Cable Sent from SBY to Prime Minister Donald Tusk

SBY PRESIDENCY

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has sent a cable to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressing condolences on the death of President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash in western Russia on Saturday. In his cable of condolences, President Yudhoyono praised President Kaczynski as a statesman respected and loved by his people, presidential spokesman for foreign relations Dino Pati Djalal said in a press statement on Sunday.

The 61-year-old Polish president and First Lady Maria Kaczynski were killed in the plane crash two kilometers from an airport in the western Russian city of Smolensk on Saturday. The plane carried 96 passengers, 88 of them the country’s political and military elite.

Foreign media reports quoted Russian officials as saying none of the passengers survived the crash. The Polish delegation were on their way to a Katyn memorial ceremony.Prime Minister Donald Tusk has declared a week of national mourning in connection with the plane crash.

Dino said President Yudhoyono was supposed to meet with President Kaczynski in December 2009 as part of his European visit during which he attended the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.

"But because President Lech was ill President Yudhoyono then canceled his visit to Warsaw, Poland," he said.(KOMPAS)