Burying The Past

"Lustration" is an ancient word, meaning "purification". In post-Soviet Europe, however, it is used to describe the process of limiting, or even ending, the participation of former KGB operatives in government of civil service positions.

Former EU Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite, now President of Lithuania, met last month with members of the Lithuanian parliament’s Committee on National Security and Defence urging them to finish the lustration process as soon as possible.

Previously, former KGB officers have been found in the highest offices. In January 2005 the media disclosed evidence suggesting that Lithuanian Prime Minister Antanas Valionis was a former KGB officer. Documents suggested that he had been put on the KGB reserve list in 1981, when he served as an instructor in a local Communist Party Taurage District Committee. According to the documents, Valionis was promoted to KGB Captain 1982. Arvydas Pocius, the head of Lithuania's State Security Department, also was a KGB asset. Pocius was transferred to the reserve list in 1989, but is alleged to have maintained his connections after Lithuania declared independence in 1990.

According to the Lithuanian media, as recently as 2005 more than 1000 former KGB operatives remained in employment in the government sector.