Amnesty period for ex-KGB agents running out

VILNIUS (BNS) - The time period set by the Lithuanian parliament for former agents of the KGB Soviet security police to come forward is running out this week.

A commission in charge of registration of the confessions presented by former KGB collaborators said telephone registrations will be accepted until Aug. 5. A person willing to make a voluntary avowal of his KGB collaboration should call the commission and make an appointment with its officials.

The head of the parliamentary National Security and Defence Committee, MP Algirdas Katkus, said that those wanting to confess have formed queues during the last days of the amnesty, adding that former agents are behaving like students - leaving everything to the last day before exams. Katkus said that the amnesty period lustration will not be extended.

Approximately 400 former KGB collaborators have come forward as of this June. The commission working at the state Security Department did not reveal the number of those registered to date.

Last November, the country's parliament adopted a law on the confession, registration and protection of those who voluntarily confess their collaboration with the special services of the Soviet Union that ruled Lithuania from 1940 to 1990.

The names of those who confess their collaboration will be stored in secret files. However, the data on KGB cooperation by any president, member of Parliament, local governmental council, judge and prosecutor, as well as any person running for the above offices will not be considered confidential.

Information about perpetrators of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide will be made public if the activities are under investigation. The data on secret collaboration will be published in the official Valstybes Zinios bulletin if the former collaborator fails to confess his secret activities during the six months of amnesty, or if the information presented is false.

If any facts about concealed collaboration are exposed, the law stipulates job restrictions for up to 10 years.

According to the legislation, the registration of former agents is decided by an ad hoc commission consisting of two members delegated by the state Security Department and the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Center each, and an official proposed by the Prosecutor General's Office.