From: FEKETE@bcvms.bc.edu (Zoli Fekete)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.magyar
Subject: AGORA-SCMPOST RFE/RL Daily Report 08 OCT, 1992 (excerpts)
Date: 8 Oct 1992 08:13:43 -0500
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     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.)
 
     ANTALL CONFERS WITH AUSTRIAN CHANCELLOR. Hungarian Prime
Minister Jozsef Antall  met  his  Austrian  counterpart Franz
Vranitzky in Eisenstadt, Austria, to discuss the details of a
Hungarian-Austrian   economic   agreement,   Radio   Budapest
reports.  Hungary seeks to expand exports of farm products to
Austria by 10% and to increase the quota of Hungarian workers
allowed  to work  in  Austria.   The  leaders  told  a  press
conference that the  economic agreement will be worked out by
the end of  the  year.  The agreement is especially important
for Hungary since  Austria  is  its  largest  Western trading
partner. (Edith Oltay, RFE/RL, Inc.)
 
     PRIVATIZATION OF ARABLE  LAND  IN  HUNGARY.  Minister of
Agriculture Elemer Gergatz  predicted  that  some  80% of the
total arable land  will  be privately owned by the end of the
year or at  the latest by next March, MTI reports.   Speaking
at a conference  on agriculture in Debrecen, Gergatz stressed
that  the  government   attaches   special   significance  to
returning  land to  its  rightful  owners  when  compensating
victims of communism.   He  forecast  that of the 6.5 million
hectares of arable  land  in Hungary less than 1 million will
remain under state ownership and that there will be a million
new landowners when  the  compensation  process is completed.
Finance Minister Mihaly  Kupa  told  the  conference that the
debts of agricultural  cooperatives  should  be  cancelled so
that the new owners are not burdened by the debts accumulated
during the communist era. (Edith Oltay, RFE/RL, Inc.)

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