Janusz Onyszkiewicz

Janusz Adam Onyszkiewicz (, born 18 December 1937) is a Polish mathematician, alpinist, politician who served as Minister of Defence twice, in the cabinets of Hanna Suchocka (1992–1993) and Jerzy Buzek (1997–2000).

Later in his career, Onyszkiewicz was a Member of the European Parliament.

Early life and education
Onyszkiewicz was born in Lwów (then Poland, now Lviv, Ukraine). 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.

Political career
In the 1980s, Onyszkiewicz became the spokesman for the anti-communist Solidarity movement. 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. 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.

Member of the Polish Parliament
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. Later, Onyszkiewicz was Minister of Defence twice, in the cabinets of Hanna Suchocka (1992–1993) and Jerzy Buzek (1997–2000).

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.

In 1999, Onyszkiewicz was awarded the Manfred Wörner Medal by the German Minister of Defence.

Member of the European Parliament
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.

Other activities
Onyszkiewicz is Chairman of the ICDT's International Board of Directors.