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Bulgarian Panel Exposes 52 Ex-Spies
A parliamentary commission reviewing communist-era files on Monday exposed 52 people as former secret police agents, including six candidates in upcoming legislative elections.
The list of former spies was compiled under a new law providing public access to the secret police archives. No action will be taken against the former spies except to make public their cooperation with the communist regime.
Lawmakers say the revelations will help Bulgaria break with its communist past. Bulgaria is trying to join NATO, and alliance states are demanding that the former Soviet ally purge its ranks of former spies.
One of those on the list was Ahmed Dogan, the leader of the predominantly ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, and three of his top aides. He described the revelation as a ``manipulation'' and in remarks to Daik radio station said he would not withdraw from the June 17 vote.
Also on the list were Aleksandar Staliiski, who served as a defense minister in a minority anti-communist government in 1992, and Rumen Gechev, the former deputy prime minister of the Socialist Party of former communists.
Communist secret police files were partially opened in 1997 to screen senior politicians and state officials, but lawmakers argued that all of the files must be opened now.
Even so, the opening of the files may not reflect a complete picture of the country's past. Interior ministry officials have said that some 40 percent of the files in the archive were destroyed by security officials shortly after the fall of communist rule in 1989.
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