Another former top official found to have worked for the stb

It has come to light that former Czech foreign minister Jaroslav Sedivy worked for the communist secret police. Mr. Sedivy, who served as foreign minister in Josef Tosovsky's caretaker cabinet in 1997 to 1998, has confirmed the allegations, saying that he had worked with the military counterintelligence service from October 1953 to November of 1954 while he was doing his military service. "I was obeying commands as any other soldier and had no obligations to the service or contacts with these people afterwards" Mr. Sedivy said. Former Czechoslovak foreign minister Jiri Dienstbier said he had known about Sedivy's past. "As a soldier in national service, he had no choice, therefore it did not pose any problem to me" Mr. Dienstbier said in his colleague's defense.