Young Martyr

More opposition to Jaruzelski

"Every death is painful, but this one is especially brutal. It will not be forgotten." As the telegram from Lech Walesa, founder of the outlawed independent trade union Solidarity, was read, a hush fell over the mourners who had gathered in Warsaw's St. Stanislaw Kostka Roman Catholic Church last week. Then they burst into applause. The funeral was for Grzegorz Przemyk, 19, a high school senior who died of injuries received from a severe beating by Polish militiamen. His death quickly became a rallying cause for Poles who hate the regime of General Wojciech Jaruzelski.

In one of the largest public gatherings since martial law was imposed 17 months ago, nearly 60,000 people thronged the church for the funeral services and joined in the hour-long procession to the cemetery. Fastened to the front of the casket was a red-and-white Solidarity banner. At the graveside, mourners tossed flowers on the casket and then raised their fingers in the V sign that has become the symbol of Polish resistance to authorities. Many wiped away tears as Przemyk's teacher declared: "Greg, I regret that I didn't have time to prepare you for the brutality of life before it struck you in such a cruel way."

The youth had gone with friends to a winery in Warsaw's Old Town to celebrate, following a school examination. When they came out, they were stopped by a militia patrol. Przemyk was seized and severely beaten. An official statement later said he had been involved in a drunken brawl and had to be "forcibly calmed" when the militiamen took him to a first-aid station. Przemyk's friends denied the charge. Przemyk died two days later, after undergoing emergency surgery. In an emotional letter to Deputy Premier Mieczyslaw Rakowski, Poet Wiktor Woroszylski wrote that "the surgeons who opened up the boy's abdomen had nothing more to do: inside was a bleeding pulp." He added that the doctors emerging from the operating room were weeping. Underground leaders of Solidarity issued a statement calling Przemyk a victim of "paid militia torturers."

Przemyk was the son of Barbara Sadowska, a poet who had been briefly interned after the imposition of martial law in December 1981. She later became active in a committee set up by Poland's Primate, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, to assist martial law prisoners and their families. Earlier this month, she was one of several people beaten when hoodlums invaded the committee's offices in a Warsaw convent; she suffered bruises and a broken finger when she was hit with a chair. Four other workers were dragged to a truck and later dumped in a suburban forest.

Police kept discreetly out of sight during the funeral. At the service, the priests who were officiating cautioned mourners not to chant or give any pretext for disturbances during the procession. But the public outpouring of grief over the youth's death dealt another blow to Jaruzelski's regime, which has claimed that Poland's internal situation is slowly returning to normal. Infighting between moderates and hard-liners within the Polish Communist Party has become intense, and there are indications that pro-Soviet factions are trying to force the government to cancel the Pope's visit, scheduled for June 16-23. The government-controlled press, meanwhile, continued a vitriolic campaign against Walesa. The official press agency P.A.P. distributed an article charging that Walesa had aligned himself with the Solidarity underground and was "no longer credible." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.