Moscow refuses to accept genocide was committed at Katyń

The delegation of the National Remembrance Institute (IPN) who are presently in Moscow yesterday learnt that Russia will not treat the massacres in Katyń as genocide and so will not prosecute those who were involved. "The Russians are not questioning that this was a crime, nor have they tried to lower the number who were murdered," said IPN chairman Leon Kieres. However, the Russians claim they cannot treat the incident as genocide due to their legal regulations. "According to our information, the main participants [in the murders] have been dead for a long time and due to this the case should be closed," said General Aleksander Sawienkow, the chief military prosecutor in Russia. The IPN announced that if the outcome of the Russian evaluation will be drastically different from its own, then the Institute would start its own investigation into the events at Katyń. (Gazeta Wyborcza, pp. 1, 7) M.M.