Kwasniewski signs new vetting law, claiming it will help avoid past mistakes

President Aleksander Kwasniewski yesterday signed into law a watering down of the vetting law that forces Poland's politicians to declare if they cooperated with communist-era security forces. Political descendants of Poland's freedom movement of the 1980s, now in opposition, declared the new bill as the death of the process to cleanse the elite of those with hidden links with the pre-1989 communist regime. Its supporters say it will limit the scope for using spy allegations to settle scores or eliminate political opponents. "Today we have a better vetting law, which will allow us to avoid mistakes that were made in the past," Kwasniewski told a news conference. Under the new measure, politicians and senior officials no longer have to declare their past links with intelligence, counter-intelligence or border guards. Links to domestic security forces, which infiltrated trade unions, the opposition and the Church, still have to be revealed. Those found to have lied are banned from public service for 10 years. "Vetting was always chaotic and politically biased, like playing with marked cards," said Jerzy Jaskiernia of the ruling Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). (Reuters)