Poland, Russia Seek Reconciliation As They Mark Two Painful Anniversaries

April 12, 2011 The Polish and Russian presidents Bronislaw Komorowski and Dmitry Medvedev, who met Monday at Smolensk, western Russia, at the scene of the fatal crash of the Polish Presidential plane a year ago, pledged to stay on the path of reconciliation, despite recent dispute over a memorial plaque at the accident site. After an hour-long, face-to-face meeting at a Smolensk library the two presidents held a joint press conference during which they said they were interested in the fastest possible conclusion of investigations into the Smolensk crash that killed Komorowski's predecessor Lech Kaczynski and 95 other Polish top officials in 2010. Later the two presidents laid wreaths at the actual site of the crash and President Medvedev announced that they both agreed to create a bilateral commission for designing a memorial at this site. "Top-level support from both sides is guaranteed," Russian president added. President Komorowski pointed out that any inscription at the planned memorial would be in both Polish and Russian and subject to bilateral approval. This is particularly relevant in the context of the recent row over a memorial plaque which was unveiled at the crash site by victims families and which had the wording on it changed at the last minute on Saturday by the Russian authorities. The Russian side removed mention of the fact that the late President Kaczynski was travelling to attend Katyn commemorative events. At the press conference Medvedev also came out for continued declassifying of Russian prosecution files of the investigation o Katyn crime - the massacre of Polish POWs by Soviet NKVD. For the first time ever the presidents of Poland and Russia jointly attended ceremonies marking the anniversary of the Katyn massacre. The events took place in Katyn forest, which was used as a place for mass executions outside Smolensk, Russia. Four thousand four hundred and twenty one Polish officers captured in 1939 were shot dead in the Katyn forest and all together in other places of the Soviet Union were executed 21,857 Polish military servicemen as enemies of Soviet power. Source: The Warsaw Voice