Government fires 500 security service personnel in alleged state "purge"

Over 500 employees of the State Protection Office (UOP) were dismissed on Saturday. According to UOP's former management, this is a typical purge. On June 29, the UOP was replaced by two new bodies called the Internal Security Agency (ABW) and the Intelligence Agency (AW). "It was an operation. After 3 am representatives of regional offices were issued a list, to be distributed to their directors, of employees to be dismissed," said an anonymous e mployee. ABW's head Andrzej Barcikowski countered, telling Rzeczpospolita, "This is not a purge. It is simply that 9% of UOP's employees will not be offered a job in the agencies". "The lay-offs were necessary as we would be short of money in November. We dismissed those who did not perform to standard," he added. Among those dismissed were a number of directors, including the director of NATO Co-operation and Secret Protection Department Michal Zacharzewski, who was highly respected by NATO. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A3) A.Z.