OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 64, 30 March 1995

ESTONIAN PRESIDENT WAITS FOR RUSSIAN APOLOGY. Lennart Meri, in an
interview with Die Welt on 29 March, said he would not attend the
celebrations in Moscow marking the 50th anniversary of the end of World
War II before Russia "properly apologized" for its occupation and
annexation of the Baltic States, BNS reported. Die Welt noted that
President Boris Yeltsin has apologized to the people of Poland, the
Czech Republic, and Hungary for the actions of the Red Army. But the
newspaper commented that "Moscow has not distanced itself by so much as
a single word from the Soviet policy of violence against the Baltic
States." The presidents of the Baltic States received invitations to the
ceremonies in Moscow but decided, as a sign of Baltic solidarity, that
either all three or none would attend the Moscow celebrations. --
Saulius Girnius, OMRI, Inc.

SLOVAK PREMIER ON CABINET'S FIRST 100 DAYS. Vladimir Meciar on 29 March
evaluated the first 100 days of his government as "successful," Slovak
media reported. He said his cabinet's accomplishments include the
preparation of two budgets (one of which was provisional), the passage
of the "clean hands" program to fight corruption, the creation of a
construction ministry, and the signing of the Slovak-Hungarian treaty.
Meciar said coupon privat-ization will start in June, and property worth
55 billion koruny will be sold. He criticized opposition parties for not
cooperating with his government, saying that only his coalition partners
are willing to work together in the interest of Slovak citizens. --
Sharon Fisher, OMRI, Inc.

CONTROVERSY OVER SLOVAK-HUNGARIAN TREATY CONTINUES. Representatives of
the Slovak National Party, a member of the ruling coalition, have said
the party will not
support the ratification of the Slovak-Hungarian treaty. But Meciar said
on 29 March he believes the parliament will support it anyway, Slovenska
Republika reported. Jan Luptak, chairman of Meciar's other coalition
partner, the Association of Slovak Workers, told the newspaper that he
viewed the government's progress on the treaty positively but added that
the inclusion of the Council of Europe Recommendation 1201 is
"unacceptable" to his party. Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement
Deputy Chairman Pal Farkas said it is necessary to start implementing
the agreement and stressed that the government should finally start
discussions with representatives of minorities. Another ethnic Hungarian
party in Slovakia, the Coexistence movement, has called for
constitutional changes to give minorities the right to self-government.
At a press conference on 28 March, the party said that cultural and
educational autonomy cannot exist without territorial autonomy. --
Sharon Fisher, OMRI, Inc.

HUNGARIAN, SLOVAK COMMENTS ON NATO. Hungarian Defense Minister Gyorgy
Keleti has said that within the next three years, Hungary will complete
the reforms necessary to prepare its armed forces for full integration
into NATO. He told Reuters on 28 March that Hungary will meet all the
military and technical requirements for NATO membership. He also said
that Hungary will make its military and civilian air traffic control
systems NATO-compatible within the same time frame, allowing the country
to take part in joint air defense operations with NATO. Meanwhile,
Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Schenk, in an interview with The
Washington Times on 28 March, stressed his country's position that the
Visegrad countries should enter NATO as a bloc and not individually, as
advocated by the Czechs. He said "the partial, individual approach can
end in undesirable results." He also commented that NATO should reach an
understanding with Russia on eastward expansion "so that Russia doesn't
feel in danger." -- Michael Mihalka, OMRI, Inc.

HUNGARY, AUSTRIA DISCUSS SCHENGEN AGREEMENTS. Hungarian Internal Affairs
Minister Gabor Kuncze and his Austrian counterpart, Franz Loeschnak, met
at the Austrian-Hungarian border on 29 March to discuss the impact of
the so-called Schengen agreements. Under those accords, seven member
countries of the European Union recently abolished border controls at
their joint borders, causing huge traffic jams at border crossings
between EU and non-EU states in particular. Austria is planning to sign
the Schengen agreements next month and implement them fully within two
years. Hungarian media report an unnamed Hungarian official as saying
that Hungary would find Austria's implementation of the agreements
"discriminatory" toward Hungarians. He warned that Hungary's tourist
trade could be threatened if tourists had to wait for hours at border
crossings to enter or leave Hungary. Poland recently protested attempts
to separate EU and non-EU traffic at its border with Germany, saying it
would not allow Poles to be treated like "second class citizens." --
Jiri Pehe, OMRI, Inc.

