Polish unionist retracts support for martial law

Press, 15 January 1982, Page 6

Polish unionist retracts support for martial law

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw A regional chief of the suspended Solidarity trade union has withdrawn a statement supporting martial law in Poland, saying it was written under duress. Zdzislaw Rozwalak. the Solidarity leader at Poznan, told an astonished group of foreign correspondents visiting the city yesterday that the statement, which had been carried by the State news media, was “made under duress before I had the full picture of what was going on."

He recanted in the presence of the local public prosecutor. who was visibly shocked at what he heard.

The correspondents' visit centred on a tour of the Cegielski marine engine factory where workers said they still supported Solidarity and its detained leader. Lech Walesa.

Reporters were free to talk for just under one hour to the workers. Some expressed support for martial law. others were militantly opposed to it. One worker said. "Solidarity is alive and well here and we will win." Some workers said there had been beatings and “brutal arrests." “Conditions in the internment centres are getting worse. We will struggle until they are freed,” one worker said.

The plant director. Zdzislaw Miedziarek, said production was down since the imposition of martial law but he blamed this on a chronic shortage of rawmaterials. He said “morale is low among the workers." They were very depressed about the prospect of imminent and big price increases. The military Government

envisages rises oi between 200 and 400 per cent in the price of food, consumer goods and services, with partial subsidies remaining only on such essentials as milk. In an interview with the Army newspaper, “Zolnierz Wolnosci" yesterday, the State Pricing Commission's chief. Zdzislaw Krasinski, quoted Western banking experts reviewing Poland s application to join the International Monetary Fund as telling the Poles that they must "raise prices and make production costs more realistic."

Officials from 16 Western States owed billions of dollars by Poland will meet in Paris today to discuss the Polish economy. Warsaw has not been invited to attend. The French President (Mr Francois Mitterrand) and the West German Chancellor (Mr Helmut Schmidt) say their two countries basically agree about the Polish crisis and will press Warsaw for an end to martial law.

“There is no divergence between our two countries over Poland. There have been different accents in the press and in public reaction but there has been no divergence in general policy." Mr Schmidt told reporters yesterday. Mr Schmidt, who arrived for the hastily arranged dinner talks, said Bonn and Paris would maintain pressure .on the Polish leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, to end military rule and restore civil rights. “We are both agreed that General Jaruzelski should, as we have demanded and continue to demand, seek to realise the objectives he has spoken of both to us and to his own people," Mr Schmidt said.

The objectives included

ending the state of emergency. safeguarding human rights, and freeing those detained after the decree of military rule. French and West German commentators have traded allegations in recent weeks. Bonn accused of taking a soft stand to preserve trade with the Soviet Union and relations with East Germany. The West Germans have accused Paris of talking tough but taking no real action.

Meanwhile the Soviet Union yesterday accused the United" States of trying to destabilise Poland." and branded Western reaction to the military clamp-down there a "disgraceful farce."

A fiercely worded statement issued by the official new-s agency. Tass. said Washington was keen to use the Polish crisis to whip up East-West tension and was trying to hamper what was described as a return to normality in the country. Tass suggested that Washington had no right to criticise Soviet conduct over Poland because it often behaved the same way. The United States had stifled attempts by peoples to decide their own destinies in countries such as Chile, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, it said.

This appeared to be a reminder to the American leadership that the Kremlin recognised United States interests in Latin America and expected Washington to respect the Soviet Union's sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.

The Tass statement was the first detailed Soviet reaction to the recent Western moves over Poland but gave no new clues to the Kremlin's own view of events there.