Anna Walentynowicz's grave, Gdansk: photo - PAP/Piotr Pedziszewski
Addressing the lower house of parliament, Thursday, PM Tusk said:
“I take full responsibility for all of our state offices, including those that might have made errors.
“And this responsibility requires me to apologize to all the Smolensk families for the distress and suffering caused not only by the disaster, but also connected with the identification procedures, which were sometimes carried out with the stiffness of procedural dictates, and as it turns out - even with errors,” he said.
Tusk's statement comes after Poland's Supreme Military Prosecutor's Office revealed on Tuesday that in the light of a second autopsy, it could be confirmed that Solidarity legend Anna Walentynowicz had been buried in the wrong grave in 2010.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of conservative opposition party Law and Justice, described the discovery as “a gigantic scandal,” adding that the public had been “deceived” by the government's statements.
Tusk nevertheless strove to highlight the hard work done “from the first moments after the crash near Smolensk,” when “thousands of people, government officials, soldiers, doctors were involved in this dramatic operation.”
The premier said that reponsibility for “mistakes and failures... should not be burdened on these people.”
Meanwhile, the remains of Anna Walentynowicz are due to buried once more.
The burial will take place at Gdansk's Srebrzysko cemetery at 2 pm local time, following a mass. It was originally intended that the Solidarity activist would be laid to rest there in her home city.
However, as it transpired, the coffin of another victim (unofficially believed to be Teresa Walewska-Przyjalkowska) was placed there.
Anna Walentynowicz was one of the iconic figures of the Solidarity Movement. It was her firing from the former Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk – on account of her participation in an illegal trade union – that prompted the now legendary strike led by Lech Walesa in August 1980. (nh)