HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
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Date:         Wed, 6 Jan 1993 17:25:59 EDT
From:         Hugh Agnew <AGNEWHL@GWUVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Books and films
              6 Jan 1993 14:25:21 GMT from <WI6865@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK>

G. Wightman from Liverpool has included most of the books I am aware of
in English on the subject of the Slansky trial.  One possible addition,
probably not in print anymore, but in libraries, is the report of the
Dubcek-era commission set up to investigate all the Stalinist trials,
edited by Jiri Pelikan and titled, I believe, _The Czechoslovak Political
Trials_.  (I'm at home, and the book is in the office, so apologies if I
have not remembered anything correctly.)

Professor Kucera kindly suggests I might know something about this sorry
period in Czech and Slovak history; I don't specialize in the twentieth
century much, but can confirm the general correctness of what others have
already said.  More specific information is best found in some of the books
that have been mentioned.

When I was working on my PhD at Stanford, we had a special film showing of
"The Confession", prefaced by a lecture on the purges by Ivo Banac, then a
freshly-graduated Stanford PhD and teaching some courses there.  After the
screening, one of the bright young kids (at least, that's what the Stanford
student profile is supposed to be, I believe) in the audience came up to him
afterwords and asked "But all this never really happened, did it?"

SEE THE FILM!  As a political thriller it's first-rate, and it's pretty
accurate historically, too.

Sincerely,

Hugh Agnew
AGNEWHL@GWUVM.BITNET
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Date:         Tue, 12 Jan 1993 14:58:46 EST
From:         Ed Haupt <haupt@PILOT.NJIN.NET>
Subject:      Re: Honecker trial

The New Yorker for Jan. 11 has filled its "Talk of the town" with an
an all too graphic description of the beginnings of the trial.  The article
has quite an attitude about the lawyer representing the mother of one of
the easterners killed trying to escape, although the lawyer seems to
deserve much of the ridicule he gets.

For the bizarreness of current events, you don't need to know much more.

Edward J. Haupt
snail:                                    voice: 1(201) 893-4327
Department of Psychology               internet: haupt@pilot.njin.net
Montclair State                        bitnet:   haupt@njin
1 Normal Ave.                               fax: 1(201) 893-5455
Upper Montclair, NJ 07043-1624
                      USA
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Date:         Fri, 8 Jan 1993 14:46:20 EST
From:         CC59000 <CC59@IONA.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: projection of the effects of US intervention in Bosnia

1) US will not under any condition act alone in Bosnia!!!!!!
Hence, more likely scenario is US provides the air cover and
helicopter support, while the european force provides forces
on the ground, trying to bring in the supplies even using force.
Next, depending on the Serbs reaction, US planes might bomb
the Serb's artillery, while the europeans forces on the ground
would act mostly in the defensive action, pushing their way to
the cities.

2-5) Quite unlikely. First of all, we all are seeing the
destruction is ex-YU daily and the effects. Hence do you think
that any contry (Bulgaria, Greece,...) would be eager to join???
Especially when they are not sure whether they would have US & NATO
support!!
Furthermore, Serbia will not "attack" Kosovo or Macedonia. Serbia is
very close and friendly with Macedonia and has no reason to attack
it (of course, the current war has nothing to do with reason).
Also Serbia CANNOT afford 2 fronts. Finally, the opposition in
Serbia further is weakening Milosevic. So Serbia is highly unlikely
to attack Macedonia.
How can Serbia attack its own territory, Kosovo?????
However some sort of a police action is very possible, maybe even
likely. Yet I don't think that anything will happen there in the
immediate future because Milosevic will be beasy dealing with the
US-European operations, which are sure to occur soon, probably
within 1-2 months.
Still some sort of disturbance might occur in Kosove! If it does,
US-European force is more likely to react, rather than the neighbours.

So the WWIII is quite unlikely.

