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Slovak nationalists want to abolish historical archives institute

28.04.2008

BRATISLAVA, April 28, 2008 (AFP) - The Slovak National Party (SNS),a member of the government coalition, has prepared a bill to abolish the Nation's Memory Institute (UPN) containing the state's communist-era and World War Two archives, the media said Monday.
The party led by Jan Slota says the Institute "turns victims into criminals", according to SNS parliamentary deputy Rafael Rafaj.
The Slovak media revealed last week that Slota allegedly had a criminal record in the Slovak communist-era state security police files. The 54-year-old Slota denied allegations that he had been involved in a burglary in Slovakia and had stolen cars in Austria during the communist era.
Slovakia was previously joined together with the Czech Republic as Czechoslovakia. The two became separate states when communist rule ended in 1989.
Another junior coalition party led by ex-Premier Vladimir Meciar is supporting the abolition of the institute, saying it proposed this months ago.
The Nation's Memory Institute was set up in 2003 to provide access to undisclosed records of the activities of repressive organs of the former Slovak and Czechoslovak states in the period from 1939 to 1989.
Last year UPN lodged details with the Slovak procurator of the first cases of murder and torture committed under its former communist regime. The institute was preparing further cases of murders of people trying to cross the Iron Curtain.

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