photo - east news

Protesters vow to fight “to the death” at the removal, at 13.00 CET Tuesday, of a simple wooden cross outside the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, placed by scouts in commemoration of the April 10 Smolensk disaster.

 

The Smolensk cross was erected in front of the palace in central Warsaw in memory of the 96 who died in the April 10 air crash in western Russia, which killed Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria. It is to be moved to the nearby St. Anne’s church.

 

The cross is to relocate on agreement between president-elect Bronislaw Komorowski, national scouts organisations and church authorities.

 

On Thursday, it will be taken on a pilgrimage to Czestochowa, the city containing Poland’s holiest Catholic shrine. It will then be returned to Warsaw and housed at St Anne’s church.

 

A vocal group of cross defenders have vowed to stage “passive resistance” to the removal of the cross, however. This morning barriers surround the area of the cross. Cleaners are removing candles and police stand by.

 

Zbigniew Zbelniak from the Social Committee for the Defence of the Holy Cross has arrived bringing sandwiches and drinks for his fellow protestors. He complains that he can not approach the cross and pray for those who perished in the crash . He believes the authoritarian situation "smells like Belarus".

One spokesperson for a group of protestors who have camped out on one of Warsaw’s busiest thoroughfares in defence of the cross repeated earlier threats that they will fight to “the death“ to keep the wooden monument where it is and ”will sooner let ourselves be torn apart or killed,” than see it moved to St Anne’s

Cross-fire

The location of the cross became an issue when the victorious ruling Civic Platform’s presidential candidate, Komorowski, declared that it was to be removed “to a more suitable place.”

Prominent Law and Justice member of the European parliament, Zbigniew Ziobro responded by writing a letter to Komorowski in protest. “This cross, erected by the presidential palace, is a symbol of those days when Poles, united in pain, came to this place to show their solidarity and mourning,” he wrote.

Politicians from the opposition Law and Justice - a party associated with the late president, Lech Kaczynski - want the cross to be returned to its place in front of the palace when the pilgrimage ends. A spokesman for the party’s parliamentary group Mariusz Blaszczak argues that this is where the it belongs.

“This place was chosen by the people not without a reason. A monument should be erected there and the cross should be a part of it,” he told Polish Radio, Monday.

According to unconfirmed reports, Law and Justice politicians will gather in front of the Presidential Palace tomorrow at the time of the cross‘s removal to support the protest. (pg/kk)