KGB collaborators come out of the closet

VILNIUS - Over 1,000 former agents and collaborators in Lithuania have stepped forward and declared their involvement with KGB.

Dalia Kuodyte, head of the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Center, was noncommittal as far as exact numbers.

"I have no idea. God and the State Security Department would know better," she told The Baltic Times.

The chairman of the interdepartmental government commission dealing with the issue and representing State Security Department, Vytautas Damulis, has said the number of those who came forward increased greatly just prior to the Aug. 5 deadline.

"Approximately 1,400 have now registered," he said. This number does not reflect the real number, according to Damulis.

"If we start from 1940, we estimate that there were tens of thousands. Some have died, others left to go back to Russia. So if we count starting March 11, 1990, we estimate from 4,000 to 5,000."

The amnesty period covers the entire Soviet occupation. It is widely believed that thousands of former KGB agents still live in Lithuania.

Damulis also explained what will happen to those that have not come clean.

"The remainder will have their names publicized by the government newspaper Valstybes Zinios. But before we can do this we will need to take them to court and prove that they were collaborators prior to publicizing their names," he said.

Damulis also said some people who registered were unsure if they had actually collaborated with KGB.

Presently there is a backlog of data to process, which will take until November for the government to deal with.

The law on confession, registration and protection for those who voluntarily confess previous involvement with Soviet secret services was adopted by Parliament last November. The names of those who have come forward will be protected in secret files. However, this confidentiality will not be respected should it involve important government officials such as the president, members of the judiciary, state prosecutors and those running for or holding political office at the national or local level.

Similarly, if the confessor has lied under oath, his or her privacy will not be protected.

The ad hoc interdepartmental commission comprises five members from the organizations: two from State Security Department, two from the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Center and one from the Office of the Prosecutor General.

The issue of dealing with former Soviet collaborators is still a salient one in the former Eastern bloc countries and Soviet republics. It was the topic of discussion at a recent Vilnius Town Hall meeting that brought Lithuanian, German and Polish experts together for a public discussion on the topic. Two of the main concerns were preventing innocent people from being libeled by vengeful former colleagues and the difficulty in finding reliable witnesses and documents to prove guilt in many cases.