Watched CNN International's Errol Barnett's coverage of today's sad events in Poland, where a government plane carrying 96 people including most prominent country leaders to an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of Katyn massacre(*) in the woods near Smolensk in Russia crashed on approach to landing at the small military airport, killing all aboard. I admired how balanced and accurate it was, the only exageration being probably the number of people ("hundreds of thousands") attending the events and gathered along the late president's last route through Warsaw. I also admired the commentary by Frederik Pleitgen, he sounded very well informed and attuned to the events.
My first reaction to the tragedy, which apparently was also the reaction of many other people, was how uncanny it seemed that another tragedy of the same kind occurred at the very same spot, which almost seemed cursed. "That forest took even more lives." The Polish nation lost thousands of its intellectual elite 70 years ago there and the same thing happened again yesterday, although obviously on an uncomparably smaller scale. And this time apparently due to the captain's decision to land the plane despite the mere 500 yard visibility in the heavy morning fog, where they couldn't even see the runway lights. The plane descended too soon as well as 150 yards to the side off the proper landing route, hit the tops of the trees, fell apart and burst into flames. There were 96 people on board, most of them chief ranking government, military and church officials as well as historians and relatives of the Katyn massacre victims, and there were no survivors. The saddest part is that many of the so called Katyn families have been hurt again, losing other members. They have been mourning for years and instead of the expected closure they are experiencing new pain. Let's hope the Russians finally admit their past deeds - which they hardly did, leaving their own citizens largely in the dark about what happened at Katyn, who caused the massacre and "what do the Poles want from us?" - as they indeed promised, to begin with by airing Andrzej Wajda's movie "Katyn" during prime time tonight on their widely viewed Channel One - and allow the long tragic story to finally come to an end.
CNN's message seems to be that "new beginnings" are needed here. While noticeable pessimism could be heard from the commenting local residents with regard to whether today's feeling of unity over the president's coffin will last among people and whether it will influence the national political scene (unfortunately, Poles have an ages long history of being unruly and that trait remains visible particularly among the older generation), hope remains in young, twentysomething people, some of whom spoke on air. Raised and educated in a more global, international culture of an united Europe and sharing somewhat different values than their parents and grandparents they will be able to better overcome political divisions and make better history.. accomodating and working towards the benefit of everyone.
(*) As briefed by the BBC: "Katyn massacre: Soviet secret police shot dead more than 20,000 Polish prisoners-of-war, drawn mainly from the political, military and cultural elite" [and buried them in unmarked mass graves in the woods near the village of Katyn near the city of Smolensk in Russia at the early stages of WWII in 1940. They were discovered in 1943 by German troops who noticed wolves were digging up bones. The massacre is believed by Poles to be a part of a conscious effort to eradicate a whole class of the Polish nation, thus depriving it of its leadership, in order to establish a puppet government subject to Soviet rule.]"; For 50 years, Soviet authorities blame Nazis for slaughter; In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev admits Soviet responsibility".
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