Fair investigation needed into Smolensk air crash - president

Poland owes the victims of the 2010 plane crash "unity," "forgiveness" and a "fair investigation" of what happened that day in Smolensk, Poland's President Andrzej Duda said on Sunday during a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw.

PAP © 2016 / Paweł Supernak / Warszawa, 10.04.2016. Prezydent Andrzej Duda przemawia podczas uroczystości w 6. rocznicę katastrofy smoleńskiej, 10 bm. przed Pałacem Prezydenckim przy Krakowskim Przedmieściu w Warszawie. 10 kwietnia 2010 r. w katastrofie samolotu Tu-154M pod Smoleńskiem zginęło 96 osób, w tym prezydent Lech Kaczyński i jego małżonka Maria. (zuz) PAP/Paweł Supernak PAP © 2016 / Paweł Supernak

The ceremony was part of a series of events marking six years since a Polish presidential plane carrying 96 people including the country's President Lech Kaczynski crashed in Smolensk, western Russia, April 10, 2010, killing all those on board.

"We remember this tragic day today, but most of all we remember the Polish patriots who gave their lives while serving their country because this is how Poland should remember that dramatic event," Duda said.

"I want to say this very emphatically: they all served Poland in the best possible sense, and they gave their lives in this service," he said.

"They were people from different political camps, people with different views who included both religious people and probably non-believers, as is the case in every society and every country," the president continued.

"They were people who represented us, represented our nation in the fullest sense of the word," he said

"Today we owe them this kind of unity in face of what happened then. ... We owe them a fair and calm investigation of what happened then, without political wrangling." (PAP)

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