Walesa Seeking OK to Visit L.A. for International Integrity Award

Solidarity founder Lech Walesa has applied for Polish government permission to come to Los Angeles to accept an award from a Santa Monica-based foundation at an Oct. 24 banquet, the director of the foundation said Tuesday.

“He is very much interested and prepared to come,” said George Cappannelli, director of the John-Roger Foundation. “We spoke to him this morning. He has filled out all the necessary applications and we have sent him the necessary invitation. His airline reservation is waiting for him in Warsaw.”

The matter, Cappannelli said, “is now in the hands of the Polish government.”

In view of recent moves by Communist leaders in Poland to normalize relations with the United States and to be rid of economic sanctions, Cappannelli added, “I think it would be almost beyond comprehension that they would let him out and not let him back in.”

Walesa has been named by the foundation to receive a 1986 International Integrity Award at the banquet in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. The other recipients are to be singer-composer Stevie Wonder and music industry figure Ken Kragen, head of the USA for Africa Foundation and organizer of the Hands Across America charity.

Previous Integrity Award winners have included South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa and Dr. Jonas Salk.

As of late last week, Walesa was undecided about applying for a passport, an aide said in the labor leader’s Gdansk apartment. Walesa was reported fearful that he might be allowed to leave Poland, but not to return home.

The aide pointed out that Walesa submitted a passport application several months ago to visit Rome but that the government simply had not replied.

The foundation had reported that its founder, John-Roger, met with Walesa in Gdansk on Oct. 1 when the Polish labor hero indicated that a positive climate now exists in his country, making a visit to the United States possible.

At the behest of the foundation, U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) and Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.), members of the Solidarity Endowment Advisory Committee, enlisted the support of more than 80 U.S. congressmen and senators who signed a letter to Polish Charge d’Affaires Zdislav Ludwiczak urging that Walesa be allowed to make the trip.

Norah Schwarz, legal staff assistant in Kemp’s Washington office, said Tuesday that Washington attorney Leonard Walentynowicz, a friend of the congressman and “a champion of Polish causes” with a lot of experience dealing with Polish officials, “is very optimistic” about Walesa’s chances.

She conceded, however, that there had as yet been no response from the Warsaw government.

Diplomats in Warsaw said last week that it was more likely Walesa would be allowed to travel abroad than at any time since 1981--but that it was still not a sure thing.

The Reagan Administration is reviewing its policy toward Poland and is expected to lift sometime later this month at least some of the sanctions imposed in 1981, when the government of Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski used martial law to suppress Solidarity, the first independent trade union in postwar Eastern Europe.

When they visited Poland earlier this month, John-Roger Foundation people suggested that President Reagan himself might present the award to Walesa. As of Tuesday, however, Cappannelli said, there had been no formal reply from the White House to an invitation to Reagan to attend.

“Of course,” he said, “it would be our delight to have that happen.”

He described the foundation as “a private, nonprofit foundation that supports organizations in the areas of public service, health, science, education and communications.” He said it is supported by private donations and “some corporate involvement.” Among the activities it sponsors are self-motivation seminars.

Jones reported from Los Angeles; Gillette reported from Warsaw.