Once-exiled Polish president remains returned (Roundup)

Apr 15, 2010, 16:50 GMT

Warsaw - The body of Ryszard Kaczorowski, Poland's last president-in-exile, returned to his homeland Thursday amid continued mourning for the 97 victims of this weekend's plane crash that also claimed the country's president.

Kaczorowski, 90, was the last leader of the Polish exiled government that formed in 1939 at the start of World War II, and operated abroad for five decades when Poland was ruled by a Soviet- backed communist regime.

He resigned in 1990 when Poles elected then Solidarity leader Lech Walesa after the collapse of communism.

The exiled government was largely symbolic and had little political sway, but Walesa chose to receive power from Kaczorowski instead of taking the position from then-communist president Wojciech Jaruzelski.

Born on November 26, 1919 in Bialystok, east Poland, Kaczorowski was arrested in 1940 after he worked relaying messages for the Polish underground during World War II. He was taken prisoner by Joseph Stalin's secret police and given a death sentence.

The sentence was later reduced, and Kaczorowski joined the Polish Army. He settled in Britain after the war and worked as an accountant before he retired and joined the exiled government in London. There he served for three years as Minister of the Country Affairs in Exile, then as president from 1989 to 1990.

Kaczorowski's coffin, draped in a white and red flag, was greeted at the airport by politicians and acting President Bronislaw Komorowski.

'We greet today with real emotion one of the last soldier-exiles, one of the last Polish pilgrims who for their entire lives and even from across the world returned to Poland,' Komorowski said. 'An immigrant who, despite the bitter bread of emigration, had the strength and will to continue the fight to preserve Polishness.'

The coffin was taken to Belvedere Palace, a stately building used for ceremonial purposes, where it was to be placed on public view.

Kaczorowski was survived by wife Karolina and two daughters.

A further 34 bodies returned later Thursday as the nation continued a week-long period of mourning that has been extended until Sunday.

Those bodies included Janusz Kochanowski, Ombudsman, Janusz Kurtyka, the head of the Institute of National Remembrance, which investigates Nazi and Soviet crimes, Maciej Plazynski, former parliament speaker, Bishop Tadeusz Ploski, and Aleksander Szczyglo, head of the National Security Bureau.

The transport also contained the body of Anna Walentynowicz, who was fired from work in 1980 months before her retirement for her activism in an illegal trade union during Poland's communist regime.

That move from the bosses of the Gdansk shipyard enraged workers, sparked protests and later lead to the formation of the Solidarity labour union, for which she was one of the founders.

Thirty bodies were returned Wednesday from Saturday's crash in Smolensk, western Russia that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, the crew and dozens of high-ranking officials.

Another 31 victims remain in Russia, where efforts and DNA testing is underway to identify them.

The presidential couple lay in state as Poles waited in line up to eight hours to pay tribute to the pair, or kneel briefly near their coffins in prayer. The city of Warsaw gave Kaczynski honorary citizenship Thursday.

The tragedy united Poles across the political spectrum as analysts predicted better relations with Russia, which Warsaw has praised for its shows of empathy and its cooperation in the investigation of the crash site.

But that unity broke as protests increased Wednesday against the decision of church authorities to bury the Kaczynski couple in the crypt of the Wawel Cathedral, the traditional resting place of national heroes, kings, poets and generals.

Polish film director Andrzej Wajda appealed Wednesday to church authorities to reverse their 'rash' decision made in a moment of 'grief and sympathy.'

A group on Facebook protesting the burial site had gathered some 43,000 members by Thursday afternoon.

Meanwhile officials in Krakow were preparing to receive up to a million guests for the funeral set for Sunday.

Kaczynski was on his way to the memorial to mark the 1940 Soviet massacre in Katyn, Russia of some 22,000 Polish officers when the plane went down and left no survivors.

Some 41 delegations were to attend Kaczynski's funeral, the Polish Press Agency PAP reported, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, and the presidents of the United States, Russia and France.

Ceremonies were also scheduled in Warsaw on Saturday to pay tribute to the victims of the crash.