Poles clamor to see secret police file index

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://www.suntimes.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi>

www.suntimes.com


Poles clamor to see secret police file index

 February 6, 2005

BY ELA KASPRZYCKA


 WARSAW, Poland -- Prosecutors said Friday they are investigating the leak
of a government index of communist-era secret police files that has landed
on the Internet, creating a frenzy among Poles scrambling to find out if
their names are on the list.

 The uproar over the list, leaked from the institute that makes the files
available to victims, historians and journalists, is all the louder because
names of informers are mingled with those of victims, causing fear it will
stain the innocent.

 Journalist Bronislaw Wildstein hasn't said how he obtained a copy of the
nonpublic list on computer disc from the archives of the state-run National
Remembrance Institute, where he was authorized to conduct research.

 He denies being behind the appearance of the 240,000 names on the Internet
and says he gave it to only a few trusted journalists.

 He has since been fired from the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, which said he
was getting involved in politics. Several right-wing parties have called
for publishing secret police files on the Internet.

 The issue of secret police files touches a nerve in Poland, where having
collaborated with the communist-era authorities is viewed as disgraceful by
many. Nonetheless, when a democratic government took over in 1989-90,
Poland's leaders declined to make a thorough purge of informers from public
life.

 Candidates for public office now must simply declare whether they
collaborated. There's no penalty for such an admission, but those who
falsely deny it and are caught face a 10-year ban from holding office. Some
are calling for a wider-ranging effort to expose former collaborators.

 The institute says theft of the list is illegal, and prosecutors say they
are investigating.


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'