Archives for November 2014

Resolution #1: The Security of the Republic of Poland

Whereas, the Russian aggression of Ukraine, annexation of Crimea and threats from Putin’s
Kremlin against the Republic of Poland demonstrate that the current policies of Russian
President Putin and the insurgent Russian imperialism become a real and imminent threat to
world peace, stability in Eastern and Central Europe and particularly to the existence of the
Republic of Poland as a free country, and
Whereas, the Republic of Poland is a member of the NATO alliance, and
Whereas, NATO alliance has no workable contingency plans to effectively aid Poland against
an aggression from the East, and
Whereas, Polish President Bronisław Komorowski appealed to the NATO members, particularly
Germany, to assist Poland in the extreme necessity of possible Russian military aggression, and
Whereas, Germany refused to participate in creating any NATO military bases on Polish
territory, and
Whereas, on September 30, 2014 the German press released information, according to which
the German Armed Forces are disorganized and lacking the necessary equipment for sustaining
efforts per President Komorowski’s request,
Therefore, the National Directors of the Polish American Congress assembled in Chicago on
October 17-18, 2014, express their deep concern about the security of Poland. In our opinion it
is necessary to establish United States Armed Forces bases on Polish territory. National
Directors of PAC appeal to United States Authorities to establish a strong bilateral treaty
between the USA and Poland, similar to the accords between the USA and some other
countries. We request U. S. President Barack Obama to act on this issue without delay.
Therefore, the Conference of National Directors resolved to authorize the President of the
Polish American congress to take immediate action to establish direct contacts with appropriate
US Authorities to that end.

Resolution #2: Congressional Hearings on the Smolensk Disaster

Whereas, on April 10th, 2010, the Polish Air Force One, carrying the President of Poland Lech
Kaczyński and 95 other distinguished high-ranking officials, including the entire Central
Command of the Polish Armed Forces, members of the Sejm and state administration, clergy
and families of the Katyń victims, crashed at the Severnyl Airfield in Smolensk, Russia, killing all
96 people on board, and
Whereas, the Polish Government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk acted to the detriment of
Poland’s vital national interest by allowing to conduct the investigation of the crash by the
authorities of the Russian Federation, under Annex 13 to the Chicago Convention, improperly
treating Polish Air Force One as a civilian aircraft, thereby depriving the Polish side of any
enforcement, oversight and appeal mechanisms, and
Whereas, the Russian investigation produced a report (“MAK Report”) that contains blatant
inconsistencies and misrepresentations while demonstrating disregard for
facts, data and laws of physics, from which it arrives at dubious conclusions, and
Whereas, the lack of professionalism and poor quality of the Russian investigation has been
proven by numerous mistakes in the identification of the victims’ bodies transferred to Poland
for burial, and
Whereas, the authorities of the Russian Federation endlessly delay, without good cause,
transferring to Poland the wreckage of the aircraft and all pertinent evidence, such as flight data
recorders and electronic equipment, while mishandling and even purposely destroying the direct
evidence, and
Whereas, the Polish authorities accepted the MAK Report without due care, and followed up
with their own report (Miller Commission Report) which rubberstamps the MAK Report, and
Whereas, the Polish Government continues to ignore scientific evidence produced by the
Parliamentary Committee for the investigation of the Smolensk Crash led by Minister Antoni
Macierewicz in cooperation with independent experts from all over the world and investigative
journalists, while harassing and even defaming them instead,
Therefore, the Polish American Congress Council of National Directors, assembled in Chicago,
Illinois on October 17-18, 2014, resolved that:

1. After four years of investigations and implausible explanations of the causes of the
crash, it becomes unlikely that the Governments of the Russian Federation and of the
Republic of Poland will ever conduct a professional investigation based on
contemporary international standards of aircraft crash investigation that would
produce trustworthy and verifiable results;
2. We are hereby requesting that the Congress of the United States of America convene
an inquiry and Congressional Hearings to find the truth about the Smolensk Disaster;
3. We are calling on all of North American Polonia to let their Congressional and
Parliamentary Representatives in Washington and Ottawa know that their Polish
constituents want them to find the truth about the Smolensk Disaster, and persuade
them to convene Inquiry and Congressional Hearings in the Smolensk Disaster case;
4. We hereby direct the PAC President to take the lead in this effort by writing to
Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman of the United States Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, to initiate the hearings.
Resolutions Committee:
Frances X. Gates, Chairman
Theresa Bunk
Camille Kopielski

