Janusz Onyszkiewicz

Early life and education

Onyszkiewicz was born in Lwów (then Poland, now Lviv, Ukraine). He graduated in mathematics from Warsaw University. He became a mathematician, and was also known as an alpinist in the 1970s along with his wife Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz. After Alison's death on Annapurna in 1978, Onyszkiewicz gave up altitude climbing and turned to politics.

Political career

In the 1980s, Onyszkiewicz became the spokesman for the anti-communist Solidarity movement. In 1986, he was again detained by the police, preventing him from holding a news conference on behalf of political prisoners that was scheduled to coincide with the start of a conference of intellectuals.

Member of the Polish Parliament

After the fall of communism in 1989, Onyszkiewicz became a member of the Polish Sejm. He served all subsequent terms from May 1989 until 2001. In the spring of 1990, Onyszkiewicz and Bronisław Komorowski became the first civilian vice-ministers of defence in the communist-dominated Ministry of Defence.

Initially, Onyszkiewicz was a member of the Obywatelski Klub Parlamentarny, then the Democratic Union and the Freedom Union. Today, he is a member of the Democratic Party, the continuation of Democratic Union.

In 1999, Onyszkiewicz was awarded the Manfred Wörner Medal by the German Minister of Defence.

Member of the European Parliament

On 13 June 2004, Onyszkiewicz was elected to the European Parliament as a candidate of Democratic Union in the 10th constituency (Lesser Poland+Swietokrzyskie Voivodeships) receiving 50 155 votes (6,37%). On 20 July 2004 he was elected a vice-president of the European Parliament.

Other activities

Onyszkiewicz is Chairman of the ICDT's International Board of Directors.

References

• Onuszkiewicz's page for elections to the European Parliament https://web.archive.org/web/20100425055238/http://www.januszonyszkiewicz.pl/

References

1. Europa Publications, "The International Who's Who 2004", Routledge, 2003, [https://books.google.com/books?id=neKm1X6YPY0C&pg=PA1258 pg. 1258]
2. Jeffrey Simon, "Poland and NATO: a study in civil-military relations", Rowman & Littlefield, 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=sCj3TUqWvq4C&pg=PA19 pg. 19]
3. "Archived copy".
4. Dziennik Polski, "Ankieta Eurokandyta – Janusz Onyszkiewicz", 20 May 2009, [http://www.dziennik.krakow.pl/pl/aktualnosci/opinie/928880-ankieta-eurokandydata.html]
5. "AAC Publications - Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz, 1942-4978".
6. "Alison Chadwick, druga żona Onyszkiewicza, która zginęła w górach. Poznali się w Tatrach, razem zdobywali Himalaje".
7. "Janusz Onyszkiewicz: To był twardy człowiek, komandos. Ale ludzie się zmieniają".
8. YT. (2002-03-24). "Janusz Onyszkiewicz".
9. He became popular among foreign journalists because of his fluent English. After the introduction of [[martial law in Poland]] on 13 December 1981, he was arrested and interned.Krzysztof Ciesielski and Zdzislaw Pogoda, "Janusz Onyszkiewicz", The Mathematical Intelligencer, Volume 12, Number 4 / December, 1990, [https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF03024031]
10. [https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/17/world/around-the-world-2-solidarity-activists-detained-in-poland.html 2 Solidarity Activists Detained in Poland] ''[[New York Times]]'', 17 January 1986.
11. Later, Onyszkiewicz was Minister of Defence twice, in the cabinets of [[Hanna Suchocka]] (1992–1993) and [[Jerzy Buzek]] (1997–2000).Jeffrey Simon, "Poland and NATO: a study in civil-military relations", Rowman & Littlefield, 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=sCj3TUqWvq4C&pg=PA19 pg. 19]
12. "The International Centre for Democratic Transition (ICDT)".