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 School of Social Science of Charles University Smetanovo nabr. 6 110 01 Prague 1 C.S.F.R. e-mail address: CAROLINA@CSEARN.BITNET *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* C A R O L I N A No 41, Friday, September 18, 1992. SURVEY OF THE EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK (September 9 - 16) The Association Treaty between the CSFR and the European Community will not be ratified In brief, this is the news from the visit of the Czechoslovak minister of foreign affairs, J. Moravcik, to Brussels. The Czech press quoted the representative of the minister of foreign affairs, P. Bratinka, who also participated in the discussions, on Thursday, September 10: "Both Andriessen and Delors (the vice-chairman and chairman of the commission of the European Community) said that do not think that the association agreement will be ratified before the breakup of the Czechoslovak federation. That is the first bad news. The second piece of bad news is that the first euphoria in the West, during which the original agreement was concluded, has somewhat cooled." He added that the contents of the new agreement would be, in his opinion, worse. The European Parliament in Strassbourg will discuss the association agreements with Poland and Hungary from Tuesday, September 15. Vaclav Klaus Met with Hana Suchocka Premier Klaus and the Polish Premier Hana Suchocka agreed during a meeting on Sunday in the Polish village of Rudawa near the Czech-Polish border on the necessity of increasing the number of frontier crossings and speeding up the process of creating a free-trade zone (from the planned eight years to less than four). Vladimir Meciar Goes to Hungary on the Invitation of Premier Antall On his first foreign visit in his new function the head of the Slovak government Vladimir Meciar went to neighboring Hungary on Wednesday, September 9. The divergent positions on the completion of the hydroelectric dam at Gabcikovo and the question of the national minorities nothing has really changed, but the delegation agreed to create a commision which will adjudicate both the problems. Carolina number 27 wrote about Gabcikovo under the title "Unenviable Richness." A New Director of Czechoslovak Press Agency (CSTK) from September 15 The firing of Petr Uhl from his function as director of the Czechoslovak Press Agency and the naming of his replacement -- Tomas Kopriva is a member of the governing Civic Democratic Party -- took place accoriding to the letter of the law (the director of a state agency is named and fired by the federal government), but nevertheless it called forth associations with the practices of the former regime. Again what is decisive in filling functions is not professional qualifications, but party membership (in the present situation both victorious parties: in the Czech lands the Civic Democratic Party, and in Slovakia the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia). The Case of Miroslav Macek The media have devoted a full week to the information about the entrepreneurial activities of Miroslav Macek, vice-president of the federal government and the Civic Democratic Party, delegate to the Federal Assembly (both in the previous and current elections). For example, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes writes about the direct sale of the Knizni velkoobchod concern (one of the main distributers of books in the CSFR) to J. R. Vilimek. The owners of J. R. Vilimek are M. Macek and the editor-in-chief of the economic weekly TOP, J. Menzel (before November the representative of the director of CSTK). "LSU (Liberal-Social Union, an opposition parliamentary group--eds.) Will Try to Get Miroslav Macek Fired" was its headline. It also reported on the interpellation of the Social-Democratic delegate Dostal, who considers "similar business practices by people carrying out higher consititutional functions as extremely questionable and unethical," in spite of the fact that this year in the Spring a law on conflict of interest was passed. During the interpellation the delegate insisted that Knizni velkoobchod, though it has a market value of 500 million crowns (20 million USD), was sold to the firm J. R. Vilimek for a book value of 60 million crowns (2.4 million USD). He further asked the vice-chairman of the govenrment whether it was true that the necessary 60 million crowns were obtained by a loan from the Commercial Bank, whose general director is a party colleague, and what sort of security for the load was offered, when the weekly Telegraf, published by Vilimek, died with a loss of 50 million (2 million USD). Finally even the coalition partner Civic Democratic Alliance expressed fears that the entrepreneurial activities of Miroslav Macek might threaten the entire coalition. 55th Anniversary of the Death of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk On Monday, September 14, the Czech premier Klaus, the Federal premier Strasky and the last (today already former) Czechoslovak President, Vaclav Havel, placed wreaths on the tomb of the founder of the Czechoslovak Republic (1918) and its first president, T.G. Masaryk. He died on the same date in 1937. Klaus, Kalvoda and Uhde meet with delegates from the Left Bloc in the Czech National Council Meetings between the delegates of the strongest opposition club in the Czech parliament, the Left Bloc (a coalition of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia and the Democratic Left of the CSFR) and the Czech premier Vaclav Klaus were followed by similar sessions with the chairman of the Czech government Jan Kalvoda and chairman of the Czech National Council (the Czech parliament), Milan Uhde. "In a number of cases we affirmed that we are in the same boat and that there a many questions we do not want to resolve through confrontation. Many misunderstandings must be dispelled, and I am sure that today's meeting helped accomplish that," said permier Klaus as cited in Mlada fronta Dnes on September 9. The two parties have diametrically opposed views on the question of how the federation should be dissolved (the KSCM -- Czech and Moravian communists-- insists on a referendum, Klaus is against it and against the secession of one of the republics) and the constitutional form of the Czech Republic (Klaus prefers the unitary, centralized state). Nomination of prof. Hajduk to position of the Rector of Trnava University canceled. On September 2, 1992 Mr. Dusan Slobodnik, Slovak minister of education, asked Federal Prime minister, Mr. Strasky, to cancel the nomination of prof. Hajduk to the position of the Rector of Trnava University (TU). Mr. Hajduk was nominated by President V. Havel in May 1992. Mr. Strasky confirmed the demand of Mr. Slobodnik and the latter asked Mr. Hajduk, the TU Rector, to quit from his position. Minister Slobodnik nominated a new rector, prof. L.Haracha, former employee of Ministry of Education, and removed prof. Hajduk. Carolina evaluates this act as an example of establishment interfering into academic enviroment. WEATHER Cool September weather is starting to drive out memories of this summer's drought. The clouds give the last few tourists a nice sunset over Hradcany and the number of Americans on Vaclavske namesti is shrinking. Maybe the prices of beer will come down as well as the temperatures. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This news may be published only with "CAROLINA" designation. To subscribe Carolina please send the e-mail message with subject "Carolina/Eng: Subscription" for the english version (and "Carolina/Cs: Subscription" for the czech version) on our e-mail address above. To drop sending you replace the word Subscription" by "Unsubscription". The subscription is free. Comments and remarks are appreciated.