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Left says state historical institute does 'more harm than communists'

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 18.01.2012 09:34
The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) has claimed that a state body charged with investigating crimes against the Polish nation has “harmed more people” than the communist-era secret services.

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SLD spokesman Dariusz Jonski said at a press conference on Tuesday that his party submitted a draft bill to parliament on Friday calling for the abolition of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN).

“We are proposing that IPN will be abolished on 30 June, and of course, that same day, lustration statements will cease to to be obligatory,” he said.

The so-called lustration statements are the declarations that politicians and public servants must make regarding whether or not they cooperated with the communist-era secret services.

Laws were introduced in 2006 to this effect by the conservative Law and Justice government.

“Why are we doing this?” Jonski said of SLD's draft bill.

SLD is made up of many former communist party members who have turned into social democrats since the fall of the regime in 1989.

“Because after 13 years of operations, one can say that the Institute has harmed more people than the SB [the communist secret services].”

Leszek Aleksandrzak, deputy chairman of the SLD parliamentary club, added that the abolition of IPN would also save millions from the annual state budget.

IPN endured much criticism after a series of unveilings of alleged communist collaborators, among whom was solidarity hero Lech Walesa, who IPN claimed was an informant in the seventies, prior to the founding of the Solidarity trade union.

In recent months IPN has attempted to alter its image by organising exhibitions and even launching a board game about life in communist Poland.

Besides SLD, only the liberal Palikot's Movement party has come out in favour of the draft bill thus far.(nh/pg )

Source: PAP, TVN24

tags: communism, IPN
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