Poland, world leaders, attend Kaczynski's funeral mass (3rd Lead)

Apr 18, 2010, 15:26 GMT

Krakow, Poland - World leaders prayed alongside a grieving Poland at the state funeral of President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria at St Mary's Basilica in Krakow on Sunday.

The two sealed coffins lay near the altar, draped in the white and red Polish flags, a week after the couple was killed along with 94 others in a plane crash in Russia.

Their only child, Marta, and Kaczynski's twin brother Jaroslaw, who heads the opposition Law and Justice party, sat in the front row.

Other relatives, the heads of state of Russia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, as well as Polish acting President Bronislaw Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk were among some 700 mourners inside the basilica.

Before being seated, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev lit a candle for the couple and bowed before a portrait of them at the entrance of the church.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who conducted the mass, said the tragedy gave hope that tensions would warm between Warsaw and the Kremlin.

'Seventy years ago, the Katyn (massacre in 1940) distanced two nations,' Dziwisz said in reference to the execution of Polish officers by Soviet forces.

'Hiding the truth about the innocent spilled blood did not allow painful wounds to heal. The (plane crash) tragedy of eight days revealed many good foundations ... The empathy and help we experienced in the past few days from our Russian brothers revives hopes of uniting our two Slavic nations,' the cardinal added.

Komorowski said 'Katyn was a painful wound' in Polish history that for long decades poisoned relations with Moscow. He added that for long decades during communism, the massacre could not be talked about, but now the world was talking about it because of the plane crash at Smolensk.

Russia admitted guilt for the massacre after decades of blaming the killings on Nazi Germany. In communist Poland, it was forbidden to mark the massacre or say it had been ordered by Joseph Stalin's secret police.

Komorowski said Poles 'prize and accept with open hearts' the 'words and gestures' from Russian society, its president and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that came after the plane crash. Polish officials had praised Russia's cooperation in the investigation of the crash site.

Around 90,000 people, some of whom came from abroad, stood outside to follow the service on large screens.

Many waved Polish flags or flags of the labour union Solidarity, which Kaczynski had joined during under communism.

The Kaczynskis are to be buried in the crypts of Wawel Cathedral in Krakow, the traditional resting place of Polish kings, generals and poets later Sunday.

Their coffins arrived earlier in the day. They were brought to the city by military plane and then traveled in a motorcade to the basilica for the service.

Hundreds lined the route, waving the Polish flag and showering the vehicles with daffodils and tulips.

A historic number of world leaders had been expected to attend the funeral, but many canceled as a cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano shut down airports across Europe.

US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Austrian President Heinz Fischer were among the 40 cancellations on the eve of the service.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus and European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek made the trip to Krakow by rail or car.

Family members and heads of state formed a funeral procession that would make its way to Wawel Cathedral on Wawel Hill, the ancient limestone outcrop that overlooks the Vistula River.

The tolling of the historic Zygmunt's Bell, that signaled the death of Polish-born Pope John Paul II in 2005, was to accompany the procession.

The presidential couple will be buried together in an onyx sarcophagus near that of Jozef Pilsudski, the general who won independence for Poland in 1918 after more than a century of partitions.

Only relatives and friends were to be in the cathedral when the coffins were lowered into the grave. The couple were to receive a 21- gun salute.

The funeral followed a day after around 100,000 people attended an official ceremony in Warsaw to honour the crash victims.

At the time of the crash in Smolensk, Kaczynski and his delegation were en route to Russia for ceremonies to mark the 60th anniversary of the Katyn massacre.