Civil activists, in collaboration with the Human Rights Institute, launched the Slovak version of WikiLeaks to mark the first anniversary of the Gorilla protest. On the same day they also organised a peaceful protest held in front of the US Embassy to Slovakia on January 26 attended by about 30 people, the TASR newswire.
Slovak translations of diplomatic cables of the US Embassy have appeared on the www.wikileaks-slovensko.org, containing correspondence on political, economic and global developments as well as certain details from behind the scenes of Slovak politics.
“The main reason for launching [Slovak] Wikileaks is our campaign for the closure of the Guantanamo detention centre and the release of Bradley Manning, who probably handed the confidential documents to [Wikileaks founder] Julian Assange,” said Alena Krempaská from the Human Rights Institute, which was one of the organisers of Gorilla protests last year. “We wanted to demonstrate to the people of Slovakia what Manning had done, so we translated the key embassy cables that concern Slovakia.”
Krempaská added that so many people were interested in the matter that they decided to set up a web site for this purpose.
The activists do not expect the Slovak version of WikiLeaks to evoke the kind of uproar that the original did three years ago. Yet, they admit that the website will contain the translations of cables which the Slovak public has not seen yet, the Pravda daily wrote.
“A translation of a cable of the US ambassador who complained that the head of Slovak diplomacy did not consult the rotation of Slovak troops in Afghanistan with the US Embassy in Slovakia in August 2006 will be published there,” another activist of the Institute of Human Rights, Peter Weisenbacher, told Pravda.
He added that the cables contain interesting information on how the US Embassy in the Slovak Republic influenced Slovak politicians.
Source: TASR, Pravda
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
