WARSAW—For Poland, June 4 is synonymous with democratic freedom. In China it is the day that the hope for such freedom fell.
On the 19th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre hundreds gathered at the Chinese embassy in Warsaw, capital of Poland.
For them the day carried dual meaning. On that same day in 1989, Poles voted in the first free elections to occur behind the iron curtain. It was a landslide victory for Solidarity—a nine-million strong independent trade union movement in the 1980's that set off a domino effect, bringing down the Soviet regime.
Less than six months after the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Welesa was elected as Poland's first President, the Berlin Wall crumbled.
Meanwhile, as Poland voted out the communists, the Chinese Communist Party ordered tanks to quash the mass pro-democracy sit-in on Tiananmen Square. Looking across to Europe, Beijing branded Solidarity the "Polish plague."
"China is the biggest country in the world, the biggest totalitarian country, the biggest country without democracy," said former Solidarity hero Miroslaw Chojecki who spoke out at the June 4 Human Rights Torch Relay in Warsaw.
"We must push our society, push the Poles to look not only at our neighbours but also at the countries a little further [away]."
The Global Human Rights Torch Relay is an international initiative that has brought attention to human rights violations in China ahead of the Olympics. The symbolic torch has traveled to over 150 cities in 37 countries carrying the theme that "Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot co-exist."
The Warsaw event, supporting the global relay which is currently making its way through Asia, was organized by a team of international human rights organizations including the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution and of Falun Gong and Amnesty international as well as Tibetan groups and other pro-democracy activists. Amnesty International coordinated the Wall of China highlighting victims of CCP persecution including political dissidents and Falun Gong practitioners.
Polish human rights defenders expressed that given their country's history, Poles need to stand up to the remaining communist regimes.
"I think for us it's very important to pay the debt and [we] must help the people in the countries where democracy does not exist—like China, Burma, Vietnam, Cuba like many post-Soviet countries," said Mr Chojecki.
The Relay also attracted many people from younger generations, who continue to carry on the Solidarity legacy.
"Poland has a gigantic weight of responsibility with respect to people, because of the times when we ourselves were jailed, when my parents and grandparents were persecuted because they believed in Jesus or were simply members of Solidarity," said Tomasz Korczynski, a sociology lecturer from the University of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski.
"[We remember] people that landed in prison [in China] in 1989, on exactly this anniversary that we are observing today, and are indeed still there.
"These people are ruined, you know, students, young people such as us, such as the many Warsaw residents who had a chance to come here to stand in front of the Chinese embassy today."
Mr Korczynski, also the Coordinator of the Information Service for the Aid to the Church in Need, encouraged more Poles to speak up for those oppressed in China.
"We also want to show Chinese people that we have not forgotten them, that we are their ambassadors … that we are a sort of loudspeaker for them, speaking in their stead, when they are unable to speak for themselves."
As hundreds gathered outside the Warsaw Chinese embassy for the 15-hour appeal, the 8km Torch Relay passed through some of the most symbolic sites of Warsaw.
Among them, the Polish Parliament and the monument to national hero Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, Primate of Poland during the Stalinist years in the 1950's who was jailed and tortured by the communist. regime.
It is such historical moment that made the Relay a "deeply meaningful experience" for Mr Korczynski.
"When I ran with the relay, I thought to myself that I was simply so proud, so honoured, to be able to take part in such an excellent initiative," he commented.
Meanwhile, Mr Korczynski sees Poland's recent admission to the European Union as a further encouragement to defend democratic rule.
"We are now in the European Union, a country that is developing, becoming richer and richer economically. Maybe we sometimes forget about it, about our responsibility, to wake people up, to tell them 'wake up!'"
He stressed that the Chinese regime has been "killing and murdering the spirit...of freedom and truth" for decades, destroying the "amazing dimension of ancient Chinese culture" of 5000 years.
However, for many Poles it is the words of the late Pope John Paul II that continue to remain the major driving force in the fight against communist oppression. Pope John Paul was a harsh critic of the regime and is often believed to have empowered Poland to rebel the USSR's invasion.
"This ideology of evil [communism], the one that John Paul II repeatedly called a civilization of death, has possessed the people of China, and wants to enslave them completely," said Mr Korczynski.
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