Opening of Katyn cemetery postponed until Russian government settled

The opening of the cemetery for Polish officers murdered by the Soviet Secret Service (NKVD) will not take place on July 1. The delay is not a result of construction in Miednoye, but rather of the process of forming the new Russian government. The information was delivered last Saturday by Ivanovitch Bryagin, a former culture vice-minister and the head of the Russian Katyn Committee. Both sides, now in talks, express the need for a Polish-Russian political meeting that would settle the matter. It is very likely the cemetery will be officially opened later in July. In the cemeteries near Katyn, Miednoye and Charkov are buried 15,000 Polish officers murdered by NKVD in 1940. The exact number of the victims is not known as new bodies are discovered regularly in the nearby forests. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 7) J.K.