Jaruzelski Forges Ahead in Bid to Restore Western Ties

Smiling a tiny smile as he joked with the press in Rome, concluding his first official visit to a Western country since the imposition of martial law five years ago, Polish leader Wojciech Jaruzelski had reason to be pleased.

With internal opposition effectively stilled, at least for the short term, the general’s bid to restore Poland’s good name abroad was moving well.

His three-day visit to Rome had yielded results: a long chat with Pope John Paul II, who is due to visit his homeland in June, and promises of more trade with Italy.

The next day he would meet in Warsaw with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone for talks that resulted in no specific guarantees but opened the door for contacts that Polish officials hope will bring yet more foreign investment.

Renewed Popularity

These back-to-back sessions and the prospect of high-level contacts with U.S. officials were in marked contrast to Jaruzelski’s situation after the crushing of the Solidarity movement, when other world leaders avoided him at the United Nations and he had to arrange a stopover in Paris in order to meet informally with French President Francois Mitterrand.

Now, with the last political prisoners released in an amnesty last September, the general has been reported in an independent survey to enjoy a good deal of popularity at home as well.

The recently released study by researchers at Warsaw University found that 70% of those responding said they had some degree of confidence in Jaruzelski, up from 54% in 1984.

Abroad, with the faith of the Soviet Union restored in the Polish leadership’s control of the situation, only the lifting of U.S. sanctions remain before Poland’s foreign relations return to normal--something that policy-makers in Warsaw see as vital for their major challenge of rejuvenating the country’s troubled economy.

Sanctions May Be Lifted

Moves are afoot toward removing the sanctions, imposed after the military crackdown on the Solidarity movement in 1981. Following a series of talks that began with an informal visit by a retired former U.S. ambassador last fall, an official visit is expected early next month by Deputy Secretary of State John C. Whitehead, the department’s No. 2 man.

And shortly after that, Jozef Czyrek, the senior member of the Politburo of Jaruzelski’s ruling Polish United Workers’ Party, is expected to go to Washington for talks with congressional leaders.

Several Polish officials said they were concerned that scandals involving U.S. arms sales to Iran and secret funding for contra forces opposing Nicaragua’s Sandinista government might weaken the will of the Reagan Administration to take decisive action to improve relations with Warsaw.

But a State Department spokeswoman said last week that the process of “re-engaging dialogue with Poland” was proceeding.

Push Toward Normalcy

If nothing untoward happens in the next several months--the Administration is especially concerned about the possible re-arrest of opposition leaders--sanctions may well be lifted by mid-year, diplomats said.

“We welcome every successive step bringing us closer to the full normalization of relations with Western states,” Jaruzelski said on the eve of his departure for Rome. “Poland is too sizable a country and has too much self-esteem to allow anybody to use it as an instrument.”

The visit to Italy went well, so it was with some confidence that the general allowed himself to joke last Wednesday that “a press conference is not a confessional” when asked what he had to give up in the hard bargaining about the Pope’s upcoming trip to Poland.

The meeting of the two men was notable for its length, more than double that of the pontiff’s usual private audiences.

Papal Visit Scheduled

The Pope later said the talk was “doubtless historic,” and a Vatican statement summed it up as “serious, clear and detailed . . . (permitting) an analysis of the problems of Polish society, relations between the church and state in Poland and questions regarding international peace.”

While he gave no details of the talks, Jaruzelski said the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the state was “certainly not free of problems, which we will try to solve in a positive way for the good of the country.”

Polish sources say the government has agreed to an eight-stop itinerary for the Pope, including two Baltic port towns that have been trouble spots in the past--Szczecin, site of a worker uprising in the winter of 1970-71, and Gdansk, home of Lech Walesa, leader of the Solidarity movement.

A public reunion between the Pope and Walesa is expected to be an emotional highlight of the tour, especially since the two men were only allowed to meet privately at a mountain hideaway during the Pope’s previous visit in 1983.

Legal Status for Church

The visit, which has been under negotiation for more than a year, has been linked to an agreement that would give the Roman Catholic Church legal status in Poland for the first time since the Communists took power following World War II.

The agreement is expected to give official sanction to the operations of the church’s charity commission, a group that has operated for several years without any legal sanction, Religious Affairs Minister Adam Lopatka told high school students earlier this month.

Legal status for the church could also lead to establishment of diplomatic relations between the government and the Vatican, a goal that the government has repeatedly suggested, Lopatka said.

According to Polish sources with links at the policy-making level, the government is also pressing for a commitment by the church to reassign several priests who have been vocal in their opposition to the Communist regime.

It is far from clear who stands to benefit most from a papal visit.

The presence of the Pope--according to the Warsaw University study, he is still the most popular man in Poland and has an 84% confidence rating--is expected to be presented by the government as tacit approval of its policies.

Poland ‘Can Only Gain’

“The regime has nothing to lose, because it has lost the people already,” a Polish source said. “It can only gain by this visit.”

In any case, officials acknowledge that there is no guarantee of a cure for the “Polish disease,” a persistent malady whose symptoms are emigration, inflation, shortages, vocal public discontent, an unfavorable balance of trade and a lack of hard currency to pay off foreign debts now estimated at $33 billion.

But for now, as Poland shivers through the coldest winter in decades, with mountains of coal that had been meant for export diverted to heat frigid apartments, shops and factories at home, few other alternatives are being presented.

It is the government’s success in introducing economic reforms that will determine the eventual fate of the Jaruzelski regime, diplomats and Polish sources said.

“The average Pole is discontented, but nonetheless the regime has got things under control for now,” a Western diplomat said. “The country is tired of struggle. People are worn out. They’re just worried about keeping warm, about getting food to eat.”