Remember, the WW I, started in Sarajevo (Bosnia) didn't explode into
the world war because of the Austro-Hungaria vs. Serbia conflict, but
rather because of numerous territorial conflicts between the powers.
That is not the case today. Indeed, the europeans are woriking
together, US has no territorial interests in the region.
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Date:         Mon, 4 Jan 1993 12:50:10 EST
From:         Henry Kucera <HENRY@BROWNVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Balkan Wars

  UPI has a news story today (Monday) reporting that Greece has asked the five
permanent members of the UN Security Council NOT to take any military action
in Bosnia-Herzegovina. This presumably includes air action since that is what
is now being discussed. Greece, of course, is a member of the EC and of NATO.
Such are the pitfalls of Balkan politics!

    UPI news can be accessed on NN.CLARI.NEWS.EUROPE (for subscribing
institutions) and reproduction is not permitted, so I can't post it.

  Best wishes, Henry Kucera, Brown U.
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Date:         Tue, 12 Jan 1993 10:29:00 LCL
From:         Guenther Augustin <UKH8@DKAUNI2.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Czech-Sudeten Conflict (?)

>    Is this a potentially serious issue or just a marginal problem? I don't
> think that Central Europe needs yet another conflict, especially since it woul
d
> obviously bring about Czech demands for German compensation for WW2 crimes in
> the so-called Protectorate.
>

 I would say it's a marginal problem (Germany has a few by far more
 important problems and "permanent discussion issues"). We'll always
 have some chatter on the right wing of our political spectrum.
 And the interest of the bavarian CSU in this issue (which I consider
 the rightmost still democratic party around here) reflects their
 wish to "bind" the right wing voters and prevent them from even
 greater evil. Whether this proceeding is efficient and desirable is
 a completely other question. So even hard words from Munich still do
 not reflect the position of the federal government. And if the whole
 thing turns out as a net loss (because of the demands of the opposite
 side), they'll rather leave everything as it is (even if victims stay
 without compensation).

   auge

----------------------------------------------------------
 Guenther Augustin, Karlsruhe, Germany                           0
 BITNET:   UKH8@DKAUNI2                        ___^o_    __o    <|\
 Internet: UKH8@ibm3090.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de             _ \<_     \
 X.400:    UKH8@ibm3090.rz.uni-karlsruhe.dbp.de        (_)/(_)    /
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Date:         Mon, 4 Jan 1993 10:18:48 EST
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From:         James Sheldon <U7636JI@DOES1.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: More books and films

GMK-
Sorry, but I'm a bit confused over your response.  I think what I said was the
UN "peace keeping" function was more like the police pardigm than the military
one.  Perhaps that's my American cultural bias showing when in the "old west" w
e called our sheriffs and marshalls "peace officers."  Regardless, the UN force
s deployed in recent teams have never had a serious mandate to carry out
military operations (i.e attack, secure positions, etc.)  As to setting objecti
ves, I think both the US and NATO military leadership would agree with CLAUSEWI
TZ that using military force is the extension of politics by other means.  Henc
e, once a viable political objective is established, most military planners wil
l be able to define their military objectives.
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Date:         Tue, 12 Jan 1993 12:04:56 EDT
From:         Hugh Agnew <AGNEWHL@GWUVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: On Bosnia, and the Plight of Sarajevo, (#803)
              12 Jan 1993 09:22:19 -0700 from <POOK@ZENO.MSC.COLORADO.EDU>

Laci,

It's my understanding, based on sketch-maps I've seen on TV backdrops,
as well as in journals, and one VERY interesting publication from Belgrade
I was shown by a friend last summer, which showed through the use of maps
all the various conceptions of Yugoslavia, including all the Greater
Croatias, Greater Serbias, etc. since the late nineteenth century, that
the Serb-inhabited areas DO NOT form a simple, geographically-contiguous
region next to the old Socialist Republic of Serbia, let alone the so-called
"Narrow Serbia" (SRS without Vojvodina and Kosovo-Metohija).  In fact some
of the fiercest fighting, both in so-called Krajina region of Croatia,
and in the western area of Serb-controlled Bosnia, has been precisely because
of the need to try to create Serb-controlled corridors to link up the areas
of Serb-majority populations.  NB, practically NONE of these areas can be
considered "ethnically pure" at least before the recent policies of "ethnic
cleansing"; there were compact majorities, yes, but never 100%.  So, yes,
even if the current situation were accepted, there's no telling whether that
would establish peace.

