Milan Kundera under suspicion

Grave accusations have been made against Milan Kundera, one of the Czech Republic's most prominent authors who has lived in Paris for many years now. As today's edition of the liberal weekly Respekt reports with reference to secret police files, Kundera is said to have reported an anti-communist agent to the police in 1950. The man was initially given the death sentence and ended up spending 14 years in prison. Kundera remains silent about the accusations. The paper draws a parallel with Günter Grass, who kept his membership in the SS [the elite corps of the Nazi party] secret for many years. "Alongside Vaclav Havel Kundera is one of the most well-known Czechs alive today. On repeated occasions he passionately fought for human dignity and freedom (under the communist regime). He could not have done this had he admitted his crime at the time. He has lost his moral authority. Kundera has behaved in the same way as his great comrade-in-arms Günter Grass."

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