Polish leaders crack down

Press, 9 May 1983, Page 1

Polish leaders crack down

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw

Poland’s Communist authorities have responded to Solidarity opposition by crackihg down on the union leader, Lech Walesa, and detaining nine of his associates.

The party leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, reflecting an uncompromising attitude in Government ranks, also delivered a stiff rebuke to the Catholic Church, which has become increasingly outspoken as next month’s Papal visit draws near.

. He was speaking at the launching of a new movement aimed at restoring national unity, a political move built up as the main

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hope for bridging the chasms of Poland’s divided society. Solidarity sources said yesterday that Mr Walesa was picked up on Saturday after travelling unannounced to Warsaw from his Gdansk home and attending a meeting of labour activists from unions dissolved by the authorities under martial law last year. He was driven back to Gdansk in a police car and yesterday his .telephone was cut off and the police were posted near his door. It was not clear whether he was under house arrest and there was no confirmation of the incident from official sources.

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Five men with whom he travelled were held in Warsaw and four other persons closely associated with Solidarity in the capital were detained.

General Jaruzelski warned the Church that it should respect the State authority.

“The more deeply the Church sees the socialist State as the embodiment of higher national interests the greater the bilateral benefits of (Church-State) cooperation,” he said. Relations have soured in the last week after a period of relative calm during talks over the visit by Pope John Paul 11. But General Jaruzelski made no sign

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that the authorities were thinking twice about allowing the pilgrimage to proceed.

He attacked some clergymen who acted “under the influence of unbridled anticommunism or fickle emotions,” who had damaged internal peace and the Church’s long-term interests.

Senior churchmen were furious after a number of people were beaten up in the convent headquarters of a church organisation helping people harassed under martial law.

The bishops had issued a statement calling for the release of political prisoners and the lifting of martial law.

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