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 Charles University in Prague Faculty of Social Sciences Smetanovo nabr. 6 110 01 Prague 1 Czech Republic e-mail: CAROLINA@mbox.fsv.cuni.cz tel: (+4202) 22112252, fax: (+4202) 24810987 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* C A R O L I N A No 318, Friday, February 5, 1999. FROM THE EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK (January 27- February 3) Czech Republic Receives Official Invitation from NATO NATO General Secretary Javier Solana addressed an official letter of invitation to Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan and presented it to Czech NATO ambassador Karel Kovanda January 29. The letter states that NATO member countries have ended the ratification process for Czech membership. According to Czech President Vaclav Havel's spokesman Ladislav Spacek, the president was pleased with the news, although he had expected it. Spacek also said that the Czech Republic will be able to take part in discussions of future strategy at the NATO summit in Washington in April. Chief of the General Staff Jiri Sedivy said to the Czech daily MF DNES that he feels satisfaction because of the invitation letter. "Despite all the difficulties that the military faces, Solana's letter confirms the quality of the armed forces," he said. The Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary will become NATO members when the ratification documents are submitted, most likely March 1. Ondrej Fer/Sofia Karakeva BIS Director's Ouster a Fiasco Many questions remain about the recall of Karel Vulterin, director of the Security Information Service (BIS). The government recalled Vulterin January 27 for gravely endangering BIS. Although the government did not specify the reasons for Vulterin's recall any further, almost all media published reports that Vulterin was fired because of the case of the Iraqi consul in Prague Dzabir Salim, who at the end of 1998 fled to the West and is now in hiding in London. The government decided to remove Vulterin on the basis of a letter sent by an agent of the British intelligence service MI6. Reactions to Vulterin's removal differ. Some BIS members said Vulterin should have been recalled long ago simply because he could not do the job, but some opposition politicians have stood by him. President Vaclav Havel said he does not find persuasive enough the reasons given for Vulterin's recall. Vulterin has not made any public comment. Marketa Lajdova/Sofia Karakeva President Havel Evaluates First Year of Last Term President Vaclav Havel expressed satisfaction with his foreign policy activity during a press conference February 2 on the occasion of the first full year of his last term. Havel said he is not satisfied, however, with his ability to resolve domestic matters. "Last year I said that in the first place I would like to contribute to the improvement of the overall political climate in the country. It seems to me that in this sphere the situation has not improved, if not worsened," said Havel to Czech daily MF DNES. During the press conference Havel evaluated his relationship with the present government, a relationship he said he considers much more correct that it had been. "If some ministers are closer to me than others, I will not talk about it, because I might harm them," he said. Although Havel dislikes speaking about his personal life, he did not hesitate to answer questions about his family life. Marketa Lojdova/Sofia Karakeva NEWS IN BRIEF * By one vote Parliament rejected February 2 during the second reading a Constitutional Amendment on referendums, proposed by Zdenek Jicinsky of the Social Democrats. Although the Constitution mentions referendum, a law on its procedure has not been passed. * In a tragic accident near Stredokluky on the Kladno-Praha bus route February 2 nine people lost their lives and 27 passengers were injured, 15 seriously. The police are investigating the accident, which appears to have been caused when the bus driver inattentively ran into a truck parked on the shoulder of the road. * Minister Jaroslav Basta, in charge of Operation Clean Hands, announced February 2 that his office has filed 25 criminal complaints, although critics charge his office is investigating cases which are already being investigated. * Restitution conflicts between various faiths and the Social Democrat government heated up again this week as the Catholic Church, the Jewish Community Federation and the Ecumenical Council decided to boycott the Commission for Church-State Relations because the Social Democrats nominated a Communist to be a commission member and also said the church does not have the right to have its former property restituted because it did not have the proper legal status before 1948. Ondrej Fer, Marketa Lojdova/Sofia