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 48, Friday, November 6, 1992. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry for delay in the distribution of this issue. editors ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM LAST WEEK'S EVENTS (October 28 - November 4) European Community's Committee for Gabcikovo Gabcikovo waterworks is technically good, according to the appraisal of the European Community's Committee. Its experts claim that it is not possible to interupt the construction work at this time. The European Community intends to make a significant contribution to a solution of the problem, whose prolonging would cause difficulties with gaining Slovakia's international recognition. It would have an unfavorable influence on the Czech attitude towards the customs union between the Czech and the Slovak Republics. Czech Republic cannot continue to ignore the Gabcikovo problem since a majority of European Community's countries regard her as one of the involved parties in the dispute. On Dissolution of Federation The governmental proposal of the bill of the extinguishment of Czechoslovakia is being dealt with in the Federal Assembly. According to this bill, Czechoslovakia will no longer exist as of December 31, 1992 at 24.00, when all the state bodies, armed forces, armed security units and state organizations controlled by the federation, cease to be valid. Czech Republic and Slovak Republic will become succession states. The Czechoslovakian Socialist Democratic Party presented a proposal, that on December 19, a referendum on the possibility of division on December 31 be declared. If in this referendum citizens did not approve the federation's abolishment, a new election would have to be called, according to the Social Democrats. The first reactions of the members of parliment towards this proposal were negative. The Bill is to be discussed in the next session of Parliament. Civil Democratic Party (ODS) Objects Direct Election of Czech President The executive body of Civil Democratic Party denied Tuesday for a direct Presidential election. According to the attitude of the strongest political party in Czechoslovakia, a direct election of President would bring about a rise of a competitive center of executive power. The party said that would be a source of strong conflicts especially if the President were impartial. The press agency Arteria published information that ODS denounced support for Vaclav Havel. His rival candidate from ODS would allegedly be the current Federal Premier Jan Strasky. Chaiman of the party, Vaclav Klaus, who opposed the direct presidential election as early as last week, said the information that the ODS did not support Havel was entirely false. The direct presidential election, as proposed by Havel, gained support among representatives of some parties of the governmental coalition, for example Civil Democratic Alliance, Christian Democratic Union - Czechoslovakian People's Party, and among the majority of the opposition parties. Communist Left Block prefers an indirect election, the Czechoslovakia traditional election of the President by Parliament. Abolishing of the University of Trnava According to this Wednesday's daily Mlada Fronta, on Tuesday the Slovakian government passed a Bill of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, abolishing the University of Trnava. LAST COMMON OCTOBER 28 As promised, the following reports offer a profile of October 28, the last state holiday of Czechoslovakia, as we recorded it in Prague. Left Block Against the Division of the State About one thousand mostly older supporters of the Left Block gathered on Wenceslas Sqare on the eve of the state holiday in Prague. Their demonstration presented a dissent from the division of Czechoslovakia and from the developments made after November 1989. "We will easily fall prey to Germany", proclaimed Miroslav Ransdort, one of the Members of Parliment of the Federal Assembly for Left Block. In support of his arguments, three other speakers from Germany, England and Sub-Carpathian Ukraine took the floor. Unfortunately this rally did not shun violence with one flag-bearers attacking a journalist. The manifestation was completed by an evangelic minister who appealed to the participants to come in support of Wednesday's demonstration of the Association for Republic - Republican Party of Czechoslovakia. Sladek will not allow another Munich Association for Republic - Republican Party of Czechoslovakia (SPR-RSC) began its demonstration at noon on October 28 in Prague on the Wenceslas Square. Several thousand people gathered under the statue of Saint Wenceslas. "I take my cap off to everyone who had courage to come here," said MP of the Federal Assembly for SRP-RSC Josef Krejsa. Then he went on to critisize the current, as well as previous, constitutional public servants. "We will not let a new Munich! Havel, Klaus and Meciar sold us to Germans!" were the first sentences of Chairman of SPR-RSC, Miroslav Sladek, when he arrived at 1 p.m. "The West is afraid of the power of united Czechoslovakia. Today we have the best chance to become the fourth world power after the USA, Russia and China." Sladek labeled the Civil Democratic Party and its leader Vaclav Klaus, along with ex-president Vaclav