Divisions left in the past: Leaders of Polish transition to democracy meet again

Lech Walesa, the Polish pro-democracy activist, and General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the communist leader who imprisoned Mr Walesa for 11 months during in 1981 were once bitter enemies.

In a sign of their reconciliation, Mr Walesa visited the ailing 88-year-old Mr Jaruzelski last weekend, shaking hands with his former jailer who is in a Warsaw hospital with cancer.

“Get well, General,” Mr Walesa wrote yesterday above a photograph of the meeting posted on his website.

Walesa aide Piotr Gulczynski said that Mr Walesa visited Mr Jaruzelski on Saturday during a visit to his son, Jaroslaw, who is recovering from a motorcycle accident in the same hospital.

In the 1980s, Mr Walesa led the Solidarity freedom movement against the communist regime.

Mr Jaruzelski, as head of government, imposed martial law in 1981 intending to crush Solidarity, imprisoning Mr Walesa and thousands of other Solidarity activists.

Mr Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.

In 1989, negotiations allowed for the peaceful transfer of power from Mr Jaruzelski’s regime to Solidarity.

Mr Jaruzelski stayed on briefly as the first president under democracy, but was replaced by Mr Walesa in a 1990 general election.

Since then their ties have been civil, a reflection of the peaceful transition Poland made from communism to democracy.