WARSAW, March 29, 2006  –  Shortly before last year’s presidential elections in Poland, a series of false bomb alarms paralysed the capital city of Warsaw, the blame being subsequently put on “gay terrorists”.

Now, most of the Polish opposition parties want the incident to be fully explained.

Wojciech Wierzejski, an MP from LPR (a conservative Catholic party) has suggested on a Polish radio station that is very likely that the fake bombs were planted, with cooperation of special forces, by supporters of the Law and Justice PiS, the party that won the parliamentary and presidential elections, and not by gay organisations as it was suggested following the receipt of an email claiming responsibility.

Wierzejski said that the Minister of Justice, a PiS member, has even forbidden the employees of Public Prosecution Service to make any statements concerning this issue.  

The LPR MP also added that if Prosecution Service does not explain this matter, LPR will support a motion to instigate parliamentary investigation procedure.

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, a candidate for the office of Warsaw Mayor from the PO Liberal party, has also stated that this false bomb alarm could be a political provocation.

Three days before presidential elections in Poland, several bombs were planted in Warsaw.  The bombs turned out to be dummies, but the bomb alert successfully paralysed the capital city during the afternoon rush for hours.

At that time, the office of the Mayor of Warsaw was held by Lech Kaczyński, a nationalist conservative, who decided to ban Warsaw’s Gay Pride Parade last year.

Independent commentators have commented that the incident could help Kaczyński to evoke a terrorist threat and win presidential elections.

Shortly after the incident, one of editors of popular daily paper received an email, allegedly coming from a “gay power organisation” fighting for tolerance.

The e-mail contained an information how to produce a real bomb.  As the police confirm, the instructions were true.

Although the police have managed to get a picture of the person who sent the e-mail from a public internet café, the perpetrators have never been found.  Rumours have spread that special forces might be actual instigators of this false bomb attack to see if the city is well-prepared for a terrorist attack.

Nevertheless, a few gay activists from Warsaw were under police observation.  Among them was Łukasz Pałucki, who was found a gay extremist.

“Two years ago I made a comment in public that homophobic politicians who are gay should be outed publicly” says Łukasz, from Equality Foundation.  “But this does not mean that I am a terrorist.  All this made our actions in Warsaw very troublesome, all those phone calls from the police were a nuisance.  

I hope we will soon find out who really was behind planting those dummy bombs.  In Poland, there are no gay extremist organisations,” he added..

POLISH NEWS

The Two Who Stole Le Madame:  Polish Political Twins Target Gay Club  Officially, Warsaw’s famed Le Madame club  – once a gay club, but more recently a venue for everyone, “gay, straight, whatever” – should have closed at the weekend.  But some habitués have decided this is not to be and are refusing to leave the haven of left-wing thought and expression in a right-wing country.  (UK Gay News, March 28, 2006)

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BBC TV: Polish President Sparks Protests.  Video report. Gay and lesbian activists have disrupted a speech by the Polish President Lech Kaczyński during a visit to Berlin. (March 10, 2006)