Polish Politburo split

Press, 23 September 1988, Page 8

Polish Politburo split

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw

Poland’s ruling Politburo has split in a vote over dismissing the Government, underlining high-level discord as authorities prepare for talks with the outlawed Solidarity trade union. The Interior Minister, Czeslaw Kiszczak, abstained on Monday when Parliament voted to sack the Government of the Prime Minister, Zbigniew Messner. The Communist Party chief, Wojciech Jaruzelski, and all other senior leaders voted to remove Mr Messner. The party magazine, “Polityka” reported Mr Kiszczak’s abstention on Wednesday but offered no explanation. Mr Kiszczak’s refusal to follow the ex-

ample of his colleagues was a rare case of public disunity in the party’s inner leadership. As a senior Politburo member and the man in

charge of Poland’s police forces, Mr Kiszczak is virtually the only leader able to break ranks with Mr Jaruzelski so openly with little fear of jeopardising his position. However, Mr Kiszczak’s abstention fell short of a full challenge to Mr Jaruzelski’s leadership. The two men are both Army generals and collaborated in planning the suppression of Solidarity under martial law in December, 1981. Political sources said Mr Kiszczak’s gesture could reflect disputes between party activists who had wanted to blame Poland’s recent woes on Mr Messner and others who felt his removal would send misleading signals of disarray to the opposition.

The Politburo split was the hardest evidence of wrangles inside the party leadership as, in an abrupt reversal of its policies over the last seven years, it prepares for talks next month with Solidarity on Poland’s future.

Mr Kiszczak, the party’s chief negotiator with Solidarity’s chairman, Lech Walesa, in the runup to the talks, has suggested the authorities may relegalise the union, formally outlawed in October, 1982. Opposition leaders have quoted Mr Kiszczak and a junior Politburo member, Stanislaw Ciosek, as telling Mr Walesa this month that many party, Army and police officials are outraged at the prospect of Solidarity’s re-emer-gence;