WORLD : Police, Warsaw Students Clash

Polish students fought police with bare fists in central Warsaw today after a court refused to legalize their independent pro-Solidarity NZS union.

About 20 protesters were detained and some were seen being beaten with batons and kicked in the stomach inside police vans.

Students packing the biggest hall in the Warsaw regional court chanted “Down with communism” after Judge Danuta Widawska announced her refusal to accept the NZS statutes and register the union as a legal association because of a clause stating that students have the right to strike.

The NZS was banned with the Solidarity free trade union and Rural Solidarity under martial law in 1981. The government promised their re-legalization last month and has already registered Solidarity and Rural Solidarity.