Andrzej Duda on Sunday travelled to the southern city of Katowice to mark the 43rd anniversary of the bloody crackdown, which left nine miners dead and 21 wounded on December 16, 1981.
Speaking at a ceremony in front of the Wujek mine, the scene of an open clash between riot police and strikers 43 years ago, Duda said that the protesting miners "did not die in vain" but "gave their lives for a free Poland."
He described the Wujek mine massacre as one of the most tragic events in the history of Poland's southern Upper Silesia region, emphasising that the miners "were wounded and killed by their fellow countrymen, acting on orders from the authorities of the time."
Addressing those gathered, he called the crackdown at the Wujek mine the nation's bloodiest crime of the 1981-1983 martial law period.
"It deeply pains me that those responsible for this tragedy, those who issued the orders, were never held accountable or truly punished," Duda said during the ceremony.
Miners from the Wujek coal mine in Katowice went on strike on December 13, 1981, the day that martial law was declared by Poland’s communist authorities to stifle rising opposition headed by the Solidarity movement.
The strikers called for an end to martial law, during which the authorities brought tanks to the streets, cut telephone lines and introduced a strict curfew.
The strike was brutally suppressed by a special platoon in the communist riot police which opened fire on the miners.
Friday marked 43 years since Poland's former communist authorities imposed martial law.
(gs)
Source: PAP