CCCCC AA RRRRR OOOO LL II NN N AA CC AA A RR R OO O LL II NNN N AA A CC AA A RRRRR OO O LL II NN N N AA A CC AAAAAA RR R OO O LL II NN NN AAAAAA CCCCC AA A RR R OOOO LLLLLL II NN N AA A STUDENT'S E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA Faculty of Social Science of Charles University Smetanovo nabr. 6 110 01 Prague 1 C.S.F.R. e-mail (Bitnet) address: FSVUKA@CSEARN *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* C A R O L I N A No 8, Friday, Decemberr 20, 1991. The E-mail News from Czechoslovakia This news may be published only with the "CAROLINA" designation. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE EVENTS OF LAST WEEK /from December 11 to 18/ 8 years' sentence for the promotion of communism The relation between society and communist party was always tensive after November 1989 but it wasn't vorbidden despite several demands after the coup in the Soviet Union. The situation became acute on December 11 when the Parliament passed an amendment on criminal law proposed by federal government. Paragraph No 260 says that everybody who promotes national, racial, class of religional spite- communism and fascism were put as examples- will be sentenced from 1-8 years. The memebers of the Parliament representing Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia/KSCM/ refused to accept the paragraph saying it contradicts the Document of Human Rights and Freedom. The chairman of KSCM, Jiri Svoboda, started even hunger strike in Federal Assembly /he stopped on 17 th of December/. After he put on his jacket a red 6-tiped star the protest of jewish community in Bohemia was raised. J. Svoboda said he hadn't intentd to dishonour jewish victims from the second world war/ all the jewish had to wear a star/. He put more comments at the press conference about accepted law: "The law will not be executed by members of Parliament but by the prosecutor and it is not excluded that intimidate of the people could happen. Opinions of other parliament members are different: "I think this paragraph has a symbolic and moral importance, because it make the communism equal fascism first time in our history. Communists belive they have a beautiful and high goal that allows them using all means as they used before. Paragraph No 260 said No to this idea" said D. Kroupa, MP representing Civil Democratic Alliance. The prime minister of Czechoslovakia Marian Calfa signed an agreement of association with EC countries in Brusseles on December 16. Hungarian and Polish prime ministers signed it as well. As associated members of the EC they have the possibility to establish closer contacts with EC members in the economic, political and cultural fields. The final goal of cooperation is obtaining the full memebership. After signing Czechoslovak prime minister said after that the agrrement would be an important turning point in European history. The agreement is considered assymetric and more concessional for our economy than for the economies of EC members. The objections of Spain to our steel's export addressed at the last moment did not change anything and will be noted in the meeting minutes. President v. Havel came back on December 17 from his thre-day visit in Egypt . He has discussed with Egyptian president H. Mubarak the peace development in the Near East, changes in Eastern Europe, the situation in Yugoslavia and the former USSR and political and economic cooperation between Czechoslovakia and Egypt. Egypt's importance to Czechoslovakia as a door to the Arabian world was discussed at the meeting. Czechoslovakian prime minister M. Calfa mad an official visit to Italy on December 17. He talked with Italian president F. Cossiga and prime minister G. Andreotti. The apprehension of the situation in the south and east of Czechoslovakia was expressed by our prime minister. Czechoslovakia would like to cooperate with NATO on defence. Czechoslovakian minister of defence L. Doborovsky invited the U.S. minister fof defence Richard Cheney from Decemer 10-11. They signed an agreement on mutual assistance in topographic map charting, geodesy, geophsysics and digital territory data compiling. A joint Czechoslovakian- U.S. group was founded to look after the purchase of American armaments for our army after the embargo is abolished. This possibility is still teoretical because Czech army doesn't have now enough money to buy them.The agreement includes the expansion of the current programm for Czechoslovakian officers to get professional training in American army colleges. Talking to students about voucher privatization "There is no political party in Czechoslovakia that doesn't intend to take part in privatization" said Dusan Triska, the head of the finance ministry's department for voucher privatization. Dusan Triska was invited to the meeting with law students at Charles University on December,11. There will be a lot of ideological fighting in the future about the limits said Dusan Triska. Such a transformation process is unprecedented. The voucher privatization is a Czechoslovakian invention and it was Dusan Triska that proposed the voucher privatization system as a quick and mass form of privatization. Since here is a mass campaign for it in our massmedia, almost everybody knows in Czechoslovakia what the voucher privatization means, but the foreign readers of Carolina would certainly appreciate an explanation of this term. Voucher privatization is one of the possibilities for privitizing most of the state-owned sector . Czechoslovak citizens are offered vouchers with a symbolic value of 1000 Kcs that allow them to bid in several rounds for shares of public enterprises. The owners of vouchers become shareholders and state companies turn into publicly traded. The shares are valued in points and their value depends on shareholders' demand. D. Triska criticized the Polish "non-standart" privatization system because of its academic nature. It is constatnly He also criticized the Polosh theory of dividing the nation's property among all the people. "Czechoslovakia doesn't have spies in other countries", said federal minister of interior Jan Langos at the meeting with the students at the faculty of social sciences in Prague on December 18. A way of working of the office for foreign relations and information isn't different from the such offices' way of working in western countries. This way of working wasn't specified by ministr more but it is not a espionage he said.A legalization of soft drugsis in minister's opinion utopy or demagogy. It will not bring the results promised by its publicity makers. He commented a paragraph No 260 of criminal law- news number one from the last week: "It is a pity I couldn't participate in voting". The question how he would vote was answered "For". According to minister the ideology promoting hatred as communism or fascism must be forbidden. The question of the students concerned the procces against a growinb criminality, the fight against an organized crime, the changes of top stuff in Federal and Information service and other hot problems. ******************************************* Dear reader, you just finished reading the 8 th and this year's last issue of Carolina. We thank you for all words of support. We apologise at the same time for unanswered responses or proposals of yours. But we want you to know that we appreciate the letters very much. Let us wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 1992 your editors See you in next year/on January 10 th when Carolina No 9 will be issued/ *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* To subscribe Carolina please send the e-mail message with subject "Carolina/Eng: Subscription" on our e-mail address. The subscription is free. Comments and remarks are appreciated.