Veterans boycott WW II commemoration due to Presidential Chancellery

The fifty-fifth anniversary of the end of World War II was commemorated with a solemn change of guards and cannon volleys in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This ceremony was supposed to show the unity of the veteran's movement. Unfortunately due to some misunderstanding between veterans and the Presidential Chancellery the representatives of one of the biggest group of veterans, the underground Home Army (AK), did not attend. It was planned that just after the changing of the guards and Presidential speech, the president of the World Alliance of Home Army Soldiers, Stanislaw Karolkiewicz, would give his speech. According to representatives of the Alliance the Presidential Chancellery did not accept the content of their leader's address. He wanted to mention that veterans who were taking part in operations of the communist-era secret services should be condemned. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 11) A.D.