Poland's Walesa testifies in trial of old rival

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's Lech Walesa testified on Wednesday against his old rival General Wojciech Jaruzelski in a long-delayed hearing into a bloody communist crackdown on civilian protesters nearly 40 years ago.

Nobel Peace Laureate Walesa once led the pro-democracy Solidarity trade union which Jaruzelski, as communist-era head of state, tried in vain to crush.

"We must bring this trial to a conclusion so that nobody ever does such a thing again in the future," Walesa told reporters outside the Warsaw court where he was a witness in the case against Jaruzelski over the 1970 shootings.

Personal relations between the old rivals have mellowed over the years and the two men shook hands politely in court.

Jaruzelski was interior minister in 1970 when police opened fire on striking workers in several cities in northern Poland, killing nearly 40 men and injuring more than 150. Several thousand people were arrested over the protests.

The trial began 12 years ago but has faced many bureaucratic obstacles. Some of the 12 original suspects have since died. Jaruzelski, now 85, told Reuters in May he did not expect the trial to reach a verdict because of "biological conditions".

Asked if he thought Jaruzelski was to blame for the 1970 events, Walesa said: "He did not have much responsibility back then. (But) in all this complex situation he bears some guilt."

The workers' strikes in December 1970 were a precursor of the later mass protests led by Walesa and Solidarity that finally helped topple communist rule in Poland in 1989.

Walesa, an electrician who became Poland's first post-communist president, remains one of the country's most popular figures, one recent poll showing that 52 percent of Poles trusted him, far more than trusted many other politicians.

Jaruzelski faces a separate trial in September over his decision to declare martial law in 1981, which led to the death or imprisonment of many Poles. Jaruzelski says his decision helped avert a Soviet invasion.

(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska, editing by Gareth Jones and Tim Pearce)