 

The Polish American Congress expresses its deep concern over the recent military and political acts of aggression of the Russian Federation towards its European neighbors. We are alarmed by the violations of territorial integrity of its contiguous sovereign states and the blatant impudence of the information warfare conducted by the Russian Federation worldwide.

We object in strongest terms to the recent attempts by President Vladimir Putin to justify the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of August 23, 1939 pursuant to which Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union secretly agreed to “a territorial and political rearrangement of the areas belonging to the Polish state” and left a decision as to “whether the interests of both parties make desirable the maintenance of an independent Polish state and how such a state should be bounded” to be determined by the two aggressors. The Nazi-Soviet Pact led to the joint Nazi-Soviet aggression on the sovereign Polish State in September 1939. The two aggressors divided Poland between themselves and closely cooperated in combating Polish resistance, in particular the extermination of Polish elites. Those treacherous pacts led to the unprecedented genocide committed on the Polish civilian population by both Nazi Germany’s Gestapo and the Soviet Union’s NKVD.

While crimes committed by the Nazi regime have been disclosed, adjudicated and condemned, the crimes committed by the Soviet regime have not been fully disclosed and were never properly adjudicated and condemned by the international community. To this day, no justice has been served for the Katyn Massacre crime, one of the most heinous crimes of WWII, when an estimated 22,000 Polish intellectuals and leaders were mass murdered by the Soviet NKVD secret police by a pistol shot to the back of each of their heads and buried in unmarked secret mass graves.

Today’s Russia uses historical propaganda as an effective weapon to regain the status of a world power once again at the expense her Central and Eastern European neighbors. Today’s Russia denies the historic reality of Soviet responsibility for its trademark crimes of WWII and attempts to justify the annexation of half of Poland, occupation of the Baltic States, and the Katyn Massacre, just to name some of the Soviet Union’s unaccounted for liabilities.

In light of the traumatic experience of the Polish people subjected to massive extermination by both Nazi and Soviet regimes in the aftermath of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 23, 1939, the recent statement by the Russian President that “there is nothing wrong with the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact” is not only offensive but also very dangerous to the peace and security of today’s world. Such a statement sends a message that criminal practices symbolized and viciously implemented by the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact are acceptable.

The people of Europe unequivocally condemned the criminal Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact by designating August 23 as the Black Ribbon Day commemorating the victims of Nazi and Soviet totalitarian regimes. The Black Ribbon Day was introduced in the European Parliament by a resolution on European Conscience and Totalitarianism on April 2, 2009. A similar resolution establishing August 23 as the Black Ribbon Day was adopted by the Parliament of Canada on November 30, 2009.

The Polish American Congress strongly condemns in unequivocal terms this 21st century Russian attempt to justify and rehabilitate the immoral Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact that led to the mass extermination of millions of people in Europe. The lessons of Poland’s tragic past must not be forgotten. We shall honor the victims of the Soviet oppression, condemn the perpetrators, and lay the foundation for reconciliation based on truth and remembrance.

Accordingly, we urge the United States Congress to designate August 23 as “Black Ribbon Day” so to never forget the Soviet terror experienced by millions of people of Central and Eastern Europe during the 20th century. We must remember, honor, and learn from the experience of the people subjected to the Soviet Union’s ruthless military, economic, and political repression through mass exterminations, arbitrary executions, mass arrests, deportations, the suppression of free speech, confiscation of property, and the destruction of cultural and moral identity and civil society, all of which deprived the vast majority of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe of their basic human rights and dignity.

We must ensure that this cruel history never repeats itself and that the memory of these crimes is never forgotten.

Sincerely,

Frank J. Spula,

President

Polish American Congress