| Janusz Onyszkiewicz | |
| Order: | Minister of National Defence |
| Term Start: | 31 October 1997 |
| Term End: | 16 June 2000 |
| Primeminister: | Jerzy Buzek |
| Predecessor: | Stanisław Dobrzański |
| Successor: | Bronisław Komorowski |
| Term Start2: | 11 July 1992 |
| Term End2: | 26 October 1993 |
| Primeminister2: | Hanna Suchocka |
| Predecessor2: | Romuald Szeremietiew |
| Successor2: | Piotr Kołodziejczyk |
| Birth Date: | 18 December 1937 |
| Birth Place: | Lwów, Poland |
| Party: | Democratic Party – demokraci.pl |
| Spouse: | Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz 1971–1978 (her death) |
Janusz Adam Onyszkiewicz (pronounced as /pol/, born 18 December 1937) is a Polish mathematician, alpinist and politician,[1] who served as Minister of Defence twice, in the cabinets of Hanna Suchocka (1992–1993) and Jerzy Buzek (1997–2000).[2]
Later in his career, Onyszkiewicz was a Member of the European Parliament.[3]
Onyszkiewicz was born in Lwów (then Poland, now Lviv, Ukraine).[4] 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.[5] After Alison's death on Annapurna in 1978, Onyszkiewicz gave up altitude climbing and turned to politics.[6] [7] [8]
In the 1980s, Onyszkiewicz became the spokesman for the anti-communist Solidarity movement.[1] 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.[9] 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.[10]
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.[9] Later, Onyszkiewicz was Minister of Defence twice, in the cabinets of Hanna Suchocka (1992–1993) and Jerzy Buzek (1997–2000).[11]
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.[4]
In 1999, Onyszkiewicz was awarded the Manfred Wörner Medal by the German Minister of Defence.[1]
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.
Onyszkiewicz is Chairman of the ICDT's International Board of Directors.[12]