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Lustration is mostly a matter of political will
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August 22nd, 2007 issue

We’re impressed that a hidden database of secret agents is finally out in the open (See story, page A1). It’s also exciting that a project called Open Past (Otevřená minulost) exists, which gives the public access to files of the dreaded StB secret police.

What we don’t understand is why it takes so long to expose former communist power-mongers. Open Past, for example, didn’t get started until February, almost 17 years after the secret police service was disbanded. Of the estimated 17 kilometers (10.6 miles) of documents it holds, only 3.5 percent have been processed so far.
Everyone seems to know someone who used to be an informer or a spy, from the neighbor down the street to people in high levels of government. Complaints about the same people being in power now as then are common. So why doesn’t the process go more quickly when it comes to unmasking them?
There are no easy answers, as the experience of other formerly communist countries shows. Facing the past is difficult, especially when it involves outing people who may be longtime friends or still in positions of power.
It’s also possible for the process to be abused, with such issues quickly turned to political ends. Polish President Lech Kaczyński and his brother Jarosław, the prime minister, are accused of unleashing a political witch hunt in their national lustration process.
Though it’s not perfectly analogous, South Africa’s experience with its Truth and Reconciliation Commission offers an interesting contrast. It was quick, starting in 1995, it was supported by political leaders, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and it was efficient. The populace felt that the machinery of apartheid was being exposed and dismantled, an important step to creating a free and fair democracy.
In the Czech Republic, it seems there’s not much political will to change the current system. Leaders have been relatively silent on the issue — maybe because it affects too many of them.
Sounding an optimistic note, Pavel Žáček, head of Open Past, says that many more people are now coming forward to ask for investigations. And he points out that the Czech Republic has less work to do with its documentation than places like Romania or East Germany, where investigators are plowing through almost 100 times more paper on secret police.
Still, it boggles the mind that up to 800 former StB officers remain on the present-day police force, a number provided by the Interior Ministry itself. Not only that, but there could be as many as 240,000 StB collaborators still not publicly exposed, according to numbers compiled from government files by a dissident and reported in The Prague Post three years ago.
Ultimately, no one but the Czechs can decide what is best for themselves. But, at some point, the government — and society — need to come to terms with the communist past.
We suggest politicians show some leadership and speak publicly about how important it is to cleanse the society from top to bottom of the former security apparatus.
Otherwise, the public trust will be lost.


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