 |
| Smolensk - Will the real truth ever emerge? |
The first anniversary of the Smolensk air crash where the Polish President and more than 90 other people of the Polish military and civil elite perished; has come and gone - but controversy as to the causes of the crash is still very live within Poland. One of the passengers who perished on that awful day was my former parish priest Father Bronislaw Gostomski, so I have a personal interest in this tragedy. The group were on their way to celebrate the anniversary of the murder, in 1940, of around 20,000 Polish officers by the Soviet NKVD (Secret Police)in and around Katyn in the period before Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, and the Nazi-Soviet non aggression pact was still intact. Two tragedies affecting the Polish nation, both on Russian soil, the first a calculated move to destroy potential "Enemies of the people" and pave the way for a post war Polish communist state - where the absence of a non-communist elite would make it easier to control such a state. The second was a tragic accident which should never have happened but through a litany of poor planning and communication, nevertheless did happen and with such awful consequences.
From the Russian side, the airport was not the best, messages from the control tower to the plane were confused and misleading. From the Polish side, the presidential party should never have flown in such a concentrated group within one aircraft,this should never have been allowed and was a clear lapse in security. The pilots apparently were not as experienced as they should have been - especially for a landing at such a rugged airport and in fog as well. The result of these unfortunate happenings is now visible for all to see. A Polish government report on the disaster is due by the end of August where other issues may emerge. Some Polish military and political figures have already lost their jobs. The bigger question on everyone's lips is, who is to blame for what happened.
The Polish Law and Justice party blames the Russians for the disaster and although they may have contributed to it I believe that in this instance blame cannot be laid solely at their door. I am not a fan of Soviet Russia, my own mother was deported to Kazakstan as an 11 year old girl when the Soviets and Nazis carved up Poland in the Second World War. She worked in a forest camp in the freezing cold, with very poor nutrition. Many of the prisoners died in those extreme conditions. She was lucky in the sense that when the Nazi's attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin and the Polish Government in exile negotiated an "amnesty" for Polish prisoners on Russian soil (Though they had never committed any crimes). These former prisoners joined an army which was meant to fight the Nazis on Soviet soil, though circumstances changed. This army managed to be transported through Iraq and Iran to Palestine, where they came under British command and later on, fought as the Free Polish forces on the Allied side. My mother spoke little of her incarceration in the Soviet Union, although she did mention that the ordinary Russian people were as kind as they could be in such a Stalinist system.
In this case the Poles cannot exclusively blame the Russian bogey man, they must examine their own shortcomings as well. All sides need to learn from this tragedy -- political capital should not be made out of the suffering of the dead and their living relatives as well. Though apparently some relatives of the dead are now planning to stand for election to public office in Poland. Let's hope they are standing for proper reasons.
A Polish report on the crash will be due out at the end of August -- Perhaps we will return to it again --
Lets hope and pray that both countries can move on from this disaster.
No comments:
Post a Comment