Hugh Agnew
AGNEWHL@GWUVM.BITNET
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Date:         Wed, 6 Jan 1993 14:25:21 GMT
From:         "Mr. G. Wightman" <WI6865@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK>
Subject:      Books and films

The book to which Francis Rysavy refers and on which the Costa-Gavras film with
 Yves Montand was based was in fact written by one of the three survivors of th
e Slansky trial in Czechoslovakia in November 1952 - Arthur London. It was prep
ared for publication in Czech in 1969 under the title "Doznani" (The Confession
), the name used by the above film. I somehow got a copy of that Czech edition,
 although I don't think it reached the shops until afer 1989.
Another survivor of that trial, E. Lobl, also published his memoirs under the t
itle "Sentenced and Tried". The widows of two victims of that trial who did not
 survive also published memoirs in the West: Josefa Slanska (widow of Rudolf Sl
ansky), "Report on My Husband" (Hutchinson, London, 1969) and Marian Slingova (
widow of Otto Sling, the Communist Party boss in Brno until his arrest), "Truth
 Will Prevail" (Merlin Press, London, 1968)
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Date:         Tue, 5 Jan 1993 11:49:44 EST
From:         Henry Kucera <HENRY@BROWNVM.BITNET>
Subject: Re: Books and Films Suggestions

Re the questions about the Stalinist trials in Czechoslovkia in the 1950's:

 I think that Dr. Agnew is an expert on this part of Czechoslovak history and
I hope that he may be willing to post a more thorough explanation than I can
at this point (I am not in the office). In general, the Stalinist purges and
trials of the early 50's were directed towards supposed "Titoists" and alleged
 Western spies but the whole affair had a strong anti-Semitic accent to it.
 Slansky (who was Jewish) was the Secretary General of the Communist Party
(the number 2 position in the Party hierarchy). Clementis (who was accused of
Slovak nationalism and who was not Jewish) was the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
 The others accused and executed were highly placed government officials, all
 Communists, such as the Minister of Foreign Trade, etc. All the charges were,
 of course, made up and all the accused were later rehabilitated. That did
not do much good to those who were executed but may have helped their families.
However, I cannot offer details at this time.
 The similarity to the great purge trials in the USSR in the 30's is clearly
quite striking.

 Henry Kucera
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Organization: CSAV UTIA
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Date:         Tue, 12 Jan 1993 08:39:56 EDT
From:         Richard Budd <BUDD@CSPGAS11.BITNET>
Subject:      Final Comments

I hope nobody minded my six part report from E. Slovakia.  I returned from
Slovakia on January 7 and was not even controlled.  Since then, it appears
everybody has returned to their day to day lives, even in Slovakia.  As I
try to do, I count ten and think about things a little bit before posting
what really are opinions.  George Frajkor and others can certainly enlighten me
about what others are thinking or facts they have from unbiased sources.

I confess I have not been following the discussions, but my next act will be
to subscribe to all three discussion groups for a little while.  Considering
that I am working, trying to survive in and enjoy Prague, and preserve my
contacts all over Europe and the US, you may understand why I sent the reports
some time after the fact.  Though you may find this hard to believe, I toned
down some of my criticisms when I edited my diary.

If you have any offline discussions you want to make, please feel free to
write me at either budd@cspgas11 or klub@maristb.  Both are BITNET addresses.

