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Sunday January 30, 9:21 PM

Polish journalist reveals secret service records

By Wojciech Moskwa

WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish journalist has distributed a list of 240,000 names from the records of the communist-era's secret service, fuelling a pre-election debate over politicians' connections to the former communist regime.

Investigations into links between politicians and the former communist spy apparatus are becoming a major election issue in this year's parliamentary and presidential polls.

All Polish politicians have to reveal any links to communist special services and if they are found to have lied by a special tribunal, they face a ban from public office.

Bronislaw Wildstein, a conservative journalist at heavyweight daily Rzeczpospolita, said he had copied the list of names -- the largest inventory to be published from the database of a state institute set up to probe past political crimes. He then distributed it to colleagues.

It was not clear whether any top political names were on the list but mainstream politicians denounced the journalist's action as irresponsible and potentially harmful.

"These documents have to be reread and verified, but before that happened the list appeared," Bogulslaw Sonik, member of European parliament from the centre-right Civic Platform, told private radio Zet on Sunday. "I fear a moment of injustice, for some a moment of revenge."

STRUGGLE WITH PAST

For years Poland has struggled with communist era files, with accusations over suspected collaboration hitting both the political descendents of the 1980s pro-democracy Solidarity movement and former communists turned social democrats.

The National Remembrance Institute (IPN), the owner of the archives, warned not to make too many conclusions from the list.

It said the list was not complete and did not make clear who was an operative, a potential collaborator, a victim or just a person noted in the communist era files.

IPN chief Leon Kieres said Wildstein's actions were legal but that he feared people on the list would be branded as spies.

"It would be a crime and a sign of moral degeneration for anyone to claim this to be a list of communist Poland's secret service agents and their collaborators. The IPN has no such list," Kieres told private news channel TVN24.

According to Polish law, only historians, journalists and those who can prove they were wronged by the communist authorities have access to IPN archives.

The institute then verifies its documents before giving its opinion about whether or not a person was a communist agent.

Last month, a vetting tribunal said the head of the ruling ex-communist Democratic Left Alliance had lied by denying links to communist-era intelligence.

The ruling forced Jozef Oleksy, who denies the charges and has appealed the verdict, to step down from the powerful post of parliamentary speaker and hurt the leftists' bid to rebuild their popularity in the run-up to elections.

In anther high-profile case, Malgorzata Niezabitowska, the spokeswoman for Poland's first non-communist government since World War Two, was named by IPN as collaborator "Nowak" who helped infiltrate a Solidarity weekly. Niezabitowska said she may take her case to international court to prove her innocence.

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List of agents from Wildstein means end of vetting - Belka

Lowicz, Jan. 31: PM Marek Belka says that the duplicating and disseminating by journalist Bronislaw Wildstein of a list of communist-era secret police staffers, informers and would-be informers means an end of vetting. "This is in fact the end of any kind of vetting," Belka said. "This has compromised all approaches to vetting. We can put this chapter behind us. I do not know if this was the aim (of Wildstein's action), but in my opinion the consequences will be exactly such." A computer linked to a database on archival files has been available in the National Remembrance Institute (IPN) since last autumn. All persons using the archives have access to the computer. Wildstein copied 240,000 names from the archival name index. He claims he has made the list available to journalists in order to facilitate their work on communist-era secret police and its victims.

TheLidlessEyes wrote:

But how many lives are made better because the suspicion is lifted - they are not on the list?

There's a double-edge to this and not as black and white as you might think.