[As of 1200 CET]

Compiled by Jan Cleave

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A tovabbterjesztest a New York-i szekhelyu Magyar Emberi Jogok
Alapitvany tamogatja.

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Reposting is supported by Hungarian Human Rights Foundation News
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Friday, 31 March 1995
Volume 2, Issue 65


REGIONAL NEWS
-------------

**HUNGARY READY WITH ECONOMIC PLAN**
  Hungary's government says it's going to submit its austerity
  program to parliament next week.  The package, which consists
  of amendments to existing laws, would cut social expenditures
  and lay off 15 percent or 19,000 of the country's public
  servants this year.  It would also require university students
  to pay an $18 a month tuition fee, introduce some fees for
  medical care and means testing for maternity benefits and
  child care allowances now given to all families regardless of
  need.  Much of the Hungarian public doesn't like the austerity
  program and is making itself heard.


**HUNGARIAN PRIVATIZATION OFFICIAL RETURNS TO PRIVATE LIFE**
  The deputy head of Hungary's privatization body the State
  Property Agency, or SPA, has quit.  Erno Racz announced
  yesterday that he's leaving because he thinks the government's
  privatization target is impossible to achieve.  Hungary's
  privatization bill calls for privatization revenues of just
  over a $1 billion this year.  The privatization legislation is
  expected to be passed by parliament next month or in early
  May.  Privatization Minister Tamas Suchman says he's accepted
  Racz's resignation.


**HUNGARIAN OFFICERS CHARGED WITH BRIBERY**
  A Hungarian military court has convicted 36 high-ranking
  officers on charges of bribery, fraud or assisting in fraud.
  The officers stole diesel fuel from the military and then sold
  it to wholesalers and retailers.  This been described as
  Hungary's biggest corruption case involving the military.  The
  court sentenced several of the defendants to prison terms. The
  three chief defendants got jail terms ranging from 16 months
  to a year and a half.   


**CITIZENS HIT HARD BY HUNGARIAN ECONOMIC PLANS**
  For the second time in a little over a week, Hungarians have
  protested economic austerity measures proposed by their
  government.  About 300 parents, teachers and health care
  employees gathered in Budapest at the Finance Ministry
  yesterday, then marched to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. 
  Among the government's proposals: some fees for medical care
  and means testing for maternity benefits and child care
  allowances now given to all families regardless of need.  But
  last week's protest centered around another part of the
  austerity plan: an $18 a month tuition fee for university
  students.  There were demonstrations across the country
  involving an estimated 20,000 students.  Yesterday's protesters
  shared some of the students' concerns and are also worried
  about overall cuts in state funding for education.  Erzsebet
  Galantai, a mother of two from Budapest, would be hit by both
  the limitations on child care  benefits and the tuition fee.

  "I am in a desperate state of mind.  I have a 20-year-old
  daughter who's going to go to college and a 9-year-old
  child who is in primary school.  I won't be entitled to child
  care allowances.  I am frightened."

  Yesterday's demonstration was initiated by the Teachers
  Democratic Union with Liga, an umbrella organization of labor
  groups.  Parents and members of health care employee unions
  attended the protest in support of the the teachers.  Marta
  Kovacs was among the demonstrating teachers.  She works at a
  boarding school in Budapest's eighth district, teaching both
  handicapped and non-handicapped children.  Kovacs is afraid
  the government will close her school as part of the austerity
  program.  In fact, she says government inspectors have
  launched a series of investigations of boarding schools for
  the handicapped.

  "The reason I came to the demonstation is I'm working at a
  boarding school in which several investigations are going on.
  Investigations of legality, budget and the way we educate our
  children and of the educational programs we offer."

  But the government's investigations may be premature.  Most of
  its austerity program still has to be approved by parliament. 
  
  
**OSCE FACES DAUNTING CHALLENGES IN RUSSIA*
  The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or
  OSCE, says it may be able to open a permanent office in
  Chechnya as soon as mid-April.  That announcement came
  yesterday during the first day of a meeting of the OSCE's
  senior council in Prague.  Just back from an exploratory trip
  to Chechnya, the representative of the OSCE Chairman,
  Hungary's Istvan Gyamarti, describes human rights violations
  there as "intolerable."  But he says both sides appear willing
  to seek a political solution.  According to Gyamarti, the OSCE
  and Russia have agreed on the mission's tasks.  They include
  facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, investigating
  human rights violations, helping carry out free elections and
  promoting a comprehensive cease-fire.  But Gyamarti says these
  plans could be jeopardized because OSCE member states aren't
  willing to come up with the necessary resources -- like money,
  personnel and in some cases political support.  Gyamarti says
  that's unacceptable.

