Dissidents 'not allowed to go to Rome’

Press, 23 October 1978, Page 6

Dissidents 'not allowed to go to Rome’

NZPA-Rueter Warsaw Four prominent Romani Catholic intellectuals with] ties to the dissident movement in Poland have been, refused permission to travel I to Rome for the in-1 auguration of Pope John Paul 11, one of the four has) said. Mr Tadeusz Mazowiecki, \ chief editor of the Roman Catholic monthly, “Wiez,” told the Associated Press that he and the others had hoped to take advantage of the Polish Government’s liberal travel policy for those; wishing to attend the installation of the first Polish Pope. The official news agency. Interpress, said at least 1600! Poles had gone to Rome fori the inauguration. Millions of other Poles were expected to) watch an unprecedented live! telecast of the Papal Mass,! on the State television net- 1 work. Mr Mazowiecki said the; authorities had told him that; a travel ban imposed after j he served as spokesman for) dissidents who staged a; hunger strike two years ago at a Warsaw church, was! still in effect. According to Mr Mazo-! wiecki, others refused travel! documents were Mr Bogdan j Cywinski, a member of the! conservative lay group, Znak: Mr Jacek Wozniakowski, Warsaw correspond-I ent of the Roman Catholic weekly, “Tygodnik Pow-j szechny,” and Mr Zdzislawl Szpakowski, an editor of! “Wiez’’.

Mr Cywinski is one of the founders of the “flying university,” a dissident lecture series that operated despite official disapproval. Mr Wozniakowski and Mr Szpakowski could not be reached for comment. Both are known to be sympathetic to the secular dissident movement. It was not known how many applicants who wanted to travel to Rome had been refused permission. Mr Kazimierz Kakol, director of the Office of Church-State Affairs, said the Government would speed up the three or four-week waiting time for passports in honour of the occasion. But Mr Kakol made it clear that people under travel bans for past activities would not be allowed to leave the country. An Interpress spokesman said about 600 or 700 Poles had gone to Rome by train. The rest had left in chartered planes from Warsaw or Krakow, where the new Pope had served as archbishop, and by private cars, the spokesman said. The zloty, the Polish currency, is not convertible and may not be taken out of the country. So would-be tour-! ists must pay their expenses abroad out of whatever foreign currency they held or from the $l5O allowance they can obtain from the State bank every third year. In addition, would-be pilgrims must pay about $65 for a passport, which is good for only one trip abroad.) The average salary is $l4O a) month.