German officials ill from contaminated Stasi files

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

German officials ill from contaminated Stasi files

BERLIN (Reuters) - Three civil servants studying records left behind 
by East Germany's Stasi secret police have suffered complaints 
ranging from stomach pains to insomnia after handling 
contaminated files, officials said Wednesday. 

The documents had belonged to operatives of the Stasi's "Operativ-
Technischer Sektor" or Technical Operations Section, infamous for 
methods such as furtively exposing political opponents to radiation. 
Neither the purpose of the files nor the precise chemicals found on 
them was known. 

"This is a particularly revolting legacy of the Stasi," said Marianne 
Birthler, head of the agency charged with overseeing publication of 
files produced by East Germany's Ministry for State Security -- the 
world's largest ever spying operation. 

"We are only just beginning our inquiries," she told reporters at a 
news briefing hastily convened after a German newspaper quoted 
one employee as saying he had fallen ill after handling Stasi 
documents drenched in unknown chemicals. 

The files are part of the jungle of paperwork recovered from Stasi 
headquarters after it was stormed by victims of its surveillance in 
the 1989 uprising that toppled the Berlin Wall. Work on the 
"Operativ-Technischer Sektor" began only last year.