                                            Richard Budd
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Date:         Tue, 12 Jan 1993 19:31:00 MEZ
From:         "T. Palberg, M. Wuerth, R. Simon" <PHLEID02@NYX.UNI-KONSTANZ.DE>
Subject:      Honecker trial

The end of the trial of Honecker may set a precedent for
similiar trials of former communist leaders.
Nevertheless I think it was better to bring him into court than
to let him simply go to Chile without any attempt to dispence
justice.  People who tried to climb over The Wall, his masterpiece,
did not face just judges.

   Rolf Simon . Konstanz University
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Date:         Mon, 4 Jan 1993 09:16:48 EST
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From:         James Sheldon <U7636JI@DOES1.BITNET>
Subject:      Maps of parts of the Ukraine?

You might try the Defense Mapping Agency, Washington, DC; National Geographic S
ociety; or State Department.
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Date:         Mon, 4 Jan 1993 10:06:29 EST
From:         CC59000 <CC59@IONA.BITNET>
Subject:      Panic

Panic was brought in by Milosevic himself. Milosevic wanted Panic to
be a figure-head, hoping that Panic, being American, could lift
the sanctions through US and in general improve the Serbian image
in the world. However soon it became obvious that he could not be
able to control him, as Panic worked hard for peace.
Finally when Panic challenged him in the elections, Milosevic had
enough "causing" the no confidence vote. Milosevic has firm control
over the whole government, including the senate. So it is clear why
they voted Panic out of the office.
     Indeed, Panic was the last hope for a peacful settlement and it
is unfortunate that the west didn't help. Although it would probably
be tool late anyway since Milosevic has a firm grip and until Panic,
there was no challenger.
     Regarding Kosovo, it is serious problem because Albanians are
majority there. Yet I am not sure if Greece or Turkey would get involved
even if something does happen in Kosovo. In any case, the wors case
scenario is Balkan war. The WW III is quite impossible since the west
has no territorial interests in the Balkans like in the WW I & II.
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Date:         Tue, 12 Jan 1993 12:58:57 -0500
From:         Jason Briggs Cormier <CORJB@RHODES.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Honecker trial

Pardon my lack of info, but could someone briefly tell me how the
trial went and what the verdict was?

Thanks.

Jason Briggs Cormier
Rhodes College, Memphis, TN
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Date:         Tue, 12 Jan 1993 09:30:32 -0700
From:         POOK@ZENO.MSC.COLORADO.EDU
Subject:      Re: Books and films

When anybody finds that magic source of "the confession" please post it
on the list.  I too am looking.
Laci
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Date:         Fri, 8 Jan 1993 23:11:06 EST
From:         Wayne Ponton <ponton@UMDNJ.EDU>
Subject:      Plastics!, Plastics!
              93 10:43 pm

We runnin on the plastic machine - no errors so far
processing full input suite
ver 3.3 IBM
no headroom
no waiting
etc .....
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Date:         Mon, 11 Jan 1993 10:14:21 EST
From:         Henry Kucera <HENRY@BROWNVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Books and films

 At the suggestion of several members of this list, I have been searching
for a tape of the film "The Confession", directed by Costa-Gavras, about the
 Slansky trial (based on the book by A. London). I have tried several
distributors but have been told that the film is not available. Hugh Agnew was
 kind enough to send my the number of a large distributor in Chicago but they
 don't have it either (although they have a lot of other stuff). If anyone on
 the list would be willing to help me with suggestions of how to obtain a copy,
I would appreciate it. I am willing to pay any reasonable price for the tape
 plus commission. I can also convert a European format to a US one, so that
would be OK, too. Thank a lot.

  Henry Kucera, Brown University
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Date:         Fri, 8 Jan 1993 22:43:13 EDT
From:         Hugh Agnew <AGNEWHL@GWUVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Other Voices from Serbia

Just to help fight the temptation to think that the voices of Seselj,
"Arkan", Mladic, etc. are the only Serbian voices talking....

