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- <text id=89TT0493>
- <title>
- Feb. 20, 1989: World Notes:Poland
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Feb. 20, 1989 Betrayal:Marine Spy Scandal
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 49
- World Notes
- POLAND
- Squaring Off at A Round Table
- </hdr><body>
- <p> The encounter was as historic as the setting. In the
- glittering white ballroom of the 17th century Palace of the
- Council of Ministers, 57 people took seats at a massive table
- built especially for the occasion. Ranged around one side were
- negotiators for Poland's Communist government, led by the
- Interior Minister, General Czeslaw Kiszczak. On the other
- hunched the portly, moustached figure of Lech Walesa at the
- head of a 25-member team from the banned Solidarity trade union
- and other opposition groups.
- </p>
- <p> The much anticipated talks, expected to last six weeks, had
- come at the behest of Communist Party chief Wojciech
- Jaruzelski's government, which called for negotiations last
- August. Walesa is demanding that Solidarity once more be
- legalized and blames the government for "ruining" the country.
- The government insists that the independent union not return to
- the "anarchy" of the past, endorse unpopular economic reforms or
- participate in "nonconfrontational" elections. The initial
- face-off indicated that even tougher negotiations lie ahead as
- the two parties try to reach a reconciliation.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-