Skopje  - Macedonian officials will have to prove by the end of September that they did not cooperate with the Communist secret police, as the lustration process in the country has officially begun Tuesday, media in Skopje, the capital, reported.

Some top 250 officials, beginning with the president and prime minister, will have to give notarized statements to the Lustration Commission and prove that they did not work for the Communists intelligence agency. The Commission will then verify the statements.

The Lustration Law was passed last year, but for months parties in the parliament postponed its implementation.

The Communists took over power in Macedonia in 1944, and the law will deal with the period from 1944 until 1991, when Macedonia broke away from then-Yugoslavia.

Macedonian archives have more than 36,000 police files dating from the period after World War II. The law, however, will not affect members of the Macedonian Academy of Science and Culture, the heads of Macedonia's Orthodox Church, journalists or professors - unless they demand otherwise. (dpa)