Lithuanian spies come in from cold

The former KGB headquarters on Moscow's Lubyanka Square

The authorities in Lithuania say more than 1,000 people have come forward in the past few days to confess that they worked for the KGB secret police during the Soviet era.

A deadline expired on Saturday for former KGB collaborators to confess in exchange for a guarantee of confidentiality.

However, no such guarantee will apply to former collaborators who decide to stand for public office or work in the courts.

Those who ignored the deadline - and are later found guilty - will have their names published and will be banned from working in the public sector for 10 years.

A special commission will review the cases of those who worked for the KGB during the Soviet Union's annexation of the Baltic state from World War II to 1991.

The names of possibly thousands of former KGB collaborators could begin appearing in the official state newspaper soon, under a controversial law adopted last year.

Critics of the scheme say it infringes human rights and is being used by the government to neutralise its opponents in the run-up to elections in October.

Soviet troops tried to crush Lithuanian independence in 1991

The head of the special commission, Vytautas Damulis, said those already registered comprised about half of the known or suspected collaborators.

"We have registered some people we knew about and some that we didn't," he was quoted as saying.

People who fail to confess to their KGB past will face a 10-year ban on working in government and municipal institutions, courts, schools and the banking and communications sectors.

Law condemned

Opposition leaders say the new law was designed by the current nationalist government to clear their opponents from the political field.

They say the law violates human rights and are aiming to suspend it after the elections.

Mr Damulis says his commission will carefully review cases and seek supporting evidence before exposing collaborators.

But the first names could be published in one to two months' time, on the eve of the parliamentary elections, he says.

"We are speaking here about the destinies of people and we must be very, very careful," the French news agency AFP quoted him saying.

Lithuania's ruling Homeland Union party is trailing in opinion polls in the run-up to the October vote.