Crackdown may end soon

Press, 26 November 1982, Page 8

Crackdown may end soon

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw The Polish authorities have given a further strong hint that martial law will be lifted at a session of the Sejm (Parliament) on December 13.

The official news agency P.A.P. yesterday published an appeal for martial law to be lifted as soon as possible by a group setting up a new political umbrella organisation which has been strongly backed by the military ruler, General Wojciech Jaruzelski. The group establishing a national controlling body for the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth issued its appeal after a meeting it held with General Jaruzelski and other Government Ministers on Monday.

As well as calling for an end to martial law,, it said: “The moment has come when all internees can be released,' work on amnesty can be started and operation of all suspended organisations resumed.”

Official spokesmen have repeatedly indicated that martial law will be lifted by the end of the year. A senior Government official told Western reporters on Tuesday that everything pointed to this taking place on December 13, the anniversary of the military takeover.

The publication of the movement’s appeal, carried in a story by P.A.P., was seen partly as a way to promote public image of the

organisation, which has drawn little public interest. It is being established by the authorities as a forum for promoting national agreement, bringing together representatives of all parties in the Sejm, and various social groups.

But it has drawn little support from the ranks of the outlawed Solidarity trade union; which had 9.5 million members before being banned by the military. A Wroclaw court yesterday sentenced Wladyslaw Frasyniiik, the most prominent Solidarity underground leader captured under martial law, to six years in jail. He had set up an extensive opposition network in the western industrial city.