The Government and the Lustration Commission shift the blame on who was authorized to demand the files from Belgrade and verify the truth of information that these files might serve the collaborators of the secret services for “purifying” the bearers of public functions in Macedonia. The Government says that the Lustration Commission is in charge of this.

“A discussion has so far not been held about the Belgrade files at a Government session. In accordance with the law, there is an authorized commission for this situation, said Government spokesman Martin Martinovski.

Tome Adziev, president of the Commission, says that they do not have authority to directly address the services in Belgrade.

“The Lustration Commission has no authority to communicate with countries and with institutions from other countries. Even if we send requests each day to Belgrade, we will not achieve anything. This will seem ridiculous to them and we will not receive an answer,” says Adziev.

He explains that the commission sends requests for check-up of officials to four institutions: the Interior Ministry, Military intelligence office, the State Archive and the Security and Counter-Intelligence Directorate.

“These institutions most probably collaborate with the same institutions in Serbia. However, so far no Macedonian security services have helped us receive verification of documents in Serbian archives,” says Adziev.

The Ministry of Interior and the State Archive have already declared themselves as unauthorized for the Belgrade files.

According to the Serbian Ministry of Interior, the files of the secret service collaborators are in the security information Agency (BIA). Some of Macedonia’s politicians and former functionaries assume that BIA possesses documents of Macedonian secret services.