Following other ex-communist states, especially Poland, with its continuing controversy over bishops and priests who collaborated with the Communists, the Czech Republic has announced plans to open the archives of the secret police from the Communist era.Foreign Minister Ivan Langer said that the secret-police archives, contained in file drawers that stretch for more than 9 miles, will be opened to researchers. The decision was announced amid a lively controversy in Eastern European nations about the question of whether individuals who collaborated with the Communist government should now be exposed.
“It is important to understand what the secret police were capable of,” Langer said in announcing the government’s decision. He added that the opening of the archives would also allow the public to “discover the names of heroes” who resisted the pressure of the secret police.
The opening of the archives had been opposed by Czech officials who argued that the move could create new divisions in the country.
The Slovak and Czech defence ministers recently signed an agreement dividing the archives of the former federal military counter-intelligence. The move comes more than 14 years after the break-up of Czechoslovakia.
Slovaks will thus gain access to many original files of the former communist state police (StB), of which the counter-intelligence was a part.
"It is an historic agreement in the preparation of which both ministries cooperated for several years," Slovak Defence Minister Frantisek Kasicky said.
The Slovak and Czech military intelligence services have yet to sign the implementation protocol.
Afterwards, Slovakia will be able to transfer the documents to its territory and hand them to the National Memory Institute, which documents crimes from the times of communism and fascism.
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