Lech Walesa, whose Soldidarity trade union helped bring down communism in Europe, called Tuesday for a new Marshall Plan to help develop the fragile countries left in its wake.
"I have to say, paradoxically, that the situation after the Cold War is worse than after the Second World War," said Walesa at a conference held as part of the twentieth anniversary of the strike by Gdansk shipyard workers in August 1980 that led to the establishment of Solidarity.
"After World War II, cities and factories were destroyed, but there was an economic system. Now the fabric of economic system has been destroyed and we haven't been able to weave a new one," he said.
"We need a new Marshall Plan," he said, referring to the US-led program to promote the reconstruction of Europe after World War II.
"It is not a question of money, the West has poured money into Russia without results. If there had been a plan then this money would have bore fruit," he said.
"We need a new Marshall Plan. Not especially for Poland, the Czech Republic or Hungary, we get by more or less, but for Russia, Ukraine and Belarus," said Walesa at the conference on the role of Solidarity in politics in the twentieth century
Walesa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his handling of the strike and later became Poland's first post-communist president, said the West was surprised by the fall of communism and still has not found an adequate response – GDANSK, Poland (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
