"I Recognize the Mistakes"

Not far from the heart of Warsaw, some fifty meters from the Central Railway Station, is the building of BGW Publishers, the employer of the former Polish president and one of the most controversial personalities in the recent Polish history: General Wojteh Jaruzelski. Today the general belongs to the social layer often called "ordinary citizens" but in this particular case it is definitely a misnomer. Wojteh Jaruzelski is everything but ordinary. By the twist of historical irony, General Jaruzelski was responsible for two historic decisions which shaped the new face of the European continent - his decision of 1981 prevented for a while the collapse of the system which ruled over Eastern Europe for fifty years, and his decision of 1989 marked the end of that system.

Almost eight years separated the night of December 12-13, 1980 when the state of emergency was proclaimed in Poland from June 1989 when the Polish "round table" first met. Meanwhile, the general was held in high esteem by some, despised by some, and feared by some. Those who understood him were the fewest.

Fourteen years later in an exclusive interview for Vreme, Wojteh Jaruzelski talks about his two decisions calmly and reasonably: "I took them at different points of history, in different internal and foreign circumstances. But they do have one common denominator. The substance of both those inevitable moves was the protection of Poland against developments which might end in bloodshed."

"Today, when I look upon that decision from a distance of all these years, I recognize the mistakes that the then government - and Solidarnosc - committed. We moved too slowly, the opposition moved too fast. We wanted too little, they wanted too much. The Polish autumn of 1981 was running ahead of the reality of then international constellation of forces. The state of siege in Poland - if we compare it with emergency measures taken in similar circumstances in other countries, was a 'state of siege in kid gloves'."

Jaruzelski thinks that one of his more serious mistakes at the time was that he held an incorrect opinion about the representatives of the Polish opposition which was "not based on personal acquaintanceship, but on diverse information" he was receiving. "I am sorry that at that time I did not find a way to understand them, reach them. Had I found it, maybe certain things would have taken a different turn. All those people deserve highest respect." General Jaruzelski and one of the greatest Polish dissidents Adam Mihnik are family friends today.

The outcome of the "round table" was a coalition government presided by Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a Solidarnosc man, whence the majority of ministers also came, set up in June 1989. Jaruzelski remained the president of Poland. The most important offices - defence and home affairs - were kept by people from the communist nomenclature. Looking back, Jaruzelski notes that "a more turbulent disintegration was prevented due precisely to the fact that we dismantled the communist system, and especially the army and the home affairs sector, with our own hands"

As in all other post-communist countries the Polish public opinion is divided into two currents - one is for the legal prosecution of all those responsible for the introduction of the state of emergency, and the other proposes national reconciliation after the public pardon of all those involved in the events. The conflicts which took place here in the preceding period led people to the opposite sides of the barricades. The decision on the state of emergency was not taken by one man, it was enforced by hundreds of thousands of people, and millions accepted it and thought it right. The poll conducted by an Austrian institute last year showed that as many as 56 percent of the Poles believed that the state of emergency was unavoidable, and only 26 percent that it was not necessary. It is not surprising, therefore, that a segment of the society is supportive of General Jaruzelski: "I realize that the majority of the population understands the role that was entrusted to me. That makes me feel fine", he says today.