Havel successors to Adolf Hitler. After two hours of persistent rain Miroslav Sladek left. An opinion poll carried out by the editorial staff of Carolina discovered that from 311 participants of the demonstration, 147 came to support the claims of the Republicans, 92 people wanted just to have a look and the rest 72 aimed at critising Sladek. Zeman was critisizing, Kryl singing The afternoon meeting of Czechoslovakian Social Democracy in Prague's Eden gave a rather sad impression. The speakers talked about corruption and decay achieved by the common state during recent times. Most of the contribution made a strong stand against a violent break-up of the federation and supported the idea of referendum. With wild applause the audience awarded prognostic and critic of Klaus's economic reform - MP of the federal assembly for Czechoslovak Social Democracy, Milos Zeman. "Neither Czech or Slovakian advice will luckily influence God," stated by way of an introduction of his appearance Jiri Kalensky, parish priest of Czechoslovakian Hussite Church. Later he dealt with the newly risen situation in Slovakia. His successor to the speaker's stand was ex-minister of the federal government, Petr Miller. "I am not singing for any party, I am singing for Republic". These words introduced Karel Kryl, a folk singer who had to emigrate to Germany in 1968 because of political reasons. In the end the participants signed a petition calling for referendum on the division of the state. Vaclav Havel at St. Vaclav Ex-president Vaclav Havel commemorated the 74th anniversary of the rise of Czechoslovakia by putting flowers to the statue of Saint Wenceslas on the Wenceslas Square in Prague at 5pm. Anarchists at the "Funeral of the Republic" Anarchists and skinheads gathered at a rally organized by National Fasist Body near the one-time Stalin's statue in Prague. Around 3 p.m., a dangerously looking procession of approximately 200 skinheads set out marching though the city, but soon they were stoped by police forces. Anarchists on the contrary held a peaceful "Funeral of the Czechoslovak Republic". Republic in Theatre The audience in Theatre Labyrint also commemorated the anniversary of the rise of the common state. During the fourth series of discussion program RES PUBLICA there was a set of politicians, journalists and actors on the stage. A live discussion rised between the stage and the auditorium. The major topics were the Republicans' demonstration, the University of Trnava and Czech-Slovak relations. "We support unreservedly your pains to create a new and good university in Trnava," stated a telegram for students and pedagogues of this school written by the participant to this discussion, who included ex-premiers Petr Pithart and Jan Carnogursky and essay-writer Pavel Tigrid. Present State of Health of Alexander Dubcek According to the Minister of Health Service of the Czech Republic, Petr Lom, the patient's crisis deepens, but the basic functions are still preserved. Opinion Poll The extinguishment of the federation is favored by 51 percent Czechs and 37 percent Slovaks. These are the October's results of the opinion poll carried out by the Institute for Public Opinion Poll. The most acceptable way of deviding the state in both the republics still remains as referendum. One third of Slovaks and more than a half of Czechs want a new election after the collapse of the federation. (In Bohemia, half of those who voted the current governmental coalition shares this opinion.) In case of a division, more than 50 per cent of citizens would be afraid of a division of property, finance and even of a contingent civil war. Czechoslovakia crown's bill of rate buy purchase USA 1 USD 27.71 29.11 BRD 1 DEM 17.60 18.52 GB 1 GBP 41.90 45.04 FRA 1 FRF 5.14 5.46 AUT 1 ATS 2.52 2.64 The rate is valid on November 4. CULTURAL SERVICE Master of Czech Painting A collection of paintings, puppets and wooden ornamental sculptures of Czech artist Jiri Trnka is on display in the National Galley in the Kinskych Palace through January 24. Apart from popular figures (Svejk, Beatles) the exhibition also includes a projection of Trnka's animated cartoons. Scandalous Gio The first run of a debut of authors and directors, Simon and Michal Caban, "Don Gio" took place on OCtober 31 in the Stavovske Theatre in Prague at the occasion of closing the festival "Mozart Open 1992". This non-commercial film aimed at expressing an entire respect to Mozart's music which penetrated the film during the whole performance. SPORT Hockey - After 16 finished rounds of the federal hockey league, north-bohemian Litvinov is still in the lead with 22 points. In the last 5 matches it gained but 5 points which makes Ceske Budejovice ranking second, loses now only 1 point. The last is still Pardubice who has won so far only 4 matches. Football - In the fourth round of the Cup of Czech-Moravian Football Association, two first-league teams were surprisingly beaten by third-league teams: Dukla Praha lost to Frydek-Mistek 0:2, Teplice beat Vitkovice 1:0. A first-league novice from Brno gained mastery over Olomouc 2:0 and in the next match of two teams of the highest competition, Ceske Budejovice (so far not succesful in the league) beat Banik Ostrava 3:2. Slavia Praha gained mastery over third-league Blsany