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New Head of SBU wants less work on archives

11.03.2010   
Valery Khoroshkovsky, the new Head of the Security Service [SBU] believes that the Security Service should reduce work with archives and concentrate on its main tasks

Valery Khoroshkovsky, the new Head of the Security Service [SBU] believes that the Security Service should reduce work with archives and concentrate on its main tasks. He spoke of this today to journalists after he was official presented to the SBU staff by President Yanukovych.

“A very large amount of material has been declassified… The truth which needed to be made known to the Ukrainian people – that truth has become available.”, Mr Khoroshkovsky said.  He went on to say that this was definitely not the main work of the Security Services, and that this task lies elsewhere.

He added that there are some issues regarding ways and methods of declassifying material “because, fortunately or unfortunately, the concern of the Security Services lies in the first instance in protecting their secrets and the laws which created these secrets”.

Volodymyr Vyatrovych, who has been removed from his post as Head of the Central Archives, disagrees. He stresses that while a lot of archival material has been declassified, by no means all. He adds that nobody has the right to determine what amount of truth needs to be made available, all must be.

He pointed out that according to current legislation, the material in question may not be classified as State secrets, and that the work on declassifying archival material must be continued. He is convinced that Ukrainian society will monitor adherence to legislation and the right to free access to information.

From reports at www.unian.net

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