Dear Sir/Madam

The National Population and Housing Census 2002 in Poland recommended by the UN and held between May 21 and June 8, 2002 is one of the main current ventures in the Republic of Poland. The main aim of the census is to get infomation about population distribution, demographic and social features, professional activity, living and housing standards, etc.

Among a number of questions to be asked two concerning ethnicity can be found, i.e. one about individual's nationality and another about the language used by the asked. Although the authorities corroborate that all the answers must be put down in application forms as given by the asked this rule is widely breached as far as questions about nationality is concerned.

In reference to the question number 33 concernig individual's nationality to be asked during the National Population and Housing Census 2002 in Poland, the Chairman of the Central Statistical Office (Glowny Urzad Statystyczny-GUS) Mr. Tadeusz Toczynski assured us in his letter of March 23, 2002, that Silesian nationality will be accepted if declared by the asked. Additionally in an instruction distributed among regional branches of GUS we can read that "reporters must not suggest an answer to the asked".

Additionally, in his letter of May 30, 2002 sent to Mrs. Maes (MEP) a chairperson of the European Free Alliance/Democratic Party of the Peoples of Europe, Mr Marek Grela, a Polish Ambassador to the European Union explained that according to the census principles “Nationality is meant to be a declaratory(based on the subjective feeling) feature of an individual, expressing his/her emotional, cultural and background (taking account of the parents’ origins) bonds with a particular nation. It means that the reporter is putting down the direct answer of the respondent”.

A few lines below we can also read that “Each nationality declared by the respondent and put into the form will be recognised and accepted. It will stay intact, will not be subject to any interference on the part of the reporter or during the data processing period. The Main Statistical Office is not entitled to make any interference into the obtained data. It means there is no such a possibility for the Silesian or any other nationality to be counted as the Polish one.”

Not denying these theses and being deeply convinced about a good will of the Main Statistical Office, we must note that we have been informed that during their trainings reporters were induced to change the answer when Silesian nationality is declared into Polish, or to suggest not to declare it. Such practises have been recorded in many municipalities where reporters were trained, e.g. in Chrzastowice near Opole, Piekary Slaskie, Myslowice, etc. in Wojewodztwo Slaskie.

We have also recorded a series of cases when during the census reporters refused to put down a declaration of Silesian nationality into the form. The list of these cases can be found on the official website of Silesian Autonomy Movement (Ruch Autonomii Slaska):

http://www.raslaska.org/RuchAutonomiiSlaska/pol/0205/ManipulacjeSpisowe.htm

Although the list is in Polish and contains only the cases which were recorded by the Silesian Autonomy Movement we hope it will give you an idea to what extent data collected during the census, particularly those concerning the number of people of Silesian nationality, and reality do not coincide.

We regret to ascertain that the National Population and Housing Census 2002 in Poland will certainly not provide us with a real picture of the situation (e.g. number) of the Silesian nation in Poland. Even though Silesian nationality is recognised during census data processing and accepted in a report to be published after it we are aware of the fact that the number of Silesians in the report will be much smaller than this in reality.

Yours sincerely,

Bartlomiej Swiderek

Foreign Department Chief Manager

of the Silesian Autonomy Movement

e-mail: [email protected]

http://www.raslaska.org

enclosures:

1. letter of Mr. Marek Grela, Polish Ambassador to the EU, sent to Mrs Nelly Maes, MEP for EFA-DPPE

2. copy of the letter of the Silesian Autonomy Movement