site.btaRoundtable Discusses Present, Future of Secret Police Files Committee

Sofia, April 3 (BTA) - A roundtable discussion on the present and future of the Secret Police Files Committee was held Tuesday in Parliament with the active assistance of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. It looked back on the Committee's activity during its ten year's existence.

Opening the event, National Assembly Internal Security and Public Order Committee Chairman Tsvetan Tsvetanov suggested that time limit be set within which the Secret Police Files Committee should be transformed into an institute of national remembrance.

Tsvetanov said that the actual delivery of the Communist-era secret police files to the Committee was insufficient and this raised the issue on whether some files had not been purged and had their full contents of the period until 1988-1989. "In 2010, more than 1 million units of the Interior Ministry archives were handed over to the Secret Police Files, and extended the range of persons checked, including the culprits for the bank failures during the transition and the privatization deals," the Internal Security Committee Chairman said. He admitted that opinions are divided about how long and whether the Secret Police Files Committee should continue to function.

The Committee for Disclosing the Documents and Announcing Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security and the Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian National Army (as is its full name) has so far checked more than 287,000 persons. The checks peaked in 2008, 2011 and 2016, when elections were held, Committee Chairman Evtim Kostadinov reported at the rountdable. Affiliation to the services has been determined for 15,192 persons, of whom 12,404 have been announced. The identity of the rest may not be disclosed under the law because they were either deceased or aged under 18. Out of a total of 384 law suits filed, the Committee has won 286, and its decisions have been revoked in just 41, the Chairman said.