Walesa warns Govt

Press, 31 August 1984, Page 6

Walesa warns Govt

NZPA-AP Warsaw Solidarity’s founder, Lech Walesa, yesterday accused Communist authorities of abandoning the August, 1980, accords they signed with workers and warned of “tragic" conflict if they continued to ignore the will of the nation. Mr Walesa’s remarks came in the text of a speech he prepared for delivery in the Baltic port of Gdansk on Friday to mark the fourth anniversary of the signing of the accords that legi-

timised Solidarity as the first free trade union in the Soviet bloc. The speech was read to the Associated Press over the telephone by a Walesa aide from the union founder’s Gdansk apartment. “It is inadmissible to try to govern without taking into consideration our will to gain recognition and democracy,” Mr Walesa said. “Further ignoring of the

will of the nation bears a threat of conflict, the tragic outcome of which we are not able to imagine.”

Mr Walesa, winner of the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, said the Government of General Wojciech Jaruzelski betrayed the trust of the Polish people by imposing martial law in December, 1981, and honoured the Gdansk agreements only in articles and speeches published in the State-run media.