THE REORGANISATION OF POLITICAL POLICING - HISTORY OF A SCANDAL

FECL 06 (June 1992)

In 1988 a scandal profoundly shook one of the most stable countries in the world - Switzerland. Almost four years later, its aftermath still dominates political debate in the alpine confederation and has severely affected the trust of a traditionally conservative people in its government. A broad popular movement demands nothing less than the abolition of any form of political policing and "preventive" surveillance.

In December 1988 the then Minister of Justice and Police, Elisabeth Kopp, was forced to step back after it came out that she had informed her husband, a well-known business lawyer, of a criminal investigation led by the Federal Prosecutor General (Bundesanwalt) against a Swiss-Lebanese banking institute on money laundering charges. As a result of his wife's warning Mr. Kopp immediately quit the bank, whose vice-president he had been. This first discovery quickly led to further revelations in the press. Investigative journalists produced strong evidence indicating that, for years, the office of the Federal Prosecutor General and the Federal Police (Bundespolizei) had shown astonishing inactivity in dealing with international money laundering activities (namely of the turkish drug maffia and various foreign secret services) while fervently spying on alleged subversives, ranging from Swiss leftists, pacifists and liberal editors to foreigners (among them Kurdish asylum seekers opposed to the Turkish regime) suspected of harming Swiss relations with "friendly nations". In Switzerland both the Federal Prosecutor's office and the Federal Police are attached to the Department of Justice and Police. They are in charge both of the prosecution of a number of crimes considered as a threat to internal security and public order (e.g international drug trafficking, terrorism, high treason) but also of political police and intelligence. This obviously conflicting combination of judicial prosecution tasks and (often extra-legal) secret service activities is quite unique in Europe.

Although the Swiss Federal Court in a widely criticized decision later dismissed criminal charges against Mrs. Kopp and similar charges against the Federal Prosecutor General and senior officials of the Federal Police were dropped, the evidence indicating collusion of high levels of government and police with leading money laundering Swiss banking circles and their foreign clients remained strong enough to produce a general outburst of indignation in a population which had always before strongly believed in the incorruptibility of its government and the integrity of its bankers. A special parliamentary commisssion (PUK I) was set up whose task it was to carry out a thorough inquiry. The PUK I proved remarkable tenacity in gradually investigating the activities and internal organization of the authorities concerned, and, morover, did not hesitate to make its findings public. This courageous commitment to transparency laid the ground for a broad public debate on the role of political police and secret services - comparable only to the East Germans fervor in bringing to light the activities of the former GDR's state security service Stasi. Mrs. Kopp's resignation was followed by the retirement of the Federal Prosecutor General and of the head of simultaneously the Federal Police and the military secret service UNA. In March 1990 more than 35'000 people demonstrated against the political police after it was revealed that about 900'000 persons (of a total population of 6.5 million) had been spied upon and their personal data acrimoniously registered for years by the Federal Police in co-operation with cantonal police departments. Due to mounting public pressure the government was finally forced to little by little hand out copies of their personal files to citizens demanding this. 350'000 persons made such an application. The gradually growing number of file cards handed out further fueled popular anger.

In the meantime the existence of P-26, a secret army unit firmly integrated in the NATO's "Gladio" - organization, had been uncovered. This led to the constitution of a second parliamentary commission (PUK II) entrusted with the investigation of all sections of the Federal Military Department EMD (ministry of defence) dealing with counter-intelligence, the collection of personal data and the preparation of emergency measures.

With the scandal gradually developing into a genuine "crisis of the system" as a result of a massive loss of confidence of the people in government, two different attitudes in coping with the situation took shape: While the government, openly or tacitly supported by the right wing parties' establishment, tried to "limit the damage" by a policy of containment, concealment and sometimes disinformation, a strong popular movement, backed by a significant part of the media, the Social Democrats, the Greens and a considerable number of members of parliament from various parties called for transparency and radical action:

In application of one of the typically Swiss instruments of "direct democracy", the so called "initiative", a committee "Schluss mit dem Schnüffelstaat" (Stop the snooping state) collected the 100'000 signatures required for the carrying out of a constitutional popular referendum on nothing less than the abolition of political police. If voted by a majority of the people and the cantons the amendments required by the initiative become constitutional law.

The government's response appears to consist in a campaign aiming at convincing a majority of the "continuing necessity" to maintain some form of intelligence and preventive police activity. The main objective seems to be, to create a legal base permitting not only the maintenance but the extension of preventive police surveillance far beyond the limits of criminal investigation (against suspects of a concrete delictuous act). The widely rejected previous spying activities marked by antiquated "cold war" patterns, sometimes ridiculous amateurism and an obsolete form of data collection based on type-written filing cards shall be reorganized: Advanced computer technology and new legislation giving a large marge of action to government and police are being justified by an "up-dated" scenario of security threats (organized crime, extremism, terrorism, drug trafficking). All this quite obviously paves the way for Switzerland's further integration in the Europe of Schengen and TREVI.

The government however is continuously meeting strong resistance to its "face-lifting" projects. Thanks to Mrs. Kopp, probably nowhere in Western Europe is the popular disgust of and distrust against uncontrolled police surveillance activities as wide-spread right now as in Switzerland.

Should the initiative "Switzerland without a snooping state" be voted, the government would have a hard time finding a constitutional and legal base for its policing projects in the wake of European harmonization.

N.B.

Sources: "Schnüffelstaat Schweiz - Hundert Jahre sind genug", a book on hundred years of political police in Switzerland, edited by Komitee Schluss mit dem Schnüffelstaat, published by Limmat Verlag Genossenschaft Zürich; Swiss press clips (from 1988 - 1992); Own sources.