Global leaders can’t get to funeral

April 18, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland

Some 100,000 Poles filled Warsaw’s biggest public square Saturday, joining together for a memorial and funeral Mass for the 96 people killed in a plane crash April 10.

The thickening cloud of volcanic ash over Europe caused some world leaders — including President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper — to cancel plans to attend today’s state funeral. Still, some European leaders said they would drive to Krakow.

Obama “waited as long as possible before he made the decision because he wanted to come,” said Lee Feinstein, U.S. Ambassador to Poland. “But it was impossible for him to travel.”

The crowd in Warsaw’s Pilsudski Square waved white-and-red Polish flags with black ribbons of mourning affixed to them.

A massive white stage, a large cross in the center, was flanked by oversized photos of the dead, including President Lech Kaczynski.

The names of the dead were read aloud, starting with the president and his wife, Maria, while Marta, their only child, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president’s twin brother and former prime minister, looked on. Others at the service included former President Lech Walesa, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and acting president Bronislaw Komorowski.

The crash claimed the lives of a swath of Poland’s elite, including numerous lawmakers, the central bank governor, the commanders of the country’s armed forces and the head of its Olympic committee, among others.