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Smolensk report ready, says government

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 28.06.2011 09:04
PM Tusk has received Poland's report into the causes of the Smolensk air disaster last April, which has been finally completed and will be published soon, says the government.

PM
PM Tusk with Minister Miller; photo - PAP/Jacek Pietruszka

Prime Minister Donald Tusk received the report on Monday from a committee lead by Interior Minister Jerzy Miller into the causes of the air disaster on 10 April which killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others.

The 300 page-long report will now be translated into Russian and English before being published.

"Due to its volume it is difficult to say how long [the translation process] will last," said Interior Ministry spokeswoman Malgorzata Wozniak.

Prime Minister Tusk has not requested any ammenments to the report, she added.

The report includes three test flights done by the Polish investigation team looking at whether the pilot of the TU-154 had time to pull out of the doomed attempt at landing the plane, which crashed near Smolensk airport after hitting the tops of trees.

A Russian report into the disaster was completed last year although its findings - that the crash was caused mainly due to pilot error - was challenged by the Polish government, which said the report's findings were "incomplete".

The causes of the crash and the subsequent investigation became politicised in Poland following the disaster, with twin brother of the late president Jaroslaw Kaczynski accusing the government of wesakness in the face of what he argues has been a cover up by Moscow into certain areas of the investigation.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski has also accused the government of being partially responsible for the crash after they downgraded Lech Kaczynski's security arrangments.

'No' to Warsaw monument

Meanwhile, 70 percent of residents of Warsaw have told the pollsters, in a survey commissioned by local authorities, that they do not want a second monument built in Warsaw in memory of those who dioed in the disaster.

A monument to the 96 dead is already in place in the Powazki cemetary in central Warsaw.

The survey found that 52.2 percent answered "definitely not" and 18.7 percent "probably not" to the suggestion for a monument put forward by the Social Committee for the Construction of a National Monument to the Victims of the Smolensk Tragedy, which has the backing of Marta Kaczynska, daughter of the late Lech Kaczynski.

Only 9.3 percent answered "definitely yes" to the proposal and 15.4 percent "probably yes".

City Hall spokesman, Bartosz Milczarczyk said that the authorities are not planning any further surveys. "It seems that this is a very clear response by the residents of Warsaw on this issue," he said. (pg)

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