Karakeva, Michael Bluhm FROM SLOVAKIA Meciar's Cohorts Might Wind up in Court In the coming days the Slovak National Assembly will decide whether to remove parliamentary immunity from former Security Information Service boss Ivan Lexa and former Interior Minister Gustav Krajci, both assemblymen from the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS). The Constitutional Court is also considering whether the two have amnesty, said Interior Minister Ladislav Pittner February 2. Lexa is suspected of misusing his authority in connection with the kidnapping of the son of former President Michal Kovac. Working against Lexa is the verdict of a Vienna court that the kidnapping occurred with the support of organs of the Slovak state. Krajci is responsible for ruining a referendum called by Kovac. The referendum was on three questions concerning Slovak membership in NATO, the fourth about direct presidential election. Although the Constitutional Court ruled the fourth question was not unconstitutional, Krajci removed it from the referendum. One hope for the pair is the amnesty granted them by former Premier Vladimir Meciar during the period when he had certain presidential powers. Current Premier Mikulas Dzurinda cancelled the amnesty, but HZDS assemblymen appealed to the Constitutional Court. If their appeal is rejected, there will probably be a vote to remove the pair's immunity, and HZDS' opponents have a constitutional majority in the legislature. Ondrej Fer/Michael Bluhm SLOVAKIA IN BRIEF * The alleged killer of former Minister Jan Ducky admitted to the crime in a letter. Interior Ministry spokesman Jozef Sitar said February 1 he is 95 per cent sure the letter was written by the actual killer. The letter also said the crime was ordered by certain people. Ondrej Fer/Michael Bluhm ECONOMY Czech Crowns Falls, Czech Statistics Office Forecasts Economic Decline The Czech Statistics Office (CSU) echoed the recent pessimistic prognosis from the Finance Ministry in its report published February 2. Gross domestic product growth should decrease by 0.8 per cent, the largest decrease forecasted by any available prognosis. The CSU made public new estimates of last year's numbers which differ from estimates published in November. 1998 GDP decreased by 2.6 per cent in real terms, according to the new CSU report, while the CSU's November report estimated a 1.8-per-cent decline. "Until the second half of 1999 we can expect only negative growth," said Ivan Sujan, the political advisor of the CSU chairman, to the daily MF DNES February 3. According to him "if everything goes smoothly we'll be above zero in the year 2000." MF DNES emphasises the fact that while salaries and real wages are going to rise (by 3.6 per cent), the unemployment rate may reach a record level of 9.8 per cent by the end of 1999. The crown weakened in the middle of week as its exchange rate declined by more than 5 per cent in three days and the exchange rate to the deutschmark approached last May's low of 19.20 marks to the crown. Robin Rohrich/Milan Smid Exchange Rates at the Czech National Bank (valid February 5) ------------------------------------------------------------ 1 EUR = 37.130 CZK country currency CZK ------------------------------------------ Australia 1 AUD 21.042 Great Britain 1 GBP 53.944 Denmark 1 DKK 4.994 Japan 100 JPY 28.994 Canada 1 CAD 21.816 IMF 1 XDR 45.972 Hungary 100 HUF 14.936 Norway 1 NOK 4.296 New Zealand 1 NZD 18.095 Poland 1 PLN 8.916 Greece 100 GRD 11.568 Slovakia 100 SKK 87.533 Slovenia 100 SIT 19.767 Sweden 1 SEK 4.176 Switzerland 1 CHF 23.146 USA 1 USD 32.956 Exchange Rates of countries particpating in the euro (converted from the euro rate) country currency CZK ----------------------------------------- Germany 1 DEM 18.984 Belgium 100 BEF 92.043 Finland 1 FIM 6.245 France 1 FRF 5.660 Ireland 1 IEP 47.145 Italy 1000 ITL 19.176 Luxemburg 100 LUF 92.043 Netherlands 1 NLG 16.849 Portugal 100 PTE 18.520 Austria 1 ATS 2.698 Spain 100 ESP 22.316 CULTURE Director Frantisek Vlacil Died The Czech film world went into mourning last week. World-renowned director and honorary President of the Czech Film and Television Academy Frantisek Vlacil died at the age of 74 January 27. His film style earned Vlacil the title of the poet of Czech cinema. Vlacil's career started in the studios of animation and puppetry in Brno shortly after the Second World War. In the late 50's he moved to Prague and shot his film debut The Glass Clouds (Sklenena oblaka) in 1958. The Glass Clouds and Vlacil's second feature film, The Dove (Holubice), were given a special prize at the Venice Film Festival. Vlacil became famous thanks to his works from the second half of the 60's. Vlacil worked six years on the film Marketa Lazarova. According to a poll of critics taken recently, Marketa Lazarova