Bulgaria bans Soviet-era agents from top diplomat jobs

Bulgaria's parliament approved legal changes on Thursday to bar people identified as having collaborated with the secret police under pre-1990 communist rule from top diplomatic jobs.
The centre-right government proposed the changes after a historical commission revealed last December that more than 45 serving ambassadors and consuls were linked to the feared Darzhavna Sigurnost security service.
The commission assessed that 45% of the 462 former and current diplomats who have served since the fall of communism in 1989 had been agents — including the current Bulgarian ambassadors in London, Berln, Rome, Tokyo and Moskow.
Some diplomats have since been removed from their posts but many have remained as Presdient Georgi Parvanov, who himself was cited as a collaborator with the old secret police by the commission in 2007, has opposed any mass recall of diplomats.
Parvanov denies being a secret service agent, saying he had only written a book review for a man who later turned out to be an agent.
The foreign ministry has said the bill aims to modernise the diplomatic service and sever the links to mechanisms from the time of the totalitarian regime which may put at risk the international reputation of the Balkan country.
Collaboration with communist-era secret police remains a sensitive issue throughout the former Soviet bloc. But Bulgaria, a member of the European Union and NATO, has been among the last to deal with its painful communist past.
Once Moscow's most obedient ally, Bulgaria had one of the most notorious spy networks. It was implicated in plots ranging from a failed assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II to the killing of an exiled dissident in London with a poison-tipped umbrella.
In 2006, Sofia passed legislation to open the archives of the former secret police but the measure did not oblige former agents to quit current posts, nor were they banned from applying for public servant positions or running for political office.
Under the approved changes, former Darzhavna Sigurnost collaborators will not be able to take senior diplomatic roles but may be reappointed to lower positions.