Tomasz Wacko killed by Norwegian police?
Tomasz Wacko (pronounced Vah-ts-koh) died exactly three years ago. Until yesterday I didn’t even know he existed.
He was an opposition (”Solidarnosc”) activist from Poland, who found refuge in Norway and became a prominent human rights activist at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, also devoting a lot of time and effort to the democracy cause in Belarus. And then in 2003, totally unexpectedly, he died from the hands of … the Norwegian police.
Unfortunately, there’s very little information in English about the circumstances of his death. It’s as if someone is trying hard to cover it up. Here are some bits and pieces that I’ve found:
The Wacko case: Police charged with involuntary manslaughter
Tomasz Wacko, known to his large number of friends both in Norway, Poland and throughout Central and Eastern Europe, as Tomek, was only 44 years old when he died under terribly tragic circumstances earlier this year. To his premature death, however, there is also an element of almost unbelievably cruel irony. From his years in the then permanently persecuted Polish underground opposition, Tomek had survived numerous clashes with General Jaruzelski´s Police, Army and Security Forces, and also two periods behind bars, during which he became a natural leader for his fellow prisoners of conscience. After fourteen years in Norway, twelve of them spent as a full-time human rights activist, he died at the hands of the Norwegian Police.
Here are three news sources in Norwegian that I’ve found:
• Død av oksygenmangel (Dead from oxygen deficiency?) “Han overlevde mye, unntatt norsk politi. Han reddet mange, unntatt seg selv.” An article in a popular Norwegian newspaper “Dagbladet.”
• Politimann tiltalt for drap. An article in another popular Norwegian newspaper “Aftenposten.”
• Dødsfall i Politiets varetekt. Apparently it’s a collection of stories about police violence and crimes committed by Norwegian policemen, and some of the material, as far as I could understand was about Tomasz Wacko’s case.
If someone who speaks Norwegian could make a short English summary of these articles, I would be very thankful.
I’ve also found some information in Polish and Belarusan:
Tomek Wacko (1958-2003) historyk, obrońca praw człowieka, polityk. Od 1990 rok w Norwegii pracuje w Komitecie Helsińskim. Pomaga organizacjom i ruchom walczącym o prawa człowieka w krajach b.ZSRR. Znany i popularny wśród działaczy politycznych i społecznych w Rosji, Czeczeni, Ukrainie, Białorusi. W 2003 roku umiera w szpitalu w Oslo po absurdalnej i brutalnej interwencji norweskich policjantów.
My translation: “Tomek Wacko (1958), a historian, human rights activist and politician. From 1990 he worked at the Norwegian Helsinki committee. He was helping human rights movements in the former USSR. He was well-known in the political circles in Russia, Chechnya, Ukraine and Belarus. In 2003 he died at the hospital in Oslo after an absurd and brutal intervention of the Norwegian police.”
And one of the comments at some online forum from someone with a nickname kLaudiusz:
policja norweska to chuje!…sam doswiadczylem tego, gdy spalem sobie spokojnie w samochodzie na parkingach a te cioty sie do mnie przypieprzaly…tym wieksze bylo moje wkurwienie gdy Jacob powiedzial mi o okolicznosciach jego smierci!
Approximate translation: “Norwegian police are dickheads! I myself can testify to that, when I was calmly sleeping in my car on a parking lot and those idiots bothered me… That’s why I was even more mad when Jacob told me about the circumstances of his death!”
See also:
• Ostatnie pożegnanie Tomasza Wacko — some photos from the funeral
• Tomasz Wacko died three years ago — a former Polish ambassador to Belarus Mariusz Maszkiewicz explains that Tomasz Wacko was very involved in Belarusian affairs. He says that thanks to Wacko Norwegian politicians became aware of Belarus and the he laid the groundwork for Alexander Milinkevich’s visit to Norway.
It’s a very weird story.
June 9th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
Dagbladet, quick and dirty:
The story of the norwegian-polish human rights worker Tomasz Wacko’s death is tragic, no matter who is to blame: The police, himself, or the world out there. (Goes on to tell a bit of Wacko’s life) Night to tuesday, june 3, the police moved to the house in Mysen. “I’ve never seen him like this,” said the nineteen year old daughter, who thinks that the police’s behaviour brought out memories from her time in Poland. She called and asked for help from the same police hands that the preliminary autopsy report confirms took the life of Tomek. (more about Wacko) He died of a lack of oxygen, “caused by a pressure on the (pulse blood vein) in his neck”, at a hospital in Moss.
June 9th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Aftenposten, still quick and dirty:
A 28 year old police officer is charged for murder without intent on the man from Mysen, Tomasz Wacko, who died from damages he suffered when he was arrested on the fifth of June this year.
“My client reacts strongly to this, and the charge came as a surprise to him, since we had asked for more investigation,” says the officer’s lawyer Jens-Ove Hagen.
Tor Erling Staff, who is the lawyer for Tomasz Wacko’s family, means it is right to press charges. “But the charge should have been stronger.” (Sorry, I don’t speak legalese, so those parts come out blurry. :P)
44 year old Tomasz Wacko died from lack of oxygen when he was arrested by the police, who had been called by Wacko’s family because of house disorder the 5th of June this year. The family has explained that Wacko had calmed down by the time the police showed up.
The officer charged with murder has explained that he acted in self defence, and that he feared Wacko was going to strangle him with the cord on his communication radio.
State attorney Hans Jørgen Bender has sharpened the charge in accordance with the recommendation from SEFO, and says that the defendant could be stripped of his right to continue as a police officer.
The SEFO committee who investigated the incident concluded that the officer charged with murder knew that the grip he took around Wacko’s neck could lead to choking. The committee also make it a point that the grip is not part of training at Police Academy.
Wacko was senior advisor for the Norwegian Helsingforscommittee, and came to Norway as a political refugee from Poland, where he was a member of Solidarity. He was imprisoned in Poland three years in all.
The case will be held at Heggen and Frøland court in Mysen, but it is unclear when the trial will begin.
June 9th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Oh, and SEFO is ‘det særskilte etterforskningsorgan’, the special investigation organ.
June 9th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
He died of a lack of oxygen, “caused by a pressure on the (pulse blood vein) in his neck”
To really kill someone like that takes a few minutes.. (IF that person would calmly accept and not struggle, usually takes longer) it would be in no way police brutality.. or accident.. It can only be done on purpose.
I dunno the whole police thing sounds fishy… If he was “accidentally” shot.. or hit his head on a “sharp/blunt object”… mebe… but… being choked?
July 4th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
hmm how strange. He was an opposition activist in Wroclaw. I didn’t know he died in such strange circumstances.