Hungary to Open Spy Files

Making an about-turn, Hungary's ruling Socialist party said on Wednesday that it now backed fully opening communist-era secret service files, in an attempt to confront the country's ghosts of the past.

Unlike other former Warsaw Pact countries, new EU member Hungary did not reveal the names of secret police collaborators and the huge amount of information the spying services accumulated on Hungarians, following the fall of communist regimes in eastern Europe in 1989.

"The MSZP (Socialist party) is working on a bill that would allow free access to the national security documents housed in the historical archives," party president Istvan Hiller told a news conference.

Hungary was hit by a scandal in 2002 when then-Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy (photo) was forced to admit after a leak that he had served as a counter-espionage officer under the communist regime. Several other high ranking officials in both left-wing and right-wing administrations have since admitted having worked for the communist secret service.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1423227,00.html