Honorary Citizen Meets Professor Kaczyński
2008-12-11 Gazeta Wyborcza
Though it took place at the Presidential Palace, the meeting between Lech Kaczyński and the 14th Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader in exile, was a private one.
‚It is Professor Lech Kaczyński who met the Dalai Lama, not the President of Poland,’ stresses Piotr Kownacki, head of the Presidential Chancellery.
But the original text message sent by the Chancellery to members of the press yesterday suggested the meeting would be an official one. The message said members of the press, journalists and photojournalists, were allowed at the meeting upon presenting a press ID. But when they arrived, they learned the meeting would be a private one. Another text message soon confirmed that.
What happened? Did someone advise the President against irritating the Chinese?
‚The original text message was a mistake,’ said Mr Kownacki, whom Gazeta talked to during the meeting. ‚'The President decided only today to go forward with the meeting. He indeed wanted to avoid diplomatic friction and putting Polish interests at risk. A letter I received forty minutes ago from the Foreign Ministry suggests that such a private meeting between Professor Kaczyński and the Dalai Lama will be acceptable for the Chinese side.’
The Dalai Lama arrived in Warsaw yesterday from Wrocław, where he received the title of the freeman of the city, awarded to him in May, following the bloody crushing by the Chinese government of pro-independence demonstrations in Tibet.
‚I was able to experience unique, simple emotions in Wrocław, sisterly intimacy. In this, as John Paul II once called, city of meetings, I was able to experience the unity of different religions.’
President Lech Kaczyński sent a letter congratulating the Dalai Lama on his freeman title.
‚My country, the home of Solidarity, feels unity with all peoples whose rights are not being respected,’ he wrote.
The 14th Dalai Lama meets the speakers of Sejm and Senate today. He will also take part in a special session of parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee with the participation of deputies, senators, and invited guests. He will also meet Warsaw president Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz and deliver a lecture to about 5,000 people at the Torwar concert/sports hall.
Translated by Marcin Wawrzyńczak
źródło: wyborcza.pl