Post by Bonobo on Aug 8, 2012 21:46:59 GMT 1
Political adversaries in Poland can be really annoying for each other.
Veteran condemns Warsaw Rising anniversary hecklers
03.08.2012 11:57
A figurehead for Poland's wartime resistance has criticised right-wingers who heckled ceremonies marking the 68th anniversary of the Warsaw Rising.
www.thenews.pl/2ee73d60-1131-4446-8fc4-dfc291a41e62.file
Mayor of Warsaw Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz takes part in a ceremony at the Warsaw Rising Memorial Mound, 1 August: photo - PAP/Pawel Supernak
General Zbigniew Scibor-Rylski, the 95-year-old chairman of the Association of Warsaw Insurgents, has described the hecklers as “fanatics” in the wake of Wednesday's tributes.
In spite of veterans appeals for respectful silence during ceremonies marking the doomed 1944 insurgency against the Nazi German occupiers, two incidents marred this year's commemorations.
On both occasions, hecklers appeared to be aiming to discredit Poland's current coalition government.
The first incident took place while Prime Minister Donald Tusk laid a wreath at the Gloria Victis monument in Warsaw's Powazki Military Cemetery.
Hums and whistles broke out from a portion of the crowd as the premier laid the wreath. Moments later, right-wing opposition MP Antoni Macierewicz (Law and Justice), who is widely known for promoting conspiracy theories about the 2010 Smolensk air crash, was greeted with enthusiastic applause.
Later in the evening, shouting and whistling erupted as city and government officials joined veterans and scouts in a torch-lighting ceremony at a memorial mound devoted to the Warsaw Rising.
Cries of “Down with communism,” interrupted the tributes.
“This is a group of fanatics,” General Scibor-Rylski said yesterday in an interview with the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, referring to the predominantly middle-aged crowd that took part in the first incident.
“I have no other words for it. Their behaviour was outrageous.”
However, commenting on the second incident, which was initiated by a younger group, the general was more conciliatory, saying that he does not consider them to be “bad” people, but simply "young" and “misinformed.”
He said he believes the hecklers came for “patriotic reasons”, and that owing to this, he accepted apologies from some members of the crowd following the ceremony.
Thousands of resistance veterans suffered repression at the hands of the communist regime in Poland following the war.
“Where is communism?” the general questioned hecklers during Wednesday night's ceremony, while calling on them to refrain from the shouting.
“Many thousands gave there lives in order to stop communism,” he stressed.
Veteran condemns Warsaw Rising anniversary hecklers
03.08.2012 11:57
A figurehead for Poland's wartime resistance has criticised right-wingers who heckled ceremonies marking the 68th anniversary of the Warsaw Rising.
www.thenews.pl/2ee73d60-1131-4446-8fc4-dfc291a41e62.file
Mayor of Warsaw Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz takes part in a ceremony at the Warsaw Rising Memorial Mound, 1 August: photo - PAP/Pawel Supernak
General Zbigniew Scibor-Rylski, the 95-year-old chairman of the Association of Warsaw Insurgents, has described the hecklers as “fanatics” in the wake of Wednesday's tributes.
In spite of veterans appeals for respectful silence during ceremonies marking the doomed 1944 insurgency against the Nazi German occupiers, two incidents marred this year's commemorations.
On both occasions, hecklers appeared to be aiming to discredit Poland's current coalition government.
The first incident took place while Prime Minister Donald Tusk laid a wreath at the Gloria Victis monument in Warsaw's Powazki Military Cemetery.
Hums and whistles broke out from a portion of the crowd as the premier laid the wreath. Moments later, right-wing opposition MP Antoni Macierewicz (Law and Justice), who is widely known for promoting conspiracy theories about the 2010 Smolensk air crash, was greeted with enthusiastic applause.
Later in the evening, shouting and whistling erupted as city and government officials joined veterans and scouts in a torch-lighting ceremony at a memorial mound devoted to the Warsaw Rising.
Cries of “Down with communism,” interrupted the tributes.
“This is a group of fanatics,” General Scibor-Rylski said yesterday in an interview with the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, referring to the predominantly middle-aged crowd that took part in the first incident.
“I have no other words for it. Their behaviour was outrageous.”
However, commenting on the second incident, which was initiated by a younger group, the general was more conciliatory, saying that he does not consider them to be “bad” people, but simply "young" and “misinformed.”
He said he believes the hecklers came for “patriotic reasons”, and that owing to this, he accepted apologies from some members of the crowd following the ceremony.
Thousands of resistance veterans suffered repression at the hands of the communist regime in Poland following the war.
“Where is communism?” the general questioned hecklers during Wednesday night's ceremony, while calling on them to refrain from the shouting.
“Many thousands gave there lives in order to stop communism,” he stressed.