RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  16 March 1999

HAVEL ON NAZI INVASION ANNIVERSARY. In a statement
marking the 60th anniversary of the invasion of
Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, Czech President Vaclav
Havel said on 15 March the country's membership in NATO
ensures its sovereignty will never again be threatened,
Reuters reported. He added that "Today's democratic
Germany has...become our ally." In other news, Czech
ambassador to NATO Karel Kovanda said on 15 March that
the joint accession to NATO of the Czech Republic,
Hungary, and Poland does not necessarily mean they have
identical positions on European security affairs.
Kovanda said that while all three agree that future
enlargement must include Slovakia, Hungary is interested
in seeing Romania and Slovenia join NATO, while Poland
has shown a "special interest" in the Baltic States, CTK
reported. MS

HUNGARIAN PREMIER URGES UNITY. In his speech marking the
151st anniversary of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution,
Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on 15 March that unity
can overcome Hungary's present-day difficulties. The
opposition far-right Hungarian Justice and Life Party
(MIEP) was invited to the official ceremony, but the
Socialist Party (MSZP) and the Free Democrats (SZDSZ)
were not. MSZP chairman Laszlo Kovacs commented that the
cabinet reduced the commemoration to a "party function,"
while SZDSZ parliamentary group leader Gabor Kuncze
noted that the two parties' exclusion from the ceremony
"sends a message about division rather than unity." In a
demonstration organized by the neo-Nazi Hungarian
Welfare Federation, the group's vice president, Viktor
Sarosi, sharply criticized those "Jews and Jewish
criminals" who gathered at the Budapest synagogue to
commemorate the national holiday. MSZ

ORBAN PLEDGES MINORITY REPRESENTATION. Viktor Orban on
12 March told leaders of Hungary's ethnic minorities
that the coalition plans a comprehensive reform of
election regulations that would provide a "fast
solution" to the issue of minorities' representation in
the parliament. Orban said he is awaiting a proposal
from the government's Office for National Minorities and
from the ombudsman for national minorities on how to
solve the problems of the Romanian minority, which
recently failed to elect a self-governing body. MSZ

ROMANIAN COURT AGAIN RULES AGAINST 'MULTICULTURAL
UNIVERSITY.' A Bucharest court on 15 March upheld an
appeal by the Party of Social Democracy in Romania
(PDSR) against the government's October 1998 decision to
set up the "multicultural" Hungarian-German Petofi-
Schiller University. The court ruled that the decision
is unconstitutional and violates several "organic laws."
A similar appeal by the Party of Romanian National Unity
was backed by the court in December 1998. The Greater
Romania Party has also contested the legality of the
government's decision to set up the university. The same
day, ethnic Hungarians celebrated the anniversary of the
1848 Hungarian revolution. President Emil Constantinescu
and Prime Minister Radu Vasile sent messages of
congratulations in which they urged that conflicts
between Hungarians and Romanians be overcome and
cooperation promoted. MS

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RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE  17 March 1999

SLOVAKIA RESPONDS TO ALBRIGHT STATEMENT. Foreign
Minister Eduard Kukan on 16 March said he understands
U.S. Secretary of State's Madeleine Albright's statement
two days earlier to be not a "crushing criticism" of
Slovakia but rather "an appeal to Slovakia to proceed
more resolutely ahead," CTK reported. In an interview
with Hungarian Television on 15 March, Albright said
Slovakia is not yet prepared for NATO membership, which,
she added, is "sad." Kukan said Albright's statement
reflects the fact that Slovakia could have been a NATO
member by now, "had it not been for the previous four
years of Vladimir Meciar's government." The U.S. embassy
in Bratislava clarified that Albright's statement was
"made in the past, not in the present tense." MS

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                     All rights reserved.
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