Calm urged in Poland after priest’s body found in pond

Press, 1 November 1984, Page 6

Calm urged in Poland after priest’s body found in pond

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw The body of the anti-com-munist priest, Fr Jerzy Popieluszko, was pulled from a country reservoir by frogmen yesterday, 12 days after his kidnap by security police officers. A brief Interior Ministry communique, broadcast by State television, said that the tense, nation-wide search for the missing priest was over and that Government and Catholic Church leaders were in close touch. Lech Walesa, head of the banned Solidarity free trade union, of which Fr Popieluszko was a leading supporter, issued an immediate 'call for calm and said, “This death must help to build social peace.” Like the Government, Mr Walesa emphasised that “we do not know whose hands directed the criminals.” “The worst has happend. They wanted to kill him and they have done so ... they wanted to kill the hope that it was possible to avoid using force in political life in Poland,” he said. Mr Walesa appealed for the blessing of Pope John Paul and dialogue between the union, the authorities, and the Church. His words appeared to reflect a keen desire by Solidarity, the Church, and the ruling Communist Party not to fan tensions.

Three .members of the security police have been arrested and accused of the kidnapping. Senior Solidarity sources said that they did not believe it had been organised by the Government.

News of the death of Fr Popieluszko, who was 37, was broken to some 8000 parishioners at his Warsaw church of St Stanilaw’s at the end of the Mass said nightly on his behalf since he vanished. A sob broke from the congregation when the officiating priest said, “There are moments when a person is dumbfounded ... Father Jerzy is among the blessed today.” The youthful, fair-haired priest had been a focal point of dissent against communist rule since Solidarity was suppressed under martial law in December 1981. The authorities accused him of slandering the State in his fiery sermons but included him in a political amnesty this year. The news of Fr Popieluszko’s ambush in a forest near the northern town of Torun on October 19 was greeted at first with disbelief by many Poles. His body was found in a reservoir on the River Vistula at Wloclawek, 150 km north-east of Warsaw. The searchers were directed to the spot by the accused

police officers, two of whom were taken to the scene. The television announcement said, "After an intensive search, the body of Father Popieluszko was found and removed from the water by expert investigators dredging the waters of the Wloclawek water reservoir. “The body was taken to the area court mortuary and the authorities are in constant touch with Church authorities on the instructions of the Interior Minister.” The three security policemen accused of kidnapping him had been placed under special guard and their food was being checked in case any attempt is made to poison them, the Polish Government said. The Government’s spokesman, Jerzy Urban, said that investigators were still getting conflicting accounts of the kidnap from the detained officers. One of them, Captain Grzegorz Piotrowski, had withdrawn a confession, that he had killed the priest. Mr Urban, acknowledging for the first time that the abductors were security service officers, told a news conference, “The investigations have shown that they intended for some time to kidnap Father Popieluszko and were waiting for the right moment.

‘’The instigators of this crime are also being sought ... those who stood behind these three men, why and for what reason.”

The investigation had uncovered information that he was not disclosing, “because it might interfere with the search into the circumstances of the crime and its motives.” Arrested with Piotrowski are Lieutenents Waldemar Chielewski and Leszek Pekala. Two of them have been helping the searchers dragging the Vistula but have given different stories. Mr Urban denied that the kidnapping had shaken public confidence in the police or the Government of General Wojciech Jaruzelski, which has condemned it. “The country is completely calm. People are outraged but there is no reason to think that the opponents of society will be able to exploit the situation for their own purposes,” he said. Twenty-four intellectuals and workers said yesterday that they would create a committee to monitor human rights in Poland — the first formal opposition movement since the declaration of martial law in December, 1981. The group said that it would establish its committee in the south-western industrial centre of Wroclaw

within a week. Similar committees would soon be set up in Warsaw, Gdansk, Katowice, Krakow, and other main cities. The 24, including teachers, doctors, a farmer, a metal worker, and a miner, said that their action had been prompted by the kidnap and killing of Father Popieluszki. - The killing and the apparent police complicity have given a sudden focus for renewed opposition after a period of disarray that resulted from a Government amnesty for political prisoners in July. “The police forces have slipped out of any social control and are currently even out of the control of the political authorities,” the Wroclaw group said. “We cannot watch with indifference . this dangerous process, which is an outrage to our European tradition of civilisation. “We proclaim loudly that we will not let such things happen, and we urge all Polish citizens, regardless of their views, to support our protest and resist violence and lawlessness by means of reliable forms of social self-defence.” Elaborating bn the statement, one of the organisers of the group said that it aimed at encouraging the creation of local human rights monitoring committees throughout Poland.