CZECH REPUBLIC: Czech institute releases a list of former communist intelligence agents

Record ID: 574674

  • Title: CZECH REPUBLIC: Czech institute releases a list of former communist intelligence agents
  • Date: 10th November 2009
  • Summary: PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC (NOVEMBER 9, 2009) (REUTERS) JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 25th November 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Czech Republic
  • Country: Czech Republic
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2EGQWDZN5H8Y1SM2WBX0JT18Y
  • Story Text: The Czech Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes released the names of former secret police agents on Monday (November 9), to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
    The institute also made photographs and video files available on its website www.ustrcr.cz as an archive for the wider public.
    "It is our duty to show not only that 1989 was the year of of the people's revolt, demonstrations and the fall of the regime, but also a year of preparations of the regime to protect itself," said the Institute's director Jiri Zacek at a news conference on Monday.
    The published files contain almost one thousand names of 1st and 2nd SNB (National Security Corps) members who were active as communist intelligence service till 1989.
    Journalists were also shown videos made by the country's secret police of officers training to deal with the anti-communist demonstrations of Spring 1989.
    Armed policemen with army trucks and hypodermic trucks were instructed how to behave during the demonstrations, which had begun in 1988.
    The Institute says it is a first for a post-communist state to publish the archive materials of secret police agents on its website. The agents were focused on fighting dissidents and anti-communist opposition. The website also publicises the list of foreign intelligence agents who were active as of November 17, 1989.
    "We prepared files on the 1st Administration of National Security Corps (secret police), which is labelled as the main intelligence service administration. It is special because it was not active in the territory of Czechoslovakia but through many legalized institutions also abroad," Zacek said.
    In 1989, the Main SNB (National Security Corps) Foreign Intelligence Directorate was an important section of the State Security Service (StB) operating not only within the CSSR but also abroad, and was an inseparable component of the Soviet intelligence apparatus. Under the control of advisers of the KGB, it attempted to penetrate important places in the democratic west and countries of the third world.
    Until the end of the Communist totalitarian regime it functioned actively in Europe, especially in Austria and the Federal Republic of Germany.
    The Institute website lists the names of counterintelligence servicemen whose job was to reveal anti-state activities not only of Czechoslovak citizens, but also of foreigners residing in Czechoslovakia. It offers a complete list of counterintelligence servicemen who were involved in the persecution of the activities of "independent initiatives".
    "The list includes 985 people structured according to the headquarters structure, how they were active in the Czechoslovak regions. Hundreds of them were placed at 'legalized' institutions at home and also abroad," Zacek said.
    "This was the most secret part of the communist intelligence service," he added.
    The website also displays photographs from 1989 and secret police videos showing monitoring actions against opposition leaders. One of the videos shows former Charter 77 spokesman, dissident Ladislav Lis closely watched by secret police.
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