's main critics: historians Slawomir Cenckiewicz and Piotr Gontarczyk, as well as far-right filmmaker Grzegorz Braun, who has sought out former Polish secret police (SB) agents.

Weglinski said the invitees have yet to confirm their presence.

The IPN, which is in charge of investigating Nazi and communist-era crimes, has also previously accused Walesa of SB involvement.

Walesa told the institute that he has been steadily smeared in the media for his alleged collaboration with the secret police and wanted to clear his name.

In 1992, former interior minister Antoni Macierewicz published a list of 60 suspected SB agents, including big names in Polish politics. Walesa was listed as working under the codename "Bolek", but the politician has always said that any accusations of collaboration are "absurd".

In 2000, a special vetting court cleared Walesa of allegations of collaboration, but accusations and rumours continue to plague Poland's first post-communism president.

In 2010, Walesa lost a defamation case against a journalist who accused him of being a spy for the SB.

He also filed a case against former president Lech Kaczynski, who claimed Walesa collaborated with the SB. Walesa withdrew the case after Kaczynski died in a plane crash in 2010.

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[lobo221]

Wałęsa backs out of informant debate

Former president of Poland Lech Wałęsa has backed out of a debate that he had proposed about his alleged cooperation with the communist security services during the 1970s.

The debate had been due to be hosted this March by Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), a state body charged with investigating crimes against Polish citizens during WWII and the ensuing communist era.
Wałesa, who led the Solidarity trade union in the 1980s, had called on IPN to organise the debate, arguing that he had material that would vindicate him once and for all. IPN agreed to the proposal, but Wałęsa has now written on his personal blog that he will not take part, and that he will instead take the institute to court.
Wałęsa reflected that over the years, IPN has undermined “the magnificent victory over communism [that was carried out] under my undisputed leadership from start to finish.”
His alleged cooperation with Poland's security services [SB], under the pseudonym of 'Bolek', followed the repression of strikes in Gdańsk and its environs in 1970, which he had taken part in. He supposedly broke off ties with the SB several years before the landmark 1980 strike at the Gdańsk Shipyard, a protest that led to the birth of the Solidarity trade union and his meteoric rise to international fame.

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[lobo221]

Polish Institute Says Walesa Worked With Communist Secret Police

Poland’s pro-democracy activist and former President Lech Walesa signed a collaboration pact with communist-era secret services in the 1970s, according to documents recovered this week, the head of a government agency said on Thursday.
“The documents contain an envelope, where there is a declaration to collaborate with the security services signed by Lech Walesa, codename ‘Bolek’,” Lukasz Kaminski, who heads the National Remembrance Institute, a body that tracks communist- and Nazi-era crimes, told reporters in Warsaw. “The documents include hand-written receipts for receiving money, signed by Bolek.”
Walesa, a former shipyard electrician, led Poland’s mass Solidarity movement which helped topple communism and became the country’s freely elected president in 1990. For years, he has fought allegations that he secretly worked for the old regime’s dreaded security apparatus. A special court in 2000 ruled that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who at 72 has largely withdrawn from day-to-day politics but remains a respected elder statesman, never collaborated with government agents.
The National Remembrance Institute gained new documents this week from the widow of General Czeslaw Kiszczak, Poland’s last communist prime minister. Walesa has long denied as “absurd” claims that he ratted on the activist colleagues whom he ultimately led to victory over communism. He said Kiszczak and his agents had a track record of falsifying documents, seeking to discredit the opposition leader and prevent him from winning the Nobel Prize, which he did in 1983.
Poland’s ruling Law & Justice party has long argued that Walesa, along with scores of other pro-democracy activists who negotiated with the communists in the 1980s, were tainted by collaboration with the security services and ultimately sold out Poland.

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[lobo221]

Ahaha, this fucking "bolek" is now asking the communists scum secret police (SB) for help, on twitter... what a complete joke he is...
He should give away nobel peace prize and money - no fucking rat, who menaged to secure the position of most of communist elites in Polish country after 1989y., deserve it.

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