Polish Solidarity co-founder dies

[arwalden]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3815963.stm



Jacek Kuron, one of Poland's most loved democracy activists and former adviser to the Solidarity movement leader, Lech Walesa, has died at the age of 70.
Mr Kuron had spent four weeks in intensive care in a Warsaw hospital after suffering from a long illness.

Jailed three time by Poland's Communist authorities, Mr Kuron helped set up the "round table" talks between Solidarity activists and the party leaders.

The talks led to the country's first free elections in 1989.

For many years Jacek Kuron was the most trusted politician in Poland.

As the labour minister in the newly formed post-Communist government in the early 1990s, he introduced welfare programmes for the unemployed.

Continued...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3815963.stm