Sincerely, Hugh Agnew (AGNEWHL@GWUVM.BITNET)
----------------------------------------------------------------
                RFE/RL Daily Report

                                    No. 4, 8 January 1993

SERBIAN PATRIARCH DENOUNCES WAR. In a grim, emotional message
marking Orthodox Christmas on 7 January, Serbian Patriarch
Pavle spoke of the suffering inflicted by the wars in Croatia
and Bosnia and said Serbs are feeling ashamed as they
celebrate their Christmas Day. Pavle told his congregation,
"We as religious people, as Christians, know that a Godless
person is he who does evil and acts inhumanely regardless of
what uniform he is wearing. Our surroundings are polluted
with gun smoke; the smell of blood, the still unfound and
unburied bones on the fronts cry out to us. There is not
enough black cloth to mourn the dead." While lip service is
paid to humane principles, people still believe there is more
benefit to their own nation through evil than through good,
that their nation has the right to defend itself with cruelty
and crime, Pavle said. Radio Serbia carried the report.
Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL, Inc.
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Date:         Mon, 11 Jan 1993 21:46:28 EST
From:         Henry Kucera <HENRY@BROWNVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Czech-Sudeten Conflict (?)

 Question to our Central European contributors: Radio Prague has lately given
considerable attention (in overseas broadcasts) to the demands of the Sudeten
Germans in Bavaria (represented by their spokesman, Franz Neubauer --I can't
guarantee the spelling) for property and other compensation for the events
after WW2. Prime Mininster Klaus said today that the Czech Republic cannot
possibly consider his requests.

   Is this a potentially serious issue or just a marginal problem? I don't
think that Central Europe needs yet another conflict, especially since it would
obviously bring about Czech demands for German compensation for WW2 crimes in
the so-called Protectorate.

   Any information will be appreciated.

Henry Kucera, Brown U., USA
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Date:         Mon, 4 Jan 1993 15:04:16 -0700
From:         POOK@ZENO.MSC.COLORADO.EDU
Subject:      Re: More books and films

George,
Re. your comment on the Marines in Somalia: I can only take that comment
as tongue in cheek.  Of course they broke the outward signs of clan
violence: underneath such violence wether overt or covert continues
because hate continues.

Laci Pook
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Date:         Tue, 12 Jan 1993 10:26:02 EST
From:         Ed Haupt <haupt@PILOT.NJIN.NET>
Subject:      Re: Czech-Sudeten Conflict (?)

I think there are a lot of irredentist Sudetens in Germany and Kohl has
a bad habit of playing to them.  There is a scene in "Nasty girl" in
which the Gymnasiallehrer der Geographie father is at a rather fancy party
in presumably Passau and a handkerchief with "Schlesien ist unser" pops
out of his jacket pocket.  In addition, when Bonn signed the treaty on
borders with Poland, a skywriting plane appeared over Bonn with some
remarks about "Hochverrat" or whatever.  I think its the sort of issue
that isn't on the front pages, but whenever I see Kohl visiting the
"Bund der Vertriebener," I gasp a little.

        Ed Haupt
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Date:         Mon, 4 Jan 1993 15:22:19 -0700
From:         POOK@ZENO.MSC.COLORADO.EDU
Subject:      Re: More books and films

A year ago, while in Hungary, I saw a Hungarian film titled "Magyar
Requiem"  (Hungarian Requiem I suppose).  It was not available on video
at the time and it was all in Hungarian.  Would any of you know if
this film is available somewhere now on video? In English or Hungarian?

The movie chronicles through the lives of six revolutionaries the 1956
Hungarian revolution.  While cheesy in a few places the plot is rather
true to life and correct in its chronology.  I think it was also shot
on location where the events occured in 56.

TNX
Laci Pook
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Date:         Sat, 9 Jan 1993 09:07:32 EST
From:         Ed Haupt <haupt@PILOT.NJIN.NET>
Subject:      Re: Plastics!, Plastics!

terrific
        Ed
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