The National Assembly has passed a law declassifying documents and records pertaining to Slovenia's independence, the ten-day war that followed, and arms trade in the early 1990s to help Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina defend themselves in the bloody collapse of the former Yugoslavia.

Sponsored by three MPs of the ruling liberal Freedom Movement, the bill was tabled in December to declassify what they termed "illicit arms trade" between 1991 and 1994. It was substantially amended during the parliamentary process to expand its subject matter and the title, and remove the word illicit.

Described by Slovenia's first President Milan Kučan once as the "mother of all affairs", the 1990s weapons trade affair has been the subject of a number of articles, books and several parliamentary inquiries, which however failed to make conclusive findings or even complete their work.

The gist of the allegations was that individuals involved in arms trade and transit through Slovenia at the time of arms embargo on Yugoslavia had made substantial amounts of money, which would help them in the years to come to wield influence in the country's politics and economy.

One of the figures facing the allegations was Janez Janša, a three-time PM and leader of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), who served as defence minister between May 1990 and March 1994. Janša has always denied the allegations as an attempt by the centre-left bloc to smear and disqualify him.

When the National Assembly passed the bill declassifying independence-era and arms trade records on 25 April, Janša's party abstained, while the other opposition party, New Slovenia (NSi), voted against.

The SDS had said earlier it would vote in favour of the bill if its amendment was adopted to declassify all files since 1945, a reference to post-war atrocities perpetrated by the Communists. That amendment was not passed, with the bill sponsors arguing that all documents dated before May 1990 have already been declassified.

Files older than 30 years are already required to be submitted to the National Archives, but the sponsors of the new law say this has mostly not been done in the case of the arms trade. They argue it is time for all files to be made available to everyone.

The new law would also make accessible reports by parliamentary inquiries that are less than 30 years old. The files on arms trade alone are said to run to several metres.

Citizens should know "how many weapons, equipment and ammunition were left after the Yugoslav People's Army's departure from Slovenia, how many of these weapons were sold and to whom, how much Slovenia earned from that and how much money from these proceeds was pocketed by individuals, and if it was, who were those individuals," Branko Zlobko, an independence war veteran and one of the law sponsors, said as the bill was first presented.

The bill lists state institutions that will have to deliver to the National Archives their documents deemed as archival documents related to the independence process, including those related to imports, exports, transit, sale and mediation of military equipment by Slovenia before and after independence in 1991-1994.