Today, marks the 28th anniversary of the so-called 'pacification' of the Wujek colliery in Katowice, southern Poland.

Riot police, backed by army tanks, smashed into the barricaded Wujek colliery on 16 December 1981, three days after martial law was declared.

As workers fought back with bottles and bits of iron, police opened fire, killing nine miners and wounding twenty-one.

The 'pacification' of the protest has become a symbol of the brutality of martial law, declared by communist party leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski.

“Many of my colleagues, who took part in the events, and, like myself, were imprisoned and persecuted by the communist authorities, and did not manage to lead a normal life afterwards. Many families were broken, many of the striking miners had to flee Poland,” says head of the Wujek 1981 striking committee, Stanislaw Platek.

The miners started the strike in protest against the arrest of their colleague Jan Ludwiczak and against the introduction of martial law, imposed on 13 December 1981.

Trials of those responsible for the massacre started only after 1991. After 15 years, in 2008, a sentence was passed for fourteen former members of the ZOMO riot police. The same year saw the opening of a trial against General Wojciech Jaruzelski, former interior minister Czeslaw Kiszczak and head of the Polish United Workers' Party, Stanislaw Kania, who have been accused of communist crimes for the imposition of martial law.

The Wujek tragedy has become one of the nation's symbols of solidarity. A cross was put up in the place of the massacre – however, on the same day, it was removed by communist authorities. Each year commemorations are held in honour to the victims of the pacification. (ab/mmj)