From: dstein@oak.math.ucla.edu (David Stein)
Subject: RFE 194-195
Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 92 02:03:31 GMT


                      RFE/RL Daily Report

                                     No. 194, 8 October 1992

     SUCHOCKA AT NATO.   After  meeting  with  NATO Secretary
General Manfred Woerner  in  Brussels  on  7  October, Polish
Prime Minister Hanna  Suchocka  predicted that Poland will be
able to join  NATO  before it manages to gain full membership
in the EC.    In  a speech to NATO ambassadors, Suchocka said
that the Visegrad  triangle countries appreciate the contacts
they have had with NATO since the fall of communism, but that
Poland, Hungary, and  Czechoslovakia  expected  in time to be
given  "increasingly  substantial   commitments   leading  to
integration  with  the   Atlantic   security   system."  Full
membership is the eventual goal.  Suchocka also met with King
Baudouin of Belgium.   She  is  to  meet with EC leaders on 8
October.  (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)

     NATO DOES NOT  FEAR  CZECHOSLOVAK DISINTEGRATION.   Gen.
Dieter Clauss, deputy  commander  in  chief of NATO forces in
Europe, told reporters in Prague on 7 October that Czechs and
Slovaks have to decide themselves if they want to live in one
or two states.  He said that the division of the Czechoslovak
armed  forces is  being  carried  out  in  a  "civilized  and
democratic  manner."  Clauss  made  it  clear  that  NATO  is
preparing to establish  "intensive cooperation" with both new
armies.   CSTK quoted  him as saying that if the relationship
between the future Czech and Slovak armies will be good, than
there was ample room for cooperation with NATO.  Gen.  Clauss
is on a  three-day  official  visit to Czechoslovakia.   (Jan
Obrman, RFE/RL, Inc.)

     US OFFICIAL ASSURES  SLOVAKIA OF CONTINUED AID.   Robert
Hutchings, a special  State  Department adviser on assistance
to Eastern Europe,  told  Slovak cabinet members on 7 October
that he expects aid to Slovakia to continue at current levels
after   Czechoslovakia's   dissolution,    Reuters   reports.
Hutchings, who is  leading  a  nine-member  US  delegation to
Slovakia, discussed various  projects  with Slovak government
members,  including  the   creation  of  jobs  in  small  and
medium-sized businesses and the conversion of arms production
sites. (Jan Obrman, RFE/RL, Inc.)

     MECIAR ON MINORITIES IN SLOVAKIA.  Slovak Prime Minister
Vladimir Meciar said  in  an  interview  with  the  Hungarian
section of Slovak  Radio  on 6 October that ethnic minorities
are an integral  part  of  Slovak  society.    He  said  that
minorities  enjoy  the   same   rights   and  have  the  same
obligations as the rest of the population and added that they
should in fact  have  "even wider rights in order to preserve
their identity." The  prime  minister  said  he believes that
such extended rights  for  minorities are embedded in the new
Slovak constitution, which  went  into  effect  on 1 October.
Meciar also said that the Hungarian minority has the right to
receive  education  in  its  native  language  but  that  the
introduction of Hungarian-language universities is impossible
for economic reasons.   Representatives of the 600,000 ethnic
Hungarians living in  Slovakia have criticized the new Slovak
leadership for not taking into account their interests.  (Jan
Obrman, RFE/RL, Inc.)

                                      No. 195, 9 October 1992

     CZECHOSLOVAK  PARLIAMENT  APPROVES  POWER-SHARING  LAWS.
The Federal Assembly  passed  two  constitutional  amendments
aimed at transferring  federal powers to the Czech and Slovak
Republics.  The first amendment reduces the number of federal
ministries from 15  to 5 (foreign affairs, defense, interior,
economics, and finance).  The remaining ministries will cease
to exist and  their  jurisdictions  will  be  assumed  by the
corresponding republican ministries.  A second bill was first
rejected  and  refereed   to   an  arbitration  panel  but  a
compromise version was eventually approved.  It will give the
republics  the  power  to  investigate  "crimes  against  the
security of the  state" and transfer state media institutions
to the republics.  It also ends the federal monopoly on film.
(Jan Obrman, RFE/RL, Inc.)

     POLAND PRESSES FOR  EC  MEMBERSHIP  TIMETABLE.    On the
second day of  her  visit  to Brussels, Polish Prime Minister
Hanna Suchocka urged  the  European  Community to set a fixed
timetable  for full  membership  for  the  countries  of  the
Visegrad triangle.   Suchocka  also pressed for better access
to  EC markets  and  authorization  to  use  the  $1  billion
stabilization fund to  finance  Poland's  budget  deficit and
enact banking reform.  Speaking to the European Parliament on
8 October, Suchocka  said  that  Poland,  Czechoslovakia, and
Hungary "do not insist on rapid acceptance, but we would like
to be taken  into account in the construction of the European
union."  The EC's  response  was  noncommittal;  commissioner
Frans Andriessen commented  that  "today  was not a day to be
specific." On her  return  to  Warsaw,  Suchocka  nonetheless
expressed confidence that Poland would join the EC within ten
years and NATO  even  sooner.    She  added  that  Poland had
restored  its image  among  EC  countries  as  a  bulwark  of
stability in Eastern Europe.  (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)

The RFE/RL Daily Report is produced by the RFE/RL Research
Institute (a division of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc.)
with the assistance of the RFE/RL News and Current Affairs
Division (NCA). The report is available by electronic mail
via LISTSERV (RFERL-L@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU), on the
Sovset' computer bulletin board, by fax, and by postal mail.

Copyright 1992, RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
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I'm not a native speaker of English, so I'm not sure what I wrote.
Flames will be ignored unless you post them in perfect Czech.
================================ - David (the metamathician) - ===