POLISH SPIES

The archbishop of Warsaw resigned over his tainted past

HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED (or have they?)

A controversial law has just been introduced in Poland which requires up to 700,000 people to confess if they informed for the communist-era secret police. Under the new rules, anyone who refuses to co-operate or lies about their past (how would you know unless you had accurate records to prove it?) will be barred from working for a public company for 10 years. The conservative government has made it a priority to purge ex-communists and their collaborators from public life (political cleansing?). For the first time, the secret police files will be opened to the public. The new law greatly expands the number of people who will have to come clean about their pasts.

Weeding out former communists from public life is one of the main goals of the Kaczynski brothers, the identical twins who govern Poland as president and prime minister. Until now, the pair who were both activists for the opposition Solidarity movement in the 1980s, have concentrated on those who collaborated with the Communist secret police.

I have only wonderful memories of Poland in the old days, long before tourism and the dreaded stag party happened. Cool beers in the city on a summers evening, barbecues in the countryside etc. etc.

One series of events always comes to mind when I'm reminiscing. Meetings with the Polish Army (great bunch of blokes) whilst bidding for an IT supply contract. The format of the meetings tended to be as follows:

• They (very senior officers - some of which are probably running the country now, unless they have died or retired) bring out the vodka to accompany the coffee (grains simply dumped into a glass and floating on tepid water brought into the room by the architypal female tractor driver).
• Little conversation (because our interpreter didn't speak much English but was a friend or relative of someone important probably.)
• I drank mine straight down in one which surprised them (not used to serious Western drinkers and they hadn't got to meet many ex-UK-forces people during the 'cold war').
• Much appreciation from the locals - so more vodka continued to be sploshed into the large shot glasses.
• By the end of the 'get-to-know-you' session I'm still standing (sitting actually) but even this impressed them (one of them had fallen off this chair).
• Next, and all subsequent meetings, I brought a bottle (or two) of Glenmorangie - again much appreciated by the locals who insisted on us drinking both the vodka and the scotch.
• Needless to say we got the contract together with a strong introduction to the Polish Railways for a similar deal. Which could bring me onto the subject of counter-trade - but that's for another time perhaps.

Previously, only senior public servants were required to do so. Now academics, journalists, state company bosses and school headteachers will have to fill out a declaration or face dismissal.

Several senior journalists have threatened a boycott, saying the new law is reminiscent of communist times, when people were forced to sign loyalty pledges. Those who admit to being informants will not be punished (and if you believe that!). But one major problem is the current state of the communist secret police archives. Eighteen years after communism collapsed, they are now incomplete (if they were ever in that state) and some simply contain lies (a bit like the files in the UK then?). So people who deny collaboration in good faith may discover their secret police file says they were registered as an agent. Perhaps the most famous example is Lech Walesa, the legendary leader of the opposition Solidarity movement in the 1980s. His file said he was recruited as a communist agent and he had to go to court seven years ago to clear his name.

The Pope has named a new archbishop of Warsaw after Stanislaw Wielgus quit admitting he had collaborated with Poland's communist-era secret police. Pope Benedict XVI named Kazimierz Nycz, 57, who has been bishop of the Baltic city of Koszalin-Kolobrzeg since 2004. Bishop Wielgus resigned on 7 January at the service intended to install him as the city's new archbishop. He admitted spying on fellow clerics, many of whom had opposed the Soviet-backed government in Poland. Just shows you shouldn't mix religion and politics I suppose.