Polish Regime Softens Accusations Against 2 Expelled U.S. Diplomats

The Polish government’s chief spokesman accused the United States on Tuesday of trying to destabilize Poland by fomenting street disturbances, but he retreated from earlier contentions that two American diplomats ordered expelled last week had shouted slogans and flashed the Solidarity “V” sign with their hands at an illegal May Day demonstration.

The spokesman, Jerzy Urban, insisted during his weekly news conference that the two diplomats “participated” in the demonstration in the southern city of Krakow on May 1. But when pressed by reporters to describe precisely what they did, Urban refused to answer further questions on the matter.

The diplomats, William Harwood, 38, and David Hopper, 32, are scheduled to leave Poland on Friday. Their expulsion triggered a strong protest by the U.S. State Department, which said there was no basis for the accusations against them and charged the Krakow police with kicking, hitting and shoving the diplomats.

2-for-1 Retaliation

The United States last Friday ordered four Polish diplomats to leave the United States, an unusual 2-for-1 retaliation. Poland then announced Monday that periodic U.S. Air Force supply flights to the American Embassy in Warsaw will no longer be allowed, a step that embassy sources said would cause no more than a minor inconvenience.

Coming only three months after Poland expelled the American military attache, Col. Frederick Myer, on charges of spying, the latest round of expulsions and retaliations has effectively placed U.S.-Polish relations in the deep freeze.

Western diplomats in Warsaw give no credence to Polish charges against the two U.S. diplomats. They tend to believe instead that Premier Wojciech Jaruzelski’s regime, for reasons that remain unclear, either has sought deliberately to chill its relations with Washington or has been unable to control its security services and is unwilling to defy them publicly.

‘Policy of Interfering’

Urban, however, said the behavior of the two American diplomats showed that the United States continues to follow a “policy of interfering in our affairs and inciting destabilizing events.”

“Forces which organize street unrest in Poland from time to time, or try to organize them, take advantage of open, public political support of the American Administration,” the spokesman said. “It is a fact that these forces are financed from Western sources.”

He expressed particular displeasure at Radio Free Europe, whose Polish-language broadcasts, he said, are a main source of information about scheduled demonstrations. Although Radio Free Europe is financed by the U.S. government, its editorial policies are largely independent of the State Department. Its heavily jammed broadcasts are extremely popular in Poland.

When the Polish government first accused the two Americans of improper behavior, the official PAP news agency said they were among a group of 15 people “leading” the demonstration in Krakow’s industrial suburb of Nowa Huta and that the group was chanting anti-government slogans, flashing the Solidarity sign and distributing leaflets.

The news agency and other Polish reports left the clear impression that the diplomats had taken part in this activity.

No Proof of Behavior

In his news conference, Urban said at first that Harwood and Hopper “behaved in a way similar to the other participants of the illegal demonstration. They shouted slogans, showed the V-sign.”

He acknowledged, however, that the authorities had no documentary proof. “If the security services knew that among this group were two American diplomats,” Urban explained, “they most certainly would have filmed them, and I could show you the pictures.”

In fact, the police routinely film the outlawed union’s demonstrations and keep diplomats and correspondents who attend them under surveillance. Western diplomats said Urban’s explanation for the lack of photographs probably means that police films do not support the government’s allegations.

Later, in response to questions, Urban insisted that “I never said if, or whether, they chanted or whether they raised their hands,” only that the two diplomats had “walked with” a group of people who did so.

‘Active Core’

“It was established that they were detained with a group who (formed) the active core of a demonstration,” Urban went on. “I did not raise accusations as to whether they personally chanted slogans or raised their hands.”

Urban acknowledged that diplomats are entitled to observe such demonstrations, but he insisted that the two Americans had gone beyond acceptable bounds and had “participated” in the May Day march.

The spokesman confirmed reports that four other Americans--three students and a medical worker traveling on tourist visas--were detained in Krakow during demonstrations on Poland’s Constitution Day last Friday but were released without charges. The Polish news agency said later that all four left Poland on Sunday under special “administrative” visas, indicating that they had been expelled.

The four were identified as Brian Hill, 30, and Charles Warren von Weise, 21, both students at the University of Edinburgh; Federica Manetti, a college student from Cincinnati, and Michael Benjamin Lax, 28, an Ohio hospital worker.

In all, Urban said, 591 people were detained in 12 Polish cities during pro-Solidarity demonstrations on May 1 and 3. Of these, 476 were handed over to courts for sentencing, most on misdemeanor charges carrying fines and prison sentences of up to three months. Urban also said 61 police officers were injured, but he gave no figures on injuries to demonstrators.

Diplomats Baffled

Western diplomats say they are baffled by the new antagonism that Polish authorities have shown toward the United States over the last three months, particularly as it comes on the heels of several conciliatory gestures by the Reagan Administration.

Since late December, the White House has lifted its veto on Poland’s membership in the International Monetary Fund, reopened air connections suspended in 1981 and offered to begin bilateral talks on scientific and technical cooperation.

Also, the chill in relations comes at a time when Poland says it must have new Western credits to bolster its production of exports, the only means it has of meeting interest payments on its $28-billion debt to the West.

“They are biting the one hand that is likely to feed them,” one diplomat said in reference to the United States.

Some Polish observers believe the expulsions are symptoms of a continuing internal fight between the powerful security apparatus and the reputedly moderate regime of Gen. Jaruzelski, which put four of its officers on public trial for the murder of a Roman Catholic priest, Father Jerzy Popieluszko.