From: dstein@oak.math.ucla.edu (David Stein)
Subject: Radio Free Europe digest
Summary: the last 3 days
Keywords: Klaus-Meciar agreement reached on the split
Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 92 21:23:32 GMT


                      RFE/RL Daily Report

                                         No. 191, 5 October 1992

ATMOSPHERE IN CZECHOSLOVAK COALITION DETERIORATING.  After
deputies of Slovak Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar's Movement for a
Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) supported a resolution of the leftist
opposition in the federal parliament on the creation of a Czech
and Slovak Union on 1 October, Czech officials charged Meciar with
breaking earlier agreements between the coalition partners.  Czech
Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus published a statement on 2 October in
which he said that he feels betrayed.  He said the HZDS's shift of
position is dangerous "for the future of democracy in our
country." After an emergency session of the Czech government on 3
October, Klaus made it clear that he has no intention of
postponing scheduled meetings with the Slovak government to
discuss further steps of dividing the country, despite Meciar's
urging to do so. Klaus also said that Czechoslovakia will cease to
exist on 1 January 1993, thus indicating that he will not take
into consideration the federal parliament's proposal on creating a
union between the two republics. Former President Vaclav Havel
supported the Czech government's view; he was quoted by CSTK on 3
October as saying that a union would only prolong the agony. (Jan
Obrman, RFE/RL, Inc.)

CIVIC MOVEMENT BECOMES A PARTY. Delegates to a special congress of
the Civic Movement, one of the heirs to the Civic Forum, which
toppled the Czechoslovak communist regime in November 1989, voted
on 4 October to transform the movement into a political party.
Delegates abolished the movement's collective, open membership and
replaced it with a fixed structure.  Before the elections of June
1992, the Civic Movement was a dominating political actor on the
federal level and in the Czech Republic, but it failed to win
enough support in the elections to be represented in either the
Czech or the federal parliaments.  Former Foreign Minister Jiri
Dienstbier was elected the party's chairman.  He said the party's
goal is to form a liberal, nonsocialist alternative in today's
political scene. (Jan Obrman, RFE/RL, Inc.)

                                    No. 192, 6 October, 1992

EC REBUFF FOR "TRIANGLE" COUNTRIES. European Community foreign
ministers met for the first time with their counterparts from the
Visegrad triangle of Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia on 5
October in Luxembourg, Western agencies report. The current EC
president, British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, told the three
countries that no timetable can be set for full membership in the
EC.  Hurd told a news conference that the EC "sympathizes with the
wish of our friends here to become full members," but that economic
uncertainties stood in the way. The triangle countries had
requested in September that the EC agree to open negotiations on
full membership in 1996, with a view to their joining the community
by the end of the century. A formal reply to this request is due at
an EC summit in December.  (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)

KLAUS AND MECIAR TO MEET TODAY.  Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus
and his Slovak counterpart Vladimir Meciar agreed to hold a meeting
of their respective parties, the Civic Democratic Party and the
Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, today in Moravia, after Meciar
unilaterally cancelled talks between the Czech and Slovak
governments that were scheduled for today.  The Slovak Prime
Minister argued that after the rejection of a constitutional
amendment by the federal parliament that would have set the modes
for the division of the country, senior officials of the two
coalition partners should return to the drawing board. Indicating
that the main topic of the talks will be budgetary matters, Klaus
said on 5 October that it will not be possible to force the
parliaments to adopt a federal budget similar to those of the past
three years, CSTK reported. He added that because of that, the
basis for a common state will automatically cease to exist on 1
January 1993. Klaus also said that he has a "document necessary for
the declaration of the independence of the Czech Republic" ready.
He did not say if and when he would use it. (Jan Obrman, RFE/RL,
Inc.)


                                        No. 193, 6 October, 1992

REPUBLICAN PREMIERS CONFIRM CZECHOSLOVAK BREAKUP.  An eight-hour
meeting between the leaderships of the Civic Democratic Party
(CDP) and the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (MDS) held on 6
October in the Moravian town of Jihlava resulted in the signing of
an agreement by the Czech and Slovak Prime Ministers, Vaclav Klaus
and Vladimir Meciar. Both leaders made it clear that the main
purpose of the meeting was to reestablish trust between the
republican leaderships after Meciar's MDS joined the opposition to
vote for establishing a commission on creating a Czech and Slovak
Union in the federal parliament.  The document signed in Jihlava
basically confirms earlier agreements between the two parties,
saying that Czechoslovakia will cease to exist on 1 January 1993.
It also states that a series of treaties specifying the bilateral
relationship between the two new states, would go into effect on
that day.  At a press conference following the meeting, Klaus and
Meciar said that further debates on a "union" were unrealistic.
Revoking statements made earlier this week, Meciar also said that
the question of whether there should be a federal budget for 1993
"was not an issue." The two republican leaders also agreed to
establish special commissions to deal with open questions such as
the distribution of federal property.  The agreement does not
define specific terms for Czechoslovakia's split. (Jan Obrman,
RFE/RL, Inc.)

ANTALL MEETS HUNGARIAN PARTY LEADERS FROM SLOVAKIA.  Prime
Minister Jozsef Antall held talks on 6 October with coalition
leaders from Coexistence, the Hungarian Christian Democratic
Movement, and the Hungarian People's Party.  The talks focused on
political developments in the Czech and Slovak republics and the
situation of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia.  Antall
reiterated that his government has no intention of isolating
Slovakia and seeks to promote its integration into Europe.  Antall
and the party leaders agreed, according to MTI, "that the
situation of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia should be settled
. . . considering the principle of self-government." The party
leaders from Slovakia advocated the convening of an international
conference on East Central Europe to discuss the problems of
democratic transformation and the protection of minority rights.
(Edith Oltay, RFE/RL, Inc.)

Copyright 1992, RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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) - ===
Newsgroups: soc.culture.czecho-slovak