POLISH DEFECTOR ANGERED BY DENIAL OF SWISS VISA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707360005-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 8, 2011
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: August 9, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/08: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707360005-5
ARTICLE APPEW
ON PA(
WASHINGTON TIMES
9 August 1985
Polish defector angered by denial of Swiss visa
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A former Polish diplomat who
defected to the West in 1981 said yester-
day he believes he was denied a Swiss
visa to attend a conference in Geneva
because of political considerations.
Zdzislaw Rurarz, the former Polish
ambassador to Japan, said the Swiss
Embassy in Washington notified him yes-
terday that his visa application was
denied because officials here and in Swit-
zerland were not aware the conference
was taking place, even through more
than 200 professors from 90 countries
will attend the meeting next week.
He called the Swiss explanation "ridic-
ulous" and said that, "knowing the Swiss
as I do, they don't want to get in trouble
with political emigres from the Soviet
bloc"
"I was the only one singled out not to
participate,' Mr. Rurarz said. "If they had
said it [was denied] on security grounds,
I would understand. But their arguments
are very unconvincing."
Officials of the Swiss Embassy were
unavailable for comment late last night.
Mr. Rurarz and Gordon Anderson,
assistant director of the World Peace
Academy, which is sponsoring the six-
day conference which opens TLesday in
Geneva, said they were told by Swiss offi=cials that Mr. Rurarz's visa was denied
because the Berne government did not
know the conference was taking place.
Mr. Anderson said that with the excep-
tion of a Soviet emigre who had trouble
getting visa approval, Mr. Rurarz is
apparently the only person scheduled
toattend the conference who was denied
entry into Switzerland.
"I can't rule out political influence,
although I have no solid grounds to make
that charge;' Mr. Anderson said.
The World Peace Academy conference
will focus on the future of the Soviet
Union "after the fall of the Soviet
empire;" according to Mr. Anderson. The
World Peace Academy is a division of the
International Cultural Foundation,
founded by the Rev Sun Myung Moon.
Mr. Rurarz, who was to have delivered
a paper at the conference, served as a
Polish diplomat in Switzerland for seven
years before his defection.
He said yesterday Swiss authorities
are aware of that fact and may have
denied his visa application because they
could not assure his security or because
his visit might prompt a protest from the
Polish government.
"They may feel they can't provide
security, and if they said that, fine;" Mr.
Rurarz said. "But claiming they don't
know of a conference attended by 200
people is ridiculous."
He noted he had not asked the Swiss
government for an special security
arrangements.
"Usually the Swiss do not give visas to
defectors like me, especially to those who
were posted in Switzerland;' he said.
"They feel that could create problems for
Swiss relations" with Poland or the
Soviet Union.
Mr. Rurarz, who lives in the Washing-
ton area and travels on a Justice Depart-
ment document issued to political
refugees, said he has had no previous
difficulty in obtaining visas from other
Western European governments.
Mr. Rurarz defected in lbkyo on Dec.
23, 1981, days after martial law was
imposed in Poland, while serving as War-
saw's ambassador to Japan.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/08: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707360005-5