is the best Czech film ever made. His next films, The Valley of the Bees (Udoli vcel) and Adelheid, are highly regarded as well. After 1968 Vlacil was forced by the Communists to stop shooting feature films, he made a few short documentary films. When he returned to feature films his works did not match the quality of his best films. Vlacil's received some satisfaction after 1989. He was the first director awarded the Czech Lion (Cesky lev) for artistic contribution to Czech film. He received another prize for his contribution to world cinematography at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 1998. Petr Kupec/Katerina Kolarova Prague Portion of Febiofest Ends with Kristian Awards The Prague part of international film festival Febiofest 99 closed with a gala ceremony in the Blanik Theater January 27. At the same time various filmmakers were awarded the Kristian from film and television critics. The winner for best feature film was Sekal Must Die (Je treba zabit Sekala) from director Vladimir Michalek, selected by the Czech Film Academy for the Oscar nomination. The second-place film was What You Catch in the Rye (Co chytnes v zite), the debut film from director Roman Vavra. Third prize went to The Bed (Postel) from director Oskar Reif. In category of documentary and journalistic films the top prize went to the document I Remember, You Remember... Do You Remember? (Vzpominam, vzpominas... vzpominate?) from Pavel Koutecky, Martin Stekly and Alena Mullerova. Among animated film the Miraculous Bell (Kouzelny zvon) was the winner. The director of this film was Aurel Klimt and the animation was drawn by Martin Velisek. Febiofest has moved from Prague to nine other cities throughout the Czech Republic and will move to Slovakia in the middle of February. Petr Kupec/Katerina Kolarova CULTURE IN BRIEF * Director Raduz Cincera died January 28 at the age of 75. Cincera was best known for his Kinoautomat at the 1967 Expo in Montreal combining elements of theater and film in a groundbreaking multimedia and interactive project. SPORTS Hockey Extraleague: Fight for Playoffs Culminates The fourth quarter of the hockey extraleague has begun. The fight for eighth place, the last spot in the playoffs, is coming to a head, while it is almost sure that last-place Jihlava will play in a tournament to determine its extraleague future. After 12 games without a win, Karlovy Vary celebrated a victory against Jihlava. It had not won since December 6, when it beat also Jihlava. Kladno looks better, it tied with reigning champion Vsetin after two scoreless draws. Goalkeeper Martin Bilek's shut out opponents for 131 minutes. Kladno then defeated Slavia, which lost its hopes for advancing to the playoffs with the injury to its captain Ruzicka. Slavia lost another key player, goalkeeper Ladislav Blazek, who was banned for 15 games because he abused a referee in a game in Trinec. Opava will also be missing its goaltender. Pavel Cagas will host for three months in Mannheim in Germany. Opava already lost its chance to make the playoffs, and Cagas had conflicts with coach Jiri Latal. Sparta is playing well, having lost once since the Christmas break and closing in on the three Moravian squads leading the standings. Sparta forward David Vyborny is dominating in the points standings. Results of the 39th round: Opava - Plzen 1-2, Litvinov - Karlovy Vary 4-0, Kladno - Vsetin 1-1, Zlin - Ceske Budejovice 3-3, Pardubice - Jihlava 3-2, Trinec - Slavia Prague 5-2, Vitkovice - Sparta Prague 1-4. Results of the 40th round: Opava - Litvinov 2-6, Zlin - Plzen 5-3, Pardubice - Vsetin 2-2, Karlovy Vary - Jihlava 6-1, Ceske Budejovice - Sparta Prague 1-4, Kladno - Slavia Prague 5-2, Trinec - Vitkovice 1-2. Standings: 1. Vsetin 57 points, 2. Zlin 54, 3. Trinec 51, 4. Sparta Prague 49, 5. Plzen 44, 6. Ceske Budejovice 40, 7. Vitkovice 40, 8. Pardubice 40, 9. Litvinov 37, 10. Slavia Prague 35, 11. Karlovy Vary 32, 12. Kladno 31, 13. Opava 29, 14. Jihlava 19. Opava and Jihlava still have one more match to play. Stepan Etrych/Mirek Langer Fourth Extraleague All-Star Game: West Smashes East 13-4 The traditional Staropramen Extraleague All-Star Game took place in Pilsen (Plzen) January 31. The game finished with the highest combined score ever as the stars of the Bohemian clubs defeated the Moravians 13-4. The East led after the first period 3-1, but then not even the great goalie Roman Cechmanek could not stop the scoring avalanche, as the middle period ended with a West advantage of 9-0. The West evened the all-time balance of All-Star games to 2-2. The skill competitions preceded the game. Jan Hlavac from Sparta Prague was the fastest skater, Vsetin goalkeeper Roman Cechmanek recorded the most saves against breakaways, Martin Richter from Karlovy Vary had the fastest shot. However, Josef