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Date:         Fri, 22 Jan 1993 20:57:46 MET
From:         Vladimir Benko <jazybenk@SAVBA.SAVBA.CS>
Subject:      RFE/RL (SQ) 93-03

                                     No. 10, 18 January 1993

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES IN SLOVAKIA, CZECH REPUBLIC. At a meeting
in Jahodna on 16 January, the leadership of the Movement for a
Democratic Slovakia, Slovakia's ruling party, selected Deputy
Prime Minister Roman Kovac as its candidate for the post of
president. According to international and Slovak media, the party
leadership rejected another candidate, Michal Kovac, who is a
former chairman of the Federal Assembly. The presidential
elections are to be held on 26 January. In the Czech Republic,
after initial reluctance, all government parties have now said
that they will support the candidacy of former Czechoslovak
President Vaclav Havel for the post of Czech president. The
leadership of the Civic Democratic Party, the largest party in the
Czech Republic, met on 16 January and agreed to support Havel's
candidacy. CTK reports that the opposition Social Democrats have
also decided to support Havel. After the 16 January meeting, Prime
Minister Vaclav Klaus told reporters that the current political
situation in the Czech Republic makes it necessary to elect the
president as quickly as possible. Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.

CZECH, SLOVAK REPUBLICS BECOME EBRD MEMBERS. On 15 January the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development admitted the
Czech Republic and Slovakia as new members. CTK reports that both
states are considered successors to Czechoslovakia. Since its
founding in 1991, the EBRD has invested more than $423 million in
the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is now scheduled to extend
$216 million in loans for developing Czech and Slovak
telecommunications and highway systems. Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.

                              No. 11, 19 January 1993

CZECH-SLOVAK CUSTOMS UNION COUNCIL MEETS. At its first meeting in
Bratislava on 18 January, the joint Czech-Slovak Customs Union
council urged Czech and Slovak authorities to simplify procedures
for customs posts and border crossings. CTK reports that Czech and
Slovak representatives signed an agreement allowing the council to
coordinate the two countries' trade and customs policies and
represent them in negotiations with third countries. Czech Economy
Minister Vladimir Dlouhy was elected chairman of the council for
the next six months. The establishment of the council is part of
an agreement on the Czech-Slovak Customs Union signed by Czech and
Slovak leaders before the split of Czechoslovakia. Jiri Pehe,
RFE/RL, Inc.

CZECH PREMIER ON A VISIT TO GERMANY. Vaclav Klaus arrived in
Frankfurt on 18 January for a meeting with Bundesbank Chairman
Helmut Schlesinger. CTK reported that Klaus and Schlesinger are
expected to focus on problems of Czech foreign exchange reserves
and the split of Czechoslovakia. Before meeting Schlesinger, Klaus
talked by phone with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The two prime
ministers discussed political and economic matters, including the
issue of Czech foreign exchange reserves. Klaus also met in
D|sseldorf with Johannes Rau, prime minister of North
Rhine-Westphalia, to discuss industrial policy and environmental
cooperation. Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.

                                No. 12, 20 January 1993

. . . AND ELSEWHERE IN THE REGION. The State Department report,
however, is generally positive about the other countries in
Central and Eastern Europe. In Bulgaria, the report says, human
rights performance was generally good in 1992 and some progress is
being made in addressing the rights of ethnic Turks, Gypsies, and
other minorities, although more could be hoped for in establishing
a sound judicial basis for addressing human rights complaints.
Progress was also noted in Romania, where the government
"generally expressed willingness to comply with Western human
rights norms," but was sometimes ineffective in responding to
instances of ethnic discrimination, especially against Gypsies and
ethnic Hungarians. Concern over the rights of these same two
minorities in Slovakia is also expressed in the report, which
details in particular "misgivings" by leaders of the new state's
600,000-strong Hungarian minority about the Slovak constitution,
social legislation, and some government actions. Continuing social
discrimination and occasional incidents against Gypsies in the
Czech Republic are mentioned, as are isolated anti-Semitic
incidents such as the provocative publication in a Prague tabloid
of a list of people, allegedly Jews prominent in Czech culture.
Human rights in Hungary, the report says, are "generally respected
in practice," but cautions that right-wing populists, including
some in the prime minister's own Hungarian Democratic Forum
(former HDF vice president Istvan Csurka is specifically
mentioned) have exploited popular discontent. Examples of
antidemocratic, anti-Semitic, and anti-Gypsy incidents in Hungary
are also given. Poland, the report says, has moved from a
communist state to a multiparty democracy with "a lively,
independent parliament" and "a vigorous free press," but the
country continues to grapple with all the issues of "social,
gender and ethnic intolerance." Charles Trumbull, RFE/RL, Inc.

CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA ADMITTED TO THE UN. On 19 January the UN
General Assembly admitted the Czech and Slovak Republics as the
179th and 180th members of the UN, international agencies report.
The new members were admitted by acclamation, without any voting.
Assembly Chairman Stoyan Ganev of Bulgaria welcomed the new
members. Czech Foreign Minister Josef Zieleniec told the assembly
that the Czech Republic desires a stable Europe "opened to natural
integration trends and developing good neighborly relations in its
center." Slovak Foreign Minister Milan Knazko said his republic
intends to abide by human rights principles and reject the use of
violence. He said Slovakia will base its domestic policy and
foreign policy on the principles of pluralistic democracy,
socially oriented market economy, and the rule of law. Jiri Pehe,
RFE/RL, Inc.

