Smolensk wreck should not be tourist attraction, says culture minister

Tu-154 wreckage: photo - Polish Radio - Wlodzimierz Pac

“That would be something inappropriate,” Zdrojewski told Polish Radio on Monday.

Zdrojewski noted that relatives of the victims of the plane crash were themselves divided as to where the ultimate home of the wreckage should be.

The minister revealed that some feel that it should be exhibited in a public space “as a dramatic reminder” of the tragedy, yet all agree that the wreck itself should not be touchable.

No change in Moscow

Meanwhile, a delegation of Polish MPs and senators was unable to secure any definite deadline by which the Tupolev 154 plane wreckage should be returned to Poland, during a meeting held in Moscow on Monday morning.

“We raised the question of the necessity to return the wreck of the Tupolev as soon as possible... as well as the return of the black boxes,” said senator and former defence minister Bogdan Klich, speaking to Polish Radio after talks with Russia's deputy minister of foreign affairs, Vladimir Titov.

“The reply was: 'Of course they will be returned, but only when it is possible, that is after the investigation is over,” Klich said.

Klich, who resigned from his post as defence minister as a result of the Smolensk disaster, added that “this is a very serious problem in Polish-Russian relations.”

Last December, Poland's foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski asked EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton for assistance in retrieving the wreckage, claiming that the remains were not essential for the Russian investigation. However, the move did not alter Moscow's standpoint.

All 96 Poles on board the Tupolev 154 died in the 10 April 2010 crash, when President Lech Kaczynski's delegation flew to Smolensk to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the WWII Katyn massacre. (nh)