Photo: www.solidarnosc.gov.plA group acting on behalf of victims of the communist regime in Poland has appealed parliamentarians to change the law regulating damages paid to victims of the communist regime.
The current regulations put an upper limit to damages granted at 25,000 zloty (around 6,000 euros).
Former functionaries of the communist repressive apparatus, such as police, militia and others responsible for murders, torture and persecution still enjoy old age pension privileges, making their income several times higher than that of their victims, says the group.
Jerzy Lysiak who heads the association of the victims of the communist regime (The Association for National Remembrance ) says: 'We are only asking to be treated, at least, not worse, than our persecutors.”
At the beginning of the year, pensions for General Wojciech Jaruzelski and others in the communist regime in the 1980s had their pensions slashed by half. Poland's constitutional tribunal was supposed to rule on whether it is lawful to take away pension privileges from former communist persecutors, but the ruling was adjourned.
This caused the association of the victims of the communist regime to speak up, says a member, Janusz Sanocki: 'If the treasury is rich enough to pay privileges to a crowd of retired communist militia functionaries, then this same free Poland should also be able to afford to pay damages to those, who risked their lives for this free Poland.'
(jn)
Source: Radio Opole
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General Jaruzelski’s pension halved, thenews.pl, Jan 11