Taoiseach Extends Sympathy To Polish People

The Taoiseach has passed on his "deepest sympathy" on behalf of the Irish government to the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on the tragic death of President Lech Kaczynski.

He died with his wife, and his large accompanying delegation on a visit to Russia.

The president was among 95 others, including many top defence officials and public figures, who were killed when their jet crashed after it clipped tree-tops in heavy fog, as it was coming in to land at an air base on Saturday morning.

Responding to the news of the tragedy, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said: "On my own behalf, and on behalf of my Government, I wish to extend our sincere condolences to the Polish Government and the people of Poland for their huge loss arising from this terrible tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with them at very sad and difficult time."

Russian investigators so far suspect pilot error caused the crash and have revealed the pilots were warned that they were flying too low.

The country is observing a week of public mourning, and the irony of so many senior figures being tragically killed while making a visit to commemorate victims of a massacre that targeted the elite of Poland's officer corps, has not been lost.

The pavement in front of President Kaczynski's palace in central Warsaw has been covered with thousands of small glass pots containing candles, laid as a mark of respect while Mr Kaczynski's body was brought back from Russia on Sunday, driven through crowd-lined streets to the palace, where it will lie in state from Tuesday.

The national leaders killed included the former President-in-exile Ryszard Kaczorowski, top civil servants such as Slawomir Skrzypek who was the National Bank of Poland's chairman and other politicians such as Wladyslaw Stasiak chief of the president's chancellery, chief of the National Security Office Aleksander Szczyglo, deputy speaker of the lower house Jerzy Szmajdzinski, Foreign Ministry's undersecretary of state Andrzej Kremer and cultural figures such as Andrzej Przewoznik who is head of Poland's Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Officials have mentioned Saturday as a possible date for the funeral.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared Monday an official day of mourning with flags flying at half mast and television channels cancelling all entertainment programmes.

(DW/BMcc)