POLAND:Former Solidarity union leader Lech Walesa has published online 500 pages from his secret police file to silence critics convinced he was a collaborator with the communist authorities.
For years, Mr Walesa, who led the Gdansk shipyard strike, has had a public feud with fellow activist Anna Walentynowicz.
It was her firing from the yard that prompted the 1980 strike out of which Solidarity was born, which brought down the communist regime a decade later.
By that stage, they were no longer speaking to each other. Ms Walentynowicz maintains that he was a secret agent. Mr Walesa said she was being fed disinformation. A court ruled in 2000 that he was not a collaborator.
"I got sick and tired of the constant accusations, doubts and insinuations being peddled by these people and decided to publish these materials for all to see," said Mr Walesa.
The file contains a page from February 16th, 1971, noting Mr Walesa's refusal to become an SB agent, a response that results in "further surveillance" by an agent called "Klin". Another document, dated September 2nd, 1985, concerns a "plan of activities to deepen antagonism between A. Walentynowicz and L. Walesa".
The managers of the operation, code-named "Mieszko", note with satisfaction: "A. Walentynowicz has increased activities dicrediting L. Walesa in pro-Solidarity milieus. More and more often she spreads rumours about inappropriate attitude of L. Walesa, calling him a cheat, double-faced, careerist who needs to be exposed." The report ends with the plan "to further confirm to A. Walentynowicz the belief that L. Walesa is still collaborating with SB".
Ms Walentynowicz rejected Mr Walesa's calls to apologise: "He ought to be happy he hasn't got a bullet yet. He ought to be scalped, not apologised to."