No National Mourning for Poland's Last Communist Leader
General Wojciech Jaruzelski, Poland's last communist leader, will have a state funeral on Friday in the military wing of the capital's historic Powazki cemetery, but there will be no day of national mourning, officials said Tuesday,
Poles remain divided over the martial law he imposed in 1981, cracking down on the nascent Solidarity free trade union.
Jaruzelski had insisted the move saved Poland from a potentially bloody Soviet invasion, but critics have argued that it only bolstered his regime.
But he was credited with having agreed in 1989 to the first partially free elections, which incredibly brought an end to communism in Poland without any bloodshed.
Stricken with cancer, Jaruzelski died on Sunday aged 90 just days ahead of ceremonies marking 25 years since Poland's June 4 semi-free elections that heralded communism's demise.
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski has refrained from declaring a day of national mourning with aides explaining that Jaruzelski remains too divisive a figure.
"A day of national mourning would be inopportune, due to the fact that it should be express the sentiments of the entire nation," presidential spokeswoman Joanna Trzaska-Wieczorek said explaining the decision.
His only daughter, Monika Jaruzelska, told local press that her "father saw himself as a soldier and always wanted to be buried along side his comrades in arms."
Source: Agence France Presse
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