Deputy Prime Minister: Everybody has to know the crimes of communism

Every person in Hungary as well as in the whole world should be aware of the crimes that were committed by communism, said Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics in the monthly journal of public service (called ‘Közszolgálat’) released this Thursday; regarding the goals of Commission on National Remembrance, the body which explores former mechanisms of power during communist dictatorship.

Within the meaning of laws encoded last December on the Commission on National Remembrance, former victims of state-party intelligence service now have the right to go public with the names of their surveillance agents. Mr Navracsics takes this as a huge, although late leap towards truth.

Furthermore he added that he understands the claim of the opposition parties which insists that everything regarding communist oppression should be brought public and the decision should not be left on the victims. Although the Minister of Public Administration and Justice thinks that the decision of the government is fair, because of the civil rights of people who were watched over. They should be able to decide over the publicity of the data they get to know. He stressed out, “we’re aware of that with this law of action, total liberty of information is not going to come, but we should bear in mind that such information about the victims, like illnesses, private matters and sexual behaviours, are not in the concern of the public”.

For the minister it is a huge mystery that in 1990, during the transition period these documents containing the names of intelligence agents and state security commanders, were not made available – either by the cautious behaviour of the first elected government or the networks surviving the communist establishment had been still working back at the time. Coming from this, Navracsics has the opinion that the moral legitimacy of the democratic change should have been ensured by the publicity of files and the declaration of the volley in 1956 as a crime against humanity. He reminded, the latter was not allowed by decision of the Constitutional Court during the transition, as they declared those crimes barred.

Mr Navracsics pointed out that the Commission on National Remembrance works on the long run, so the establishment of the body is not a part of the electoral campaign and that “as the crimes of the Nazi regimes were covered in details, so should every person in Hungary and in the world be aware of the crimes of communism.”

Ministry of Public Administration and Justice

Source: http://kormany.hu/