The witch hunt

[usenetposts]

Have any other foreigners been formally required to submit the declaration
of "lustracja" yet, and state that they did not (assuming they did not) co-
operate with the security services during the communist period?

I didn't speak Polish, never visited Poland nor did I even have any Poles in
my acquaintance during that period, although I did have a pretty nasty run in
with the KGB in Russia in 1986 who kicked me out in the end for Bible
smuggling. They were going to put me away and then they made me (drugged up
at the time ostensibly to treat the mononucleosis they had given me to keep
me still) sign in front of TV cameras a pleas for clemency, to which I
refused to do it until they threatened that my fiance would not be allowed to
join me and would be kicked out of university (she was Russian - I never did
end up marrying her) and then I did sign it, which I consider a humiliation.
The British consul Peter Liner was then instructed to take me and put me on a
plane back to blighty. I still remember reading Brewers Phrase and Fable for
the first time in his Embassy pad while waiting to go to the airport. I'm
still not 100% sure what was in that document. The confession and plea for
clemency, I mean, not Brewers Phrase and Fable (I've got my own copy now). As
far as I am aware I have no obligations to the organs of that country, but I
don't know if I should make mention of that event on the form, just in case
it ever comes around to bite me on the backside.

I have no idea whether it is relevant or not. half the people I speak to say
it isn't, and the other half say mention it. Quite frankly I feel a bit like
the way I felt back then in the hands of the KGB saying sign here or you will
lose big time being made to sign this paper proclaiming my innocence in a way
which is unBritish, unEuropean and unconstitutional under threat of losing my
livelihood.

If auditors don't sign the lustracja they stand to lose their licences. This
is against EU law of course, to make me sign this, but the powers that be
seem to care very little about that. They may as well be the Supreme Soviet
themselves, for all it bothers them what the west thinks about it.

[minimus]

I've read somewhere that some ppl plan 'civil disobedience' and will ignore
this stupid new law. If you feel that way about it, maybe you could join in. On
the other hand if somebody would like to cause you trouble, they could have
something to pick on.

[marcus_anglikiem]

pfuj, mononucleosis is nasty, i had that... as for the question "did you
cooperate..." the q. refers to the *Polish* communist authorities, not the
communist authorities of wherever else, so really the answer is no, even before
any consideration of whether whatever they made you sign counts as "cooperation"
. Besides, if they ever come back and say, ah, but we meant *all* communist
authorities, then you can either say, ah, well, that's a different question, or
you can kick their asses into the European High Court.

[usenetposts]

Yeah, in the end I just wrote "no" and sent it off.

[marcus_anglikiem]

good for you!

[portulaco]

Well... if that of the Lustracja happens to me surely I will translate it and send the original and the translation to some Portuguese newspaper, at least some more people in the EU will learn about the Polish redneck neocons.