Walesa: Mandela and I fought for freedom

Officers carry the coffin of Nelson Mandela to the Union Buildings marking the start of a three-day lying in state in Pretoria, 11 December 2013. He will be laid to rest in his home town of Qunu on Sunday 15 December. EPA/MARCO LONGARI

Describing the achievements of fellow Nobel Peace Prize-winners Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama, Walesa told Polish Radio that “we fought in different places but in spite of that, it was called freedom.

“It was only that the opponents were different,” he said.

“The Nobel Prize was awarded to us for our classic, beautiful struggle.”

The former Polish president was compelled to cancel plans to take part in Tuesday's memorial service, owing to poor health and exhaustion following his visit to the US last week. He underwent heart surgery in 2008.

Instead, Walesa signed a condolence book, as did Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw.

Thirty years ago on 10 December 1983, Walesa's wife Danuta collected the Nobel Peace Prize on his behalf. He himself did not travel to Oslo, fearing that Poland's communist authorities would not let him back into the country.

He said on Tuesday that he sent his then 13-year-old eldest son Bogdan along too, so that his wife “would not feel alone.”

Meanwhile, Nelson Mandela's body has been taken to Pretoria, where the late leader will lie in state for three days at the Union Buildings (pictured), where his presidency was inaugurated in 1994, in the wake of the end of apartheid in South Africa. (nh)