Lustration

Lustration is the purge of government officials in Central and Eastern Europe. Various forms of lustration were employed in post-communist Europe.

Etymology

Lustration in general is the process of making something clear or pure, usually by means of a propitiatory offering. The term is taken from the ancient Roman lustratio purification rituals.

Background

According to a 1992 constitutional amendment in the Czech Republic, a person who publicly denies, puts in doubt, approves, or tries to justify Nazi or Communist genocide or other crimes of Nazis or Communists will be punished with a prison term of six months to three years. In 1992, Barbara Harff wrote that no Communist country or governing body had been convicted of genocide. In his 1999 foreword to ''The Black Book of Communism'', Martin Malia wrote: "Throughout the former Communist world, moreover, virtually none of its responsible officials has been put on trial or punished. Indeed, everywhere Communist parties, though usually under new names, compete in politics."

In August 2007, Arnold Meri, an Estonian Red Army veteran and cousin of former Estonian president Lennart Meri, faced charges of genocide by Estonian authorities for participating in the deportations of Estonians in Hiiumaa during 1949. Meri denied the accusation, characterizing them as politically motivated defamation, stating: "I do not consider myself guilty of genocide." The trial was halted when Meri died on 27 March 2009 at the age of 89.

Policies and laws

After the fall of the various European Communist governments with the Revolutions of 1989 between 1989 and 1991, the term came to refer to government-sanctioned policies of "mass disqualification of those associated with the abuses under the prior regime." Procedures excluded participation of former communists, and especially of informants of the communist secret police, in successor political positions, or even in civil service positions. This exclusion formed part of the wider decommunization campaigns. In some countries, however, lustration laws did not lead to exclusion and disqualification. Lustration law in Hungary (1994–2003) was based on the exposure of compromised state officials, while lustration law in Poland (1999–2005) depended on confession.

Lustration law "is a special public employment law that regulates the process of examining whether a person holding certain higher public positions worked or collaborated with the repressive apparatus of the communist regime." The "special" nature of lustration law refers to its transitional character. As of 1996, various lustration laws of varying scope were implemented in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Poland, and Romania. As of 2019, lustration laws had not been passed in Belarus, nor in former Yugoslavia or the former Soviet Central Asian Republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan).

Results

Lustration can serve as a form of punishment by anti-communist politicians who were dissidents under a Communist-led government. Lustration laws are usually passed right before elections, and become tightened when right-wing governments are in power, and loosened while social-democratic parties are in power. It is claimed that lustration systems based on dismissal or confession might be able to increase trust in government,Roman David, Lustration and Transitional Justice: Personnel Systems in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011, pp. 183, 209
while those based on confession might be able to promote social reconciliation.

Examples

In Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic

Unlike many neighbouring states, the new government in the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic did not adjudicate under court trials, but instead took a non-judicial approach to ensure changes would be implemented.

According to a law passed on 4 October 1991, all employees of the StB, the Communist-era secret police, were blacklisted from designated public offices, including the upper levels of the civil service, the judiciary, procuracy, Security Information Service (BIS), army positions, management of state owned enterprises, the central bank, the railways, senior academic positions and the public electronic media. This law remained in place in the Czech Republic after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, and expired in 2000.

The lustration laws in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic were not intended to serve as justice, but to ensure that events such as the Communist coup of February 1948 did not happen again.

In Poland

The first lustration bill was passed by the Polish Parliament in 1992, but it was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland. Several other projects were then submitted and reviewed by a dedicated commission, resulting in a new lustration law passed in 1996.Mark S. Ellis
''Purging the past: The Current State of Lustration Laws in the Former Communist Bloc''
(pdf), Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 59, No. 4, Accountability for International Crimes and Serious Violations of Fundamental Human Rights (Autumn, 1996), pp. 181–96 From 1997 to 2007 lustration was dealt with by the office of the Public Interest Spokesperson ( pl, Rzecznik Interesu Publicznego), who analyzed lustration declarations and could initiate further proceedings. According to a new law which came into effect on 15 March 2007, lustration in Poland is now administered by the Institute of National Remembrance ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej; IPN).Najważniejsze wiadomości – Informacje i materiały pomocnicze dla organów realizujących postanowienia ustawy lustracyjnej
IPN News. Last accessed on 24 April 2007
Gazeta Wyborcza, 15 March 2007, Last accessed on 24 April 2007

In Ukraine

In Ukraine, lustration refers mainly to the removal from public office of civil servants who worked under Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. They may be excluded for five to ten years.

Similar concepts

Lustration has been compared to denazification in post-World War II Europe, and the de-Ba'athification in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.Eric Brahm, "Lustration"
Beyond Intractability.org, June 2004, 8 Sep 2009

See also

* ''Berufsverbot''
* ''Indignité nationale''
* Ironclad Oath
* Proclamation of Timișoara
* Roman religion
* Truth and reconciliation commission
* ''Vergangenheitsbewältigung''

Further reading

Williams, "A Scorecard for Czech Lustration"
''Central Europe Review''
* Jiřina Šiklová, "Lustration or the Czech Way of Screening", ''East European Constitutional Review'', Vol.5, No.1, Winter 1996, Univ. of Chicago Law School and Central European University
* Rohozinska, "Struggling with the Past - Poland's controversial Lustration trials", ''Central European Review''
* Human Rights Watch
* Roman David, ''Lustration and Transitional Justice: Personnel Systems in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
* 1904 (Merriam) ''Webster's International Dictionary of the English Language'' says: ''"a sacrifice, or ceremony, by which cities, fields, armies, or people, defiled by crimes, pestilence, or other cause of uncleanness, were purified"''

References

{{fall of Communism
Politics of Europe
Political terminology
Decommunization
Political and cultural purges
Transitional justice