Polish senator to oversee secret files

The Polish parliament has removed the last obstacle to a scheme that will enable all Poles to see what's written in the files of the communist-era secret police.

It elected an independent senator and lawyer, Leon Kieresa, to chair the National Memory Institute that will oversee the opening up of the secret files.

The Institute had not begun to operate because political parties had been divided for months over who should hold the politically sensitive post of its chairman. Poland has not opened the secret police files because of pressure from survivors of the old system and formerly anti-communist liberals, who argued that the files were often falsified and many were destroyed by officials fearing prosecution.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service