Comment du Jour
11 April

Another Tragedy for Poland

Pity poor Poland. Commemorations marking the 70th anniversary of the infamous
Katyn Forest massacre, were shattered by a terrible aircraft accident which killed the Polish President Lech Kaczynski and scores of leading government officials. The air crash at Smolensk Russia, was laden both with obvious tragedy and deep and ironic symbolism. The ill-fated aircraft was an aged Soviet built TU-154.

In 1940 Soviet secret police executed 22,000 captured Polish military officers and intellectuals. The crime was long denied by Moscow but in recent years was grudgingly admitted. Only recently did this openess lead to a thaw in Polish/ Russian relations. The commemoration was slated to be at the massacre site.

"This is unbelievable — this tragic, cursed Katyn," Kaczynski's predecessor, Aleksander Kwasniewski, said on TVN24 television.

It is "a cursed place, horrible symbolism," he said. "It's hard to believe. You get chills down your spine."


Russian Premier Vladimir Putin shall lead the crash investigation. Ironic too.