måndag 14 april 2014

Katyń 2: Smolensk air disaster 'was caused by mystery explosion'


10 April 2014

Polish MP claims in report that Lech Kaczynski, the president of Poland, was assassinated by an explosion on the plane

The Smolensk air disaster that claimed the lives of the former president, his wife and 94 others, was caused by a mysterious explosion on board that ripped the aircraft apart according to a Polish MP.

The claim was made in a report that was published as Poland commemorated the fourth anniversary of the plane crash that claimed the lives of President Lech Kaczynski and dozens from the country's political, military and civil elite,

An official air-crash investigation concluded the disaster was an accident caused by a number of factors such as pilot error and thick fog enveloping Smolensk airport as the Tupolev Tu-154 government plane tried to land at Smolensk airport in western Russia on the morning of April 10, 2010.

But in a 200-page report entitled "Four Year after Smolensk: How the President Died," Antoni Macierewicz, an MP from Law and Justice, a party founded by Lech Kaczynski and his twin brother Jaroslaw, claimed the plane was brought down by an explosion.

Mr Macierewicz and Mr Kaczynski have long maintained the president was assassinated, possibly by the Russians, and the present Polish government was involved in a cover-up.

"Never in the history of the world has a government and prosecutors strived so hard to block access to the truth," Mr Macierewicz told reporters as he began the report's presentation.

Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister who also lost colleagues at Smolensk, has always rebuffed any accusations that his government was somehow involved in the disaster.

Citing expert witnesses Mr Macierewicz said fragments of the wreckage showed signs of an explosion that occurred shortly before the plane hit the ground. In a presentation on his report the MP released photographs appearing to show sections of the aircraft bent outwards, as if they had been subjected to a blast.

He also said the scattering of the debris was consistent with a mid-air explosion rather than impact with the ground.

The report may add some momentum to the belief many Poles have that the Smolensk disaster was no accident, but is unlikely to sway the view of the majority, who dismiss conspiracy theories.

A recent opinion poll for the TVN news network found that 61 per cent did not believe a bomb was involved while 25 per cent believed the opposite.

Matthew Day
Warsaw