2 U.S. Envoys Joined Protest, Poles Charge

The Polish government charged today that two senior U.S. diplomats took part in an anti-government May Day demonstration in a “flagrant violation of their diplomatic status.” The United States said the officials were acting as observers.

The official news agency PAP named the two diplomats as William Harwood, first secretary to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, and David Hopper, U.S. consul in the southern city of Krakow.

The agency said the U.S. charge d’affaires in Warsaw was called to the Polish Foreign Ministry and handed an official protest note in connection with the diplomats’ alleged participation in the protest.

A U.S. Embassy statement said that the two diplomats were detained and that one of them was pushed, struck and kicked by police while they were acting as observers at a May Day demonstration called by the outlawed Solidarity union in the southern city of Nowa Huta on Wednesday.

PAP said the two diplomats were briefly detained by police after they were seen among a group of 15 participants at the forefront of a protest who were “shouting anti-state slogans, carrying hostile banners and scattering leaflets.”

“Both were released immediately after their identities were established because of the immunities they enjoy,” PAP said.

May Day rallies, Page 23.