MPs in Cold War spy resolution row

Kuklinski's Polish military ID: wikipedia

Right-wing minority party United Poland had sought to honour Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski – whose story is currently being filmed in a major movie production – in connection with the 9th anniversary of the spy's February 1994 death.

Kuklinski passed about 40,000 pages of secret documents to the CIA before being spirited out of Poland to the US in 1981. However, in spite of his apparent support for the goals of Poland's anti-communist dissidents, many in Poland are still ambivalent about Kuklinski's defection. President Walesa himself declined to pardon the colonel during his first term in office (1990-1995).

Most vocal in its criticism of the draft resolution was the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), a party that emerged from the ranks of former communist party members.

“My club is opposed to the resolution,” SLD MP Tadeusz Iwinski told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Iwinski argued that the resolution had “a provocative character” and that “there are many mysteries and uncertainties about his life.”

Head of the Parliamentary Committee on Culture Iwona Sledzinska-Katarasinska, an MP for Prime Minister Tusk's centre-right Civic Platform party, said that “maybe we should wait until we have an anniversary with a round number, and perhaps in the meantime some new information will emerge on him.”

United Poland's draft resolution had called on parliament to express “ its deepest appreciation for the work of the colonel, whose self-sacrifice served in the overthrow of communism in Poland and for the maintenance of world peace.”

The forthcoming Polish movie about Kuklinski is entitled Jack Strong, after the pseudonym given to the colonel by the CIA.

Directed by Wladyslaw Pasikowski, the film stars award-winning actor Marcin Dorocinski as the colonel and American Patrick Wilson as one of his CIA handlers. (nh)