[Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Downwithcapitalism <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2001 3:30 PM Subject: [downwithcapitalism] No democracy for Bulgarian ex-communists Agence France Presse. 10 June 2001. Bulgarian parties eject communist-era spies ahead of poll. SOFIA -- Bulgaria's former king Simeon II declared Sunday the electoral lists of his popular coalition had been purged of old collaborators with the communist-era secret police, ahead of legislative ballots next week. Fifteen candidates had been stopped from standing for the Simeon II National Movement (MNS II) in next Sunday's elections because their names appeared in the files of the secret service, whose archives were recently opened up for public scrutiny. Among those ousted by the MNS II, widely tipped to triumph in the June 17 poll [NOTE THAT], were seven people whose names appeared on documents but whose work as agents or informers was not proven [NOTE THAT]. "MNS II has taken a very difficult step in separating itself from people whom it greatly values," read a statement from the former king, whose electoral campaign has focused on raising moral standards [!!!!!!!] in Bulgarian public life. The ex-communist Socialist Party excluded 10 people with a proven record as collaborators, and the ethnic Turkish party, Movement for rights and liberties, rid itself of seven. The outgoing right-wing coalition, the United Democratic Forces (UDF), did not exclude any of its candidates. At the start of this month, a commission examining the archive declared that at least 78 of the candidates standing in the elections had worked as collaborators. The names of over 90 others suspected of collaboration appear in the files. Prime Minister Ivan Kostov, leader of the UDF, called for all parties to exclude ex-collaborators whose names appeared in the archives, saying it would be "impossible to guarantee the protection of secret information" if former spies were elected to parliament. "This is extremely important if Bulgaria is to join NATO," he said. The archives contain just over a half of the files compiled in the country's communist-era. Over 100,000 of the 250,000 files were destroyed in 1990, shortly after the regime collapsed, according to the archive chief Serafim Stoikov. * * * * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
