Aug 17, 2009, 17:54 GMT
Warsaw - The commander of Poland's land forces, General Waldemar Skrzypczak, announced Monday that he was tendering his resignation amid differences with the country's ministry of defence over the Polish mission in Afghanistan.
Skrzypczak made the disclosure on the internet site of the Polish army, coming after an interview he gave with the Dziennik daily newspaper in which he accused ministry officials of blocking the delivery of modern weapons to Poland's soldiers in Afghanistan.
The three-star general, who had seen action in Iraq, charged that if the Polish forces had had unmanned surveillance planes and well- armed helicopters, then a Polish army captain would not have recently been killed.
Bureaucrats who only knew war 'in the cinema' were deciding about weapons procurement, Skrzypczak charged in the interview.
His reference was to an ambush of a Polish unit carried out by the Taliban a week ago. Besides the officer, four other soldiers were wounded in a several-hour battle.
Skrzypczak said that since he had lost the confidence of Defence Minister Bogdan Klich, he was tendering his resignation.
In a rebuttal, Klich accused Skrzypczak of questioning the principle of civilian control over the military and said that in past briefings, the general had never complained.
A decision on Skrzypczak's resignation is now in the hands of President Lech Kaczynski. Under the Polish constitution the president is commander of the armed forces and responsible for making key appointments in the military.
Some 2,000 Polish soldiers are currently on duty in Afghanistan. Amid the financial and economic crisis hitting the country, the Warsaw government has drastically cut its military budget.
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