Reznicek from Plzen recorded the most exciting result as he hit all four targets placed in the corners of the goal in only four attempts during the shooting accuracy competition. Stepan Etrych/Mirek Langer Korda Wins Appeal against International Tennis Federation The High Court in London ruled the International Tennis Federation has no right to appeal the decision of its own independent commission to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne and to demand a one-year ban for Czech tennis player Petr Korda. Korda lost his rankings points and prize money after the decision of the ITF's Appeals Committee on his testing positive for the forbidden substance nandrolon at last year's Wimbledon. The decision upset the sports world, which asked for harsher punishment. The ITF will appeal the High Court's ruling, the case will move to a civil appeals court in London. Stepan Etrych/Mirek Langer Only Russians Win in Figure Skating European Championships in Prague The figure-skating European Championships, which closed with the traditional parade January 31, was a triumph of the Russian team. Its members won all four competitions and got nine medals. Katerina Berankova and Otto Dlabola's seventh place among the pairs was the best Czech finish, as other skaters mostly finished around 20th place. After pair winners Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov (see Carolina 317), the other competitions were won by Alexei Yagudin (Men), Maria Butyrskaya (Women) and Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsianikov (Dancing). Petr Wilfer/Mirek Langer SPORTS IN BRIEF * Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jaromir Jagr became the fifth European player in NHL history to record more than 800 points in goals and assists. He reached the landmark in a game against Montreal January 31, when Jagr, born in Kladno, recorded four points. Jagr can move into the all-time third place among Europeans, ahead of Sweden's Tomas Sandstrom (825 points). However, he is not threatening Finland's Jarri Kurri yet. Kurri leads with 1,398 points. * Jaroslav Holik became the new coach of the Czech national under-20 hockey team. Holik is a former player and coach for Dukla Jihlava. He replaces Vladimir Martinec and Ladislav Svozil. * Two Czechs finished in the top 10 in the Elite category of the cyclocross World Championships in the High Tatras in Slovakia. Radomir Simunek finished seventh and Jiri Pospisil ninth. David Kasek finished fourth among juniors. In the team competition, the elite team finished third, the junior team took the silver. * Ladislav Rygl met with success in the nordic combined World Cup event in Chaux-Neuve, Switzerland. Tenth after the jumps, Rygl managed to take third place during the cross-country event. He is fifth in the World Cup overall standings. * Jakub Suchacek became the first Czech ski jumper to fit into the top 10 finishers in a 1999 World Cup event. He finished eighth and 10th in two races in Willingen, Germany. * The Czechs won three medals in the Winter Universiade in the High Tatras in Slovakia. The women's cross country skiing relay team (Martina Stursova, Jolana Razlova and Zuzana Kocumova) and alpine skier Tomas Kraus in the slalom won silver medals, Karolina Sedova added one bronze in the super-G. Stepan Etrych/Mirek Langer WEATHER It froze during the week and it seemed real winter weather was on the way. But February 1 it rained, later making for icy conditions on the roads. Temperatures rose from the weekend's minus 15 degrees Celsius/five degrees Fahrenheit to the February 3's seven degrees Celsius/45 degrees Fahrenheit. Do not expect any changes. It will remain flu weather and if scientists do not discover some effective medicine against the flu, soon there won't be anybody left to write Carolina. However, spring could come soon. One groundhog saw his shadow on Groundhog Day, meaning a quick end to winter, according to American tradition. I hope for all ill with the flu that the rodent was right. Ondrej Fer/Mirek Langer Czech version edited by Michael Bluhm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This news may be published only with attribution to CAROLINA. Subscription is free. Comments and remarks are appreciated. Please send them to the address: CAROLINA@mbox.fsv.cuni.cz To subscribe to CAROLINA news, send an e-mail message to the address LISTSERV@cesnet.cz The text of the message for subscription to the English version must be: SUBSCRIBE CAR-ENG First name Last name or for the Czech version SUBSCRIBE CAR-CS First name Last name To delete your subscription from the list of subscribers, send the following message to the address LISTSERV@cesnet.cz: SIGNOFF CAR-ENG or SIGNOFF CAR-CS We ask you not to send automatic replies to our list. 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