SLOVAK PARLIAMENT PASSES CITIZENSHIP LAW, REJECTS CREATION OF NEW
CHAMBER. The National Council of Slovakia approved a new law on
Slovak citizenship on 19 January. CTK reports that according to
the law all people who were citizens of Czechoslovakia's Slovak
Republic on 31 December 1992 automatically became citizens of the
independent Slovakia. Noncitizens can apply for citizenship if
they have resided in Slovakia for five years, have a good command
of Slovak, and have not been found guilty of committing a crime in
the last five years. In another vote on the 19th, Parliament
rejected a draft constitutional amendment providing for the
creation of a provisional second chamber of the Slovak parliament
consisting of the Federal Assembly deputies elected in Slovakia.
The vote contravened the constitutional law on the abolition of
Czechoslovakia passed by the Federal Assembly on 25 November 1992,
which stipulated that after the split of Czechoslovakia
legislative power in Slovakia would belong to the deputies of the
National Council of Slovakia and the Federal Assembly deputies
elected in Slovakia. Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.

DIFFERING VIEWS ON SLOVAKIA'S NATO TIES? The Budapest daily
Nepszava noted on 12 January that there appear to be differences
between Slovak Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar and the Foreign
Ministry over the country's ties with NATO. In a 4 January
statement, Meciar told Defense Ministry members that Slovakia had
to decide whether to remain neutral, move towards NATO, or act
within a new kind of Central European security system. During a
two-day conference on NATO and East European security in Budapest
on 9-10 January in Budapest, an unnamed official of the Slovak
Foreign Ministry said this is only Meciar's "private opinion"; the
Foreign Ministry view is that Slovakia wishes to participate both
politically and economically in both the EC and NATO. The only
road for Slovakia, he continued, is integration with the West,
including the latter's military security system. Foreign Ministry
analyst Svetoslav Bombik told Magyar hirlap on 11 January that
Slovakia will not depart from Czechoslovakia's West-oriented
policy and that both his country and Hungary face a common threat
from the East, i.e. the former Soviet Union, and thus cannot
afford a conflict over the national minority issue. Alfred Reisch
, RFE/RL, Inc.

                                    No. 13, 21 January 1993

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND SLOVAKIA. On 20
January the Left Bloc, a coalition of leftist parties dominated by
the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, nominated Marie
Stiborova, a communist deputy in the Czech parliament, as its
candidate for the post of Czech President. CTK describes Stiborova
as a 43-year-old biochemistry expert with a degree from Charles
University. Also on the 20th, the extreme-right Republican Party
nominated its leader, Miroslav Sladek, for the post of president.
Both candidates will be running against former Czechoslovak
President Vaclav Havel. Czech parliamentary leaders have
recommended that the presidential vote be held on 26 January. The
presidential elections in Slovakia are also to be held on the same
day. The official candidates for the post of Slovak president are
Prime Minister Roman Kovac, nominated by the ruling Movement for a
Democratic Slovakia, Jozef Prokes, (Slovak National Party), Milan
Ftacnik (Party of the Democratic Left), and Anton Neuwirth
(Christian Democratic Movement). Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.

DISMISSAL OF SLOVAK TV NEWS DIRECTOR. Nineteen deputies in
Parliament, mostly members of the nationalist Slovak National
Party, signed a statement on 20 January expressing support for
Bohuslav Piatka, the news director of Slovak TV, who was fired on
19 January. Piatka, who shared the view of Prime Minister Vladimir
Meciar that the media should provide what Meciar has termed "a
true picture of Slovakia," was hired in October 1992 to replace
Jan Fule, a journalist who was opposed to Meciar. CTK reports that
according to the management of Slovak TV, Piatka was fired because
news broadcasts were of low quality and servile in their attitude
toward the government. Fule said that Piatka was fired because
Slovak television had become a "joke in our country and abroad."
The nineteen deputies who protested against the firing of Piatka
blamed the dismissal on opponents of the split of Czechoslovakia,
whom they called "federalist mafia." Piatka has been replaced by
26-year-old Martina Kyselova, who told Reuters on 20 January that
for the time being she intends to continue Piatka's practice of
giving the government free access to television. Jiri Pehe ,
RFE/RL, Inc.

                                      No. 14, 22 January 1993

CZECH, SLOVAK ECONOMIC EXPERTS MEET. A Czech delegation led by
Finance Minister Ivan Kocarnik and a Slovak delegation led by
Finance Minister Julius Toth met in Cejkovice, southern Moravia,
on 21 January. Following the meeting Kocarnik told CTK that the
experts had solved most controversial points related to the
division of federal property and that an agreement on that issue
could be signed next week during a meeting between Czech and
Slovak prime ministers, if the prime ministers manage to solve the
remaining problems. One such problem is the fate of Slovakia's
"golden treasure"--some seven tons of gold collected during the
existence of the independent Slovak state between 1939 and 1945.
Slovakia demands the return of all the gold, while the Czech
government insists that it is federal property and should be
divided between the two republics. Experts who discussed customs
practices at the Czech-Slovak border agreed in Cejkovice that the
current special regime at the border should be abandoned and
replaced by controls based on established international practices.
Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.
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