Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan will prepare a draft law before the end of October on compensation for people affected by the actions of the communist secret police during the Asanace operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government office has said in a press release.
The aim of the operation was to force citizens deemed undesirable by the regime to leave Czechoslovakia. According to the press release, the government agreed that issuing a new law would be the most effective way to compensate those who were forced to emigrate.
The government instructed the chair of the legislative council, Michal Salomoun, and the director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (USTR), Ladislav Kudrna, to cooperate with Rakusan (STAN).
The Asanace operation was organised by the communist secret police (StB) at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s. Its aim was to force undesirable citizens to permanently leave the state, using physical and psychological pressure. StB agents throughout the country began to harass and physically abuse those who opposed the regime.
In April, the government promised to consider compensation options for people forced to emigrate by the previous regime and for those subject to long-term surveillance. At that time, it was also decided that from next year a fund should be set up at the Government Office to help individuals and families affected by the past regime in non-standard situations, with which the state cannot help them by usual means. From 2026, the fund would come under the administration of USTR. The cabinet thus wants to redress injustices in the pensions of former dissidents and others negatively affected by the communist regime.
As of this year, communist era dissidents began to automatically receive pensions of at least the average amount they would otherwise have received, were it not for their imprisonment. President Petr Pavel signed the measure at the end of January.
The failure to address the low pensions of dissidents was highlighted last autumn by former dissidents Jiri Gruntorad and John Bok. They ended their protest after the cabinet agreed to change the law to ensure decent pensions, and revoked its resolution which upheld the traditions of the Charter 77 struggle for human rights and democracy.
Low pensions for opponents of the communist regime are often due to their imprisonment, forced emigration, and the inability to work, which meant they were unable to pay their social insurance contributions for long enough. Many people were also not allowed to work in their original profession, and did only menial jobs with low earnings, which also resulted in low pensions.
