Poland, in Policy Switch, OKs Paris Trip by Walesa

Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, who has not been allowed to leave Poland since 1981, has been given permission to travel to France later this month, his wife said Saturday.

The apparent change in policy would allow him to attend a ceremony in Paris on Dec. 10 marking the 40th anniversary of the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Walesa, who was invited by French President Francois Mitterrand, applied for a passport last week and was informed Saturday that he may pick it up Monday, said Danuta Walesa, speaking from the couple’s home in Gdansk.

She said her husband was suffering from flu and a cold and was unable to come to the telephone.

“He has gotten a passport. Someone called from the passport office and said he can come and pick it up on Monday,” she said. “He’s happy that he’s going to France and will breathe some different air.” Danuta Walesa said she would remain in Poland with their eight children.

Foreign Affairs Minister Tadeusz Olechowski, asked about Walesa’s passport application last week, had said he expected it to be issued.

The trip would be the first time Walesa has received permission to leave Poland since the imposition of martial law in late 1981. Walesa had visited Paris in October of that year.

When Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, his wife traveled to Norway to accept the award since he feared he would not be allowed to return to Poland if he left.

Polish citizens must apply for a passport whenever they wish to travel to a non-socialist country.

Walesa has twice been refused permission to travel abroad this year. He was not allowed to go to Geneva in June for the annual conference of the International Labor Organization, a U.N.-affiliated agency. And he was refused permission in March to go to a congress in Australia of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.