Europe News

World leaders mourn Kaczynski after plane-crash death

By German Press Agency Apr 10, 2010, 22:24 GMT

People lay flowers at the Polish Embassy in Moscow, commemorating victims of the plane crash in Smolensk, Russia, 11 April. EPA/Jacek Turczyk

Governments around the world voiced shock at the deaths of President Lech Kaczynski and other senior Polish officials in the Smolensk plane crash on Saturday, with past friction all but forgotten.

Kaczynski, his wife, and officials including the heads of Poland's general staff, its central bank and Olympic Committee, were killed when their aircraft hit trees in foggy weather near Smolensk on Saturday morning.

In Poland, the acting president said in an address that nation has been brought together in mourning across political divisions.

'We are together in the face of our national drama. There is no division between the left and right,' acting President Bronislaw Komorowski said in the televised address. 'Differences in opinions, in beliefs, have no meaning today.'

'We join in pain with the families of the victims,' Komorowski added, 'and in concern about the further fate of the nation they left orphaned.'

The mood was grave in Russia and Germany, the two neighbours which many Poles often view with suspicion. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made a televised address on Saturday to express his condolences.

'In the name of the Russian people I send the Polish people my deep and sincere sympathy and promise to help the bereaved and relatives of the victims,' a visibly moved Medvedev said on national television.

He appointed a special commission headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to investigate the crash of the Polish plane at Smolensk in western Russia. Some Russian television channels played sombre music while reporting the disaster.

'We must do everything to help the families and dependants of the victims,' Putin told state television following an inspection of the crash site near Smolensk, in western Russia. He also held a minute's silence for the victims there and laid a wreath at the site along with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel, said, 'This is a political and human tragedy for Poland our neighbour.'

Describing Kaczynski as a 'combative European' who had loved his country, she said, 'We in Germany will miss him too.

US President Barack Obama called the death 'devastating' and praised the close US ally for his role in guiding the Eastern European country's democratic transformation.

In a statement released by the White House Saturday, Obama said he telephoned Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to offer his condolences.

'Today's loss is devastating to Poland, to the United States, and to the world,' Obama said. 'President Kaczynski was a distinguished statesman who played a key role in the Solidarity movement, and he was widely admired in the United States as a leader dedicated to advancing freedom and human dignity.'

Kaczynski was a controversial figure in the European Union, where his abrasive style and undiplomatic language raised many hackles.

Many reactions alluded to both Kaczynski's pugnacious fights for what he believed were Poland's best interests and the bonds that were forged when foreign politicians had got to know him better.

'Poland has suffered a dreadful loss,' said German President Horst Koehler said, adding that Kaczynski had spent his life fighting for a free Poland. Like Merkel, he spoke of the friendship that had developed with Kaczynki and his wife, Maria Kaczynska, as guests at their home.

Top European Union officials mourned the deaths. 'This is an unimaginable catastrophe in Europe,' said the president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, himself a Pole, in a statement.

'I respected in him a very determined Polish patriot who at the same time was very committed to our European Union and to the values of freedom and solidarity,' the head of the EU's executive, Jose Manuel Barroso, said.

The crash was a 'tragedy for Poland,' said the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who sent his 'most profound condolences.' Poland joined NATO in 1999.

In Britain, Queen Elizabeth II expressed her 'deepest sympathy' to the Polish government and people. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, 'I think the whole world will be saddened and in sorrow.'

French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised Kaczynski as a 'dedicated opponent of totalitarianism and a defender of democracy and freedom,' adding that France had lost a friend who had been deeply committed to better relations.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus said he was 'shaken, shocked and saddened' by the deaths and said, 'I personally lost a genuine friend.' He and Kaczynski were close allies in Central Europe where they shared a dissident view about the functioning of the EU.

Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic offered condolences to his northern neighbour 'in this crushing moment.' Speaking for another neighbour, Lithuania, President Dalia Grybauskaite voiced 'her deepest condolences to the entire Polish nation.'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Kaczynski had been a leader who 'led the opening of a new page in the relations of the Jewish and Polish nations.'

'The death of my friend, President Lech Kaczynski, as well as the death of his wife Maria and other senior officials in Poland's leadership, shocks and pains us,' Israeli President Shimon Peres said.

Pope Benedict XVI sent a condolence message to Poles speaking of his 'deep pain' at the deaths.

It fell to a former Czech president, Vaclav Havel, to warn of the danger ahead if Poles seize on the idea that Kaczynski was murdered. Havel forecast that speculation rather than facts about the cause of the accident might influence developments in Poland.

'That speculation will influence the elections,' he said, predicting some Poles would see an analogy to the 1943 plane-crash death of Wladyslaw Sikorski, Poland's premier-in-exile. Some believe that Sikorski's plane was deliberately brought down.