Hunted by the past

The Kaczynski twins Law and Justice party believe Poland today must be free of all former spies

At what point do you leave the past behind?

This is the question that Poles have been asking themselves over the last few years as controversy continues to reign over secret files kept by the Communist authorities. 

Communism officially came to an end in Poland in 1989 but intense investigations into the secret police files did not begin until 1998 when the Institute of National Remembrance was set up to examine and organise the files.

This process, known as lustration, has the potential to become a very political process – a fear many now hold in Poland.

But the current government, led by the Kaczynski twins, is determined to press ahead, despite claims that the files are not trustworthy, and are being used to damage political opponents.

First People, Last Chance

Australia’s indigenous people are facing a chronic lack of facilities

Laws banning alcohol across much of indigenous Australia came into effect in September 2007, as part of the government’s ‘intervention policy’ aimed at improving the plight of the country’s 400,000 Aborigines.

It is not only alcohol that has been prohibited. The authorities are also cracking down on child sexual abuse and pornography, while stopping welfare payments to parents, taking back land leases and ending the entry permit system to indigenous lands.

For some, the laws are considered some of the most draconian measures introduced by the government since the white man arrived in Australia more than 200 years ago.

They have brought back memories of the so-called stolen generation, a policy in the 1960’s which saw part-Aboriginal children torn from their mothers and sent to institutions in the hope of assimilating them into white Australian society.

People & Power reports from the heart of Australia on the dilemma facing the country’s indigenous people.

Watch part one of this episode of People & Power on YouTube.

Watch part two of this episode of People & Power on YouTube.

This episode of People & Power aired from Wednesday, December 26,  2007.

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