  "It is the conviction of the chairman that this situation should
  be changes and political intentions must be underpinned by
  appropriate resources in all cases."

  The growing gap between its mandate and its means has also hurt
  the OSCE's attempts at a peacekeeping mission in the former
  Soviet enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. They're still in the
  prepatory phase, way behind OSCE goals.  --Andy Heil



BUSINESS NEWS
-------------

**BUDAPEST STOCK MARKET LOOKS TO THE FUTURES**
  The Budapest Stock Exchange will begin trading in futures
  today.  Four different futures markets will be launched,
  contracts on the  main stock index, in US dollars, German
  marks and three-month discount treasury bills.  Brokers expect
  trading volumes in stock market futures to be slow at first.
  Futures are already traded on the Budapest Commodity Exchange,
  which used to be the region's only futures market.  It trades
  in commodity futures, dollars and marks.


**BUDAPEST SHARES DOWN IN LIGHT TRADING**
  Foreign investors are staying on the sidelines of the Budapest
  Stock Exchange.  Shares lost 2.04 points yesterday, closing at
  1,226.66.  Analysts say foreign investors aren't interested in
  any of the region's markets right now.  Compensation coupons
  dominated yesterday's trading in Budapest, on speculation of
  increased small-time privatizations.  The coupons were awarded
  to ordinary citizens in exchange for property seized under
  communism.  They're now used mainly for smaller state
  sell-offs.


BUSINESS FEATURE
----------------

**HEARD THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE: HUNGARY'S GOT SOME FINE WINE**
  By Lucy Hooker
 
  Anyone knows that Hungary can produce drinkable wine.  But they
  only recently woke up to the country's potential.  Small
  Hungarian producers are making a name for themselves on the
  market with higher quality wines.  The wine which used to flow
  from Hungary's large scale cooperatives was palatable, but
  nothing more exciting than that.  Now Hungarian wine producers
  are doing so well that Budapest's conoisseurs turn out in the
  hundreds for wine-tasting events.  Attila Talos runs the
  Budapest wine society.  He says new Hungarian wines can
  compete internationally.

  "There's a fairly short number of private growers who are,
  let's say, quality growers and their wines can be compared to
  the better wines of the international market and these
  producers have been found by merchants and traders or in the
  case of some of them.  They managed to sell to their wines to
  market themselves to create the name of the chateau or
  winery."

  The Hungarian producers who are making their mark are the ones
  who have realized that small is beautiful, like Mihaly Figula
  who makes white wine near Balatonfured on the shores of the
  lake.  He says the reason the state companies produced only
  mediocre wines was that good and bad grapes were combined
  indiscriminately.  He is more careful with the wine which has
  his own label on it.

  "Maybe the quality is better because these grapes are from my
  vineyards and I decide how to cultivate these vineyards, when
  to harvest.  I deal exclusively with vineyards where the grape
  is grown under our own methods."

  Like Figula, Tibor Bathori decided to branch out with his own
  private company.  He bought an old wine cellar in Etyek
  outside Budapest.  Over the last five years he's, with the
  help of a loan from the World Bank, built up a winery which
  now produces 300,000 bottles a year.  Bathori already exports
  his Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc to the US, Britain, Japan
  and also supplies many of Budapest's top restaurants.  Bathori
  hopes his exports will help improve the reputation of
  Hungarian wine.  He says that is one of the reasons he started
  his winery.

  "I think in Hungary today, we have minimum 20 vineyards
  Villanyi, Eger, Etyek, Sopron, Tokaj.  We can make a new
  Hungarian wine profile, tradition, and I hope in the next 10
  years we will be selling Hungarian in England, in the USA, in
  Scandinavia, in the world."

  While before now Hungarian wines were always to be found amongst
  the bargain wines on the bottom shelf at the supermarket,
  their image is beginning to improve.  In the next few years
  they'll be creeping up to shelf three and four as the best of
  them compete with wines from South Africa, Australia and
  California.  So it's not a bad idea to stock up on them now
  before prices begin to creep up as well. 

  
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A tovabbterjesztest a New York-i szekhelyu Magyar Emberi Jogok
Alapitvany tamogatja.

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Reposting is supported by Hungarian Human Rights Foundation News
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