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 STUDENTS' E-MAIL NEWS FROM THE CZECH REPUBLIC School of Social Sciences of Charles University Smetanovo nabr. 6 110 01 Prague 1 Czech Republic E-mail address: carolina@n.fsv.cuni.cs Fax: (+422) 231-7391 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* C A R O L I N A No 82, Tuesday, July 13, 1993. FROM LAST WEEK'S EVENTS (July 6 - 12) CZECH PARLIAMENT PASSED A LAW ON ANTI-COMMUNIST RESISTANCE MOVEMENT On July 9, the House of Deputies of the Czech Parliament passed a bill declaring the Communist regime unlawful. During the vote, as the deputies stood up one at a time and announced their decision, the adoption was supported by 129 deputies from ODS (Civic Democratic Party), KDS (Christian Democratic Party), ODA (Civic Democratic Alliance), KDU-CSL (Christian Democratic Union / Czech People's Party), CSSD (The Czechoslovak Social Democracy), HSD-SMS (Moravian party), LSU (Liberal Socialist Union), LSNS (Liberal Socialist National Party), and SPR-RSC (Republicans); opposed were 34 deputies from the Left Bloc; three deputies abstained. Four deputies from HSD-SMS, although present, did not take part in voting, and 30 deputies were absent. The adoption was preceded by an all-day debate during which the Communist deputies and members of the Left Bloc denounced the bill, and others approved it or presented amendments. The preamble of the bill states that the Parliament, aware of its duty to settle matters concerning the former Communist regime, recognizes that KSC, the ruling Communist party, its leadership and membership are responsible for the form of the government during 1948-1989, especially for the programmatic destruction of the traditional values of European civilization, for deliberate violations of human rights and freedoms, for moral and economical decay accompanied by judicial crimes and terrorizing those of different opinions, by replacing a functioning market economy with command economy, by abuse of child care, education, science and culture to political and ideological ends, for reckless destruction of nature. The Parliament declares that it will make this law a starting point for all its future activities. Communist deputies announced that they would ask the Constitutional Court of CR for an opinion on this law. The law has yet to be signed by President Vaclav Havel. SLOVAK CURRENCY DEVALUED Starting July 10, Slovak crown is devalued by ten percent against freely convertible currencies. This was the decision of the National Bank of Slovakia. Its press spokesperson stated that the bank was guided by macroeconomic indicators and by a recommendation from the International Monetary Fund. The devaluation also refers to clearing ECU, used in mutual Czech - Slovak trade since this February. For goods priced at 100 Czech crowns, a Slovak importer will pay 113 Slovak crowns. Before devaluation, it used to be about 102 Slovak crowns. According to the Czech Finance Minister Ivan Kocarnik, the drop in the exchange rate of the Slovak crown will make the marketing of Czech goods in Slovakia more difficult. The International Monetary Fund is of the opinion that the devaluation should be twice as high. The exchange rates of the Slovak crown before and after the devaluation, and the rates of Kc relative to selected currencies are as follows (median value, as of July 12, 1993): currency before devaluation after Czech crown British pound 44.326 49.071 44.309 French franc 5.137 5.669 5.119 Austrian schilling 2.473 2.741 2.475 German mark 17.412 19.255 17.391 Swiss franc 19.620 21.637 19.538 US dollar 29.626 33.062 29.852 NEW CHIEF OF THE GOVERNMENT OFFICE OF CR After the recall of Jiri Kovar (ODS), the likely appointee for the post of the Chief of the Government Office of CR is Minister Igor Nemec. Vaclav Klaus confirmed on Thursday, July 8, that Nemec is a "hot candidate", and at the same time, his release from the post of the Minister of Audit is not under consideration. The appointment will be on the agenda of the July 14 government session. CZECH - SLOVAK BOUNDARY The joint Czech - Slovak demarcation committee, which held a session on July 9, 1993 in Prague, did not reach a conclusion in four out of sixteen cases of proposed boundary changes. They are: a train station Vrbovce, a settlement Kasarne in the Javorniky Mountains, a settlement Sidonia and the Morava riverbed, which has shifted in comparison with an already defined boundary from 1939. PASSPORTS OF CZECH REPUBLIC On its July 9th session, the House of Deputies has passed a bill on the designation of travel documents and on the reduction of validity period after the breakup of Czechoslovakia. Travel documents will be designated with the new name of the state and with the state symbol of the Czech Republic. Also, the law shortens the validity of passports issued after June 30, 1990, to four years from the issue date. A travel document that is not duly designated by December 31, 1994, loses its validity. RICHTER IN RUDOLFINUM A piano recital of the world famous pianist Sviatoslav Richter took place on Saturday, July 10, in the Dvorak Hall of the Rudolfinum as an extraordinary action of the Endowment of the Prague Spring Festival. For a full house, Richter played from sheet music, to the light of a small lamp, compositions of Edvard Grieg. He said that darkness is conducive to concentration, and that music comes to the audience pure and directly. The efforts of virtuosos to play by heart is, to his opinion, "unnecessary toil and vanity". WEATHER This summer is remarkable for vast temperature differences. Since the beginning of July, a drop of temperature from almost 30 degrees Celsius to 8 degrees within a 24 hour time span has been recorded twice. For your vacation trips, you are advised to pack in not only swimming suits but also sweaters, windbreakers, a raincoat or an umbrella. Translation: Slavek Kovarik ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This news may be published only with "CAROLINA" designation. The subscription is free. Comments and remarks are appreciated. Send them please to the address: carolina@n.fsv.cuni.cs To subscribe to CAROLINA you send an e-mail message to 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. To delete your subscription from the list you send the following message to LISTSERV@CSEARN.BITNET: SIGNOFF CAR-ENG or SIGNOFF CAR-CS Please, don't send automatic replies to our list. You can suspend receiving of Carolina by sending the command: SET CAR-ENG NOMAIL The command should be sent to the address LISTSERV@CSEARN.BITNET