PRAGUE, Czech Republic, May 3 (UPI) -- Legislation is moving forward in the Czech Republic Parliament to form an institute to study crimes committed during World War II and the communist era.
Following daylong heated debate, the lower house of Parliament passed legislation Wednesday that would create the institute, the Serbian news agency Beta reported from Prague Thursday. The debate brought a walkout by opposition Social-Democrats and all members of the minority Communist Party voted against the bill.
CeskeNoviny.cz, the Czech online news service, said the Social-Democrat and Communist Party lawmakers object to provisions that would deny employment toanyone allied with the former communist regime. Communist Party Deputy David Rath said the institute would be a "new (communist-era) Institute of Marxism-Leninism inside out" that will restrict free historical research.
The measure now goes to Parliament's upper house.
The new Institute for Totalitarian Regimes' Studies should speed up digitalization and opening of files, supporters said. Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer welcomes the bill, saying the lack of freedom under the Nazi and the communist regimes was equally bad.
The institute will not deal with any crimes between May 1945 and February 1948, nor anything since December 1989, CeskeNoviny.cz reported.
