The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has called on Russia to hand over the wreckage of from the Smolensk plane crash to the competent Polish authorities without further delay, in a manner that “avoids any further deterioration” of potential evidence, and urged both Poland and Russia to engage in “international mediation” on the issue.
On April 10, 2010, a Polish Air Force Tupolev Tu-154M aircraft was carrying a delegation led by then President Lech Kaczyński from Warsaw to Smolensk in the Russian Federation to attend a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre. The plane crashed at Smolensk Severny Aerodrome, killing all 96 people on board.
Unanimously adopting a resolution based on a report prepared by Dutch representative Pieter Omtzigt, the assembly recalled that under Appendix 13 of the Chicago Convention, the state where the incident occurred is required to return the wreckage and other potential evidence to the state of registration of the aircraft as soon as the technical air safety investigation is completed, which was the case in January 2011. “The continuing refusal of the Russian authorities to return the wreckage and other evidence constitutes an abuse of rights and has fuelled speculation on the Polish side that Russia has something to hide,” PACE said in a statement.
The assembly also called on the Russian Federation to refrain from carrying out any more activities at the site of the crash that could be seen as desecrating the location, which now has a powerful emotional significance for many Poles. It called on the law enforcement authorities of both states to fully co-operate in establishing any possible criminal responsibilities related to the crash, including by swiftly making any evidence available at the request of the other state.
Various conspiracy theories about the crash, which occurred in thick fog, have been in circulation for a number of years, promoted by leader of the Polish Law and Justice’s party, Jarosław Kaczyński (twin brother of the former Polish president killed in the crash). Mr Kaczyński has long insisted that the crash was a political assassination. Neither Polish nor international investigations found any evidence supporting the claims.
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Photo: Serge Serebro, Vitebsk Popular News
