WARSAW - Poland's president on Monday sacked the armed forces chief, Gen Tadeusz Wilecki, who had been openly quarrelling with the ruling excommunist party just months before talks on NATO entry are due to start.
"I expect that ... we will be able to concentrate more on what needs to be done in the army and not on squabbles over personnel, rows and discussions in the mass media," President Aleksander Kwasniewski said as he appointed Gen Wilecki's successor, Gen Henryk Szumski.
Critics have long accused Gen Wilecki of trying to entrench the general staffs authority at the defence ministry's expense, harming Poland's bid to meet exacting standards for civilian control of the army required by NATO from new members.