Jaruzelski's Elite Thugs

"Polish soldiers will not fire on Polish workers." That statement, which is widely believed to have been made by General Wojciech Jaruzelski when workers rebelled in 1976, was often cited in the past year by optimistic Poles who believed that their experiment with liberalization would not end in repression and bloodshed. Despite the fact that the clampdown killed 17 people, by the government's admission, Jaruzelski may have remained true to his pledge--at least in a literal sense. Most of the acts of brutality that have been committed in the five weeks since Jaruzelski imposed martial law on Poland have not been the work of the young, generally amiable army recruits, but that of independent security squads specially trained to use force on their countrymen.

Until the heavy billy clubs start to swing, Poles sometimes have trouble distinguishing the aggressive security forces from regular army and police units. Some of the shock troops travel with regular army and police units. Their leaders may even carry the rank of general in the army or police. Except for the white belts that are worn by the W.S.W. (the Military Security Service assigned to keep an eye on members of Poland's 320,000-strong armed forces), the special troops have almost no distinguishing marks on their uniforms. Explains Tadeusz Nowakowski, a prominent Polish writer now living in Munich: "The leadership knows that Poles like Polish soldiers, so they play a trick on them. Poles never know precisely if they are dealing with the army, the special units or the secret police in uniform."

The most feared and hated of the security forces are the 20,000 to 25,000 troops known as ZOMO, the Polish acronym for motorized police units. They take their orders directly from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In December's crackdown, while the army cordoned off the trouble spots, ZOMO units broke up most of the demonstrations that took place after Jaruzelski imposed martial law. In Gdansk they burst into the Lenin shipyards to end a sit-in by the workers who had launched the independent Solidarity trade union in August 1980. When coal miners in the Wujek pit near the Silesian city of Katowice resisted martial law, it was the members of ZOMO who opened fire. The government admits that eight miners were killed in the incident. ZOMO forces reportedly attacked even doctors and nurses who had arrived to take wounded miners to the hospital. When the goon squads indiscriminately swung their batons at protesting teen-agers in Cracow, they drew shouts of "ZOMO--Gestapo."

ZOMO members are often country dwellers, generally poor and with only six to eight years of education. Some are convicted felons. Says a Polish exile: "If someone has a criminal background, the authorities might say, 'Okay, we'll forget that little blemish if you give us a year in ZOMO.' " The selection process is said to favor brawny youths who in some fashion feel alienated from society. ZOMO members are generally kept apart from the people they are being trained to subdue. They live in their own barracks outside major Polish cities and enjoy special privileges, including generous salaries and ready access to consumer goods.

ZOMO troops are well equipped with machine guns, bazookas, armored vehicles and helicopters. But their favorite weapon is often sheer muscle. Says a British diplomat: "They're exceptionally tough and brutal. I saw three ZOMO thugs beat a striking worker in Warsaw with the butt end of their automatic rifles until both his arms and legs had been broken."

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