"SOS — For a Switzerland without the of the political police (with 123 voting against the motion). This new secret police" was launched !. The shock to the Swiss system comes campaign will culminate on the national after the 35% vote in a referendum in holiday, August 1, by which time it is favour of the initiative "For a Swithoped that 100,000 signatures will have
December and the verdict in the
Kopp corruption trial (See /V 174).
In the background of the initiative on the political police was the presentation of the report of the Parlia-
Police and Justice Department. On March 3, more been gathered.
SOPHIE MASSOURI
SHADY!
bility, as well as the search for a judicial compromise. In the case of the GDR the West German rulers have spoken out in favour of an amnesty for former Stasi collaborators. This is not a disinterested gesture. To accept the popular demand in the GDR for the opening of the dossiers of the secret police would have implications in the West.
To put it another way, the Western governments either have to clean up their own actor, as in Switzerland today, admit that, in the heart of our than 35,000 people demon- DEMOCRACY! strated in Bern, while 120,000 requests for access to files have been presented by citizens. In this context, the initiative "for an end to the snooper state" will have a resonance. While conclusions of the Committee of Parliamentary Inquiry have opened the doors of the Federal Political Police) only mobilization can prevent them from being sealed again. It is necessary to throw light on all the mysteries and those responsible
The Commission concluded that files were being kept on more than 500,000 of Switzerland's 6.5 million citizens and immigrants. In 1988, we can see the snooper state flourishing. Some 210 new files were opened every day and more than 60,000 in the course of the year. The revelation of these figures came as a
Who? About what? How? With whose help? Why? And why did the report find that: "None of the police chiefs we interviewed - neither the Confederal Prosecutor, nor the head of the Federal Police, nor the head of the judicial service of the Federal Public Ministry, nor the head of the internal police service - and not one of the heads of the cantonal information
- felt able to assume responsibility for the contents of the information
Are we to conclude that the political police has been functioning for more than 40 years in total autonomy and without any control by the higher authorities of the state? The absurdities reached their height 28 When the president of the Confederation and head of federal iustice stated that he International Viewpoint #186 • June 4, 1990 knew nothing of the secret ordinance of January 12, 1951, which guided the activities of the snooper state until February 21, 1990. According to article 12 of this henceforth famous ordinance: is suspected of having violated one of their duties with regard to the protection of the security of the country, or who has excited by their behaviour the suspicion that they have intended to violate such a duty, can be obliged to report to the police or be put under police surveillance
"Specifically, the surveillance of their mail, and telephone and telegraphic connections can be ordered...."
Police chiefs refuse to accept responsibility
The refusal of the BUPO chiefs to accept any responsibility for the content of the files is an admission of their guilt. This shows the extent to which the very existence of these "functionaries" contradicts the avowed principles of a state that claims to be democratic.
The attitude of the ruling class and higher authorities of the state are similar to those of the rulers of East Germany with regard to opening the dossiers of the advanced democracies, civil freedom is kept under strict surveillance. The fact is that the West German Bundesnachrichtendienst, Swiss BUPO, the French Département de sécurité du territoire (DST) Direction générale de la sécurité de l'Etat (DGSE) are no different in their methods or in the extent of their ultimate control over the citizens than the police in the Stalinist regimes, even if they are less intrusive on
In France the annulment, after widespread protests, of a decree authorizing the police security branch to build up files on "suspect" citizens has led people to overlook a law of the same type, which is still secret, dating from 1986, which authorizes the DGSE and DST to do the same, and this without any control. What is the regarding the security of the French state which requires keeping files on 400,000 people, 100,000 of them for terrorism?
As Helmut Hubacher, president of the Swiss Socialist Party, stated to the March 3 demonstration, "the Illustrated Atlas of Switzerland published by the National Tourism Office is not an accurate reflection of the really existing Switzerland." And nor is the Complete Atlas of the Advanced Democracies currently being serialized in the big bourgeois press any more accurate as a guide to really existing 1. In Switzerland any group of citizens can launch a popular initiative to modify the Swiss constitution. All that is required is to hand in a copy of the proposed modifications accompanied by 100,000 supporting signatures. After verification by the Federal Council, the Confederation is asked to vote for or against the proposal.