as late as after a penalty shot. Among those advancing there are also Sparta Praha and second-league teams Viktorie Zizkov and Opava. The cup finalists in Slovakia are Dunajska Streda and 1.FC Kosice. All the three leading teams of the league - competition remain on the top of the chart : Slovan Bratislava beat Trnava 2:1, DAC Dunajska Streda - Presov 1:0, Brno - Ostrava 3:2. WEATHER The approaching winter will shorten days and prolong nights. The sun rises before 7 a.m. and sets already around 4:30 p.m. The sky is cloudy with occasional rains or fog. Temperatures fluctuate narrowly below zero in the night and around 10 degrees (centigrade) in the day. DECLARATION OF THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TRNAVA We, the students of the University of Trnava residing in Trnava, do resent more and more sharpening dispute between the Ministry of Education and Science of the Slovak Republic and the management of the University of Trnava. What we perceive is that under the veil of various invectives there is a political combat taking place, which is not admissible on the academic ground according to the law. The development of recent events heads even towards abolishment of the University of Trnava. Under these circumstances we cannot stay silent any longer and thus we appeal to public with this declaration: The University of Trnava was established by an Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic number 191/92 on March 25, 1992. At the same time the National Council of the Slovak Republic with its decree nb. 278 established a commission for creating a Preparatory Committee as a guarantee of the quality of the new university. On May 15, 1992 President of Czechoslovakia Vaclav Havel appointed, in response to the commission of teh National Council of the Slovak Republic, RNDr. Anton Hajduk, DrSc. a rector of the University of Trnava. In the first half of September admission process started at the university. As soon as at this time started to gain its sad popularity due to an argument over the personality of the rector and thus over the whole University. This crisis peaked at the matriculation to the university. We don't want to deal with individual aspects of the whole case since we are here to prepare for our future professions in a peaceful and calm atmosphere. On this occasion, we would like to thank to all of the professional staff of the University of Trnava (UT) for their hither to work, without any financial compensation. But the blocked account of the university does not guarantee us a required quality of education. Why do we, as regular students, (within the assignment _ 18 paragraph 4, act number 172/1992 on universities) have to be involved in the action of the Ministry of Education? What are we to blame for? In connection with the case of UT representatives of the Ministry of Education start talking about the groundlessness of a "country" UT. We would like to remind that almost no university in the Central Europe has such history as UT. It was her who educated many signifigant personalities of not only of the Slovak nation. The signifigance of the university was fully appreciated after its moving to Budin, in 1777. Then it was already late. After 215 years, our university proudly clams to be a sucessor to this school and it has a full historical right to do so. The then students allowed their school to be taken from them, we will not allow it anymore. If we want to re-enter the mature democratic Europe, we can't do so without educated people. And we want to rank among them after completing our studies at UT. Woe is a nation which does not look ahead. We apppreciated the attitude of the city of Trnava which tries within the framework of its possiblities to create conditions for the activity of UT. We also like to thank the union of university students of Slovakia for its solidarity. These approaches encourage us and give us hope that in our fight for the preservation of UT, we are not alone. We demand the management of UT to present even further a maximum effort to preserve UT. We request the Ministry of Education to uplift over some reservations against UT and to contribute to a fluent educational process. We are convinced that it is in the interest of the democratic Slovakia to settle this absurd situation in a peaceful way as soon as possible. We appeal to the Minstry to make a positive step which means unblocking the bank account of UT in VUB Trnava. This will be a signal for us that the whole case of UT will be solved in the benefit of us, the students of UT. The estate of Alma Mater in Trnava is sacred for us and we will not disgrace it. We will not leave UT. We, the students of UT, residing in Trnava, do not want to be ashamed before history. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This news may be published only with "CAROLINA" designation. The subscription is free. Comments and remarks are appreciated. To subscribe to CAROLINA you have to send the e-mail message on the address LISTSERV@CSEARN.BITNET. The text of the message is: SUBSCRIBE CAR-ENG First name Last name for the english version or SUBSCRIBE CAR-CS First name Last name for the czech version. Tu delete your subscription from the list you should send the message to LISTSERV: SIGNOFF CAR-ENG or SIGNOFF CAR-CS