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Carolina (English) No 126
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STUDENTS' E-MAIL NEWS FROM 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.cz
Fax: (+422) 24810987
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C A R O L I N A No 126, Friday, July 15, 1994.
FROM THE EVENTS OF THE LAST TWO WEEKS (July 1-13)
Czech Parliament Before Summer Holidays
The Czech Parliament spring session ended on Saturday, July 7, as
members began their summer holidays. Since February the Parliament
adopted nearly forty bills or amendments, and approved dozens of
international treaties.
Highlights of last week's sessions include:
On Thursday, July 7, the Parliament passed bills on the intelligence
services. Three intelligence services will operate within the Czech
Republic: the Security Information Service BIS (under an independent
budget and with a chairman appointed by the cabinet after consultation
with the parliamentary committee), the Office for International
Relations (organized by the Ministry of the Interior), and Military
Intelligence (organized by the Defence Ministry). In contrast with the
government proposal, the accepted bill stipulates that control of
intelligence services should be entrusted not only to the Cabinet, but
to the Parliament as well. The method of parliamentary control will be
stipulated in the new Act, which is yet to be adopted. Untill then,
intelligence services will remain under the control of the Cabinet.
On Friday, July 8, the majority of the session was devoted to the
interpellations of the Cabinet members, nevertheless the banking law
amendment was adopted. The amendment states that banks must insure all
personal deposits that are identified by the name, address and the date
of birth of the depositor. Anonymous deposits are not covered by the
amendment.
On Saturday, July 9, the parliament passed a Law on state-awarded
medals of honor. The law creates the following medals: the White Lion's
Decoration, Masaryk's Decoration, the Medal for Heroism, and the Medal
of Merit. The new honors will be awarded by the President with the Prime
Minister's approval.
On Saturday, July 9, the Parliament rejected the Annual report of
the Czech Broadcasting Council (CBC) and used this rejection as a legal
reason for repealing the Council and electing a new Council during the
same session. The CBC (formally known as the Council of the Czech
Republic for the Radio and TV Broadcasting) is an independent regulatory
body responsible for monitoring broadcasting and awarding private
licences. The nine-member Council began two years ago. The CBC was
repeatedly criticized by government coalition parties last year for its
licencing policy, despite the high level of broadcast privatization it
helped bring about during its tenure in comparison with the broadcast
privatization schemes of other post-communist countries.
Only three members of the original CBC (Mrs Tomek, Josefik, Hanus)
retained their membership. The new members of CBC are: M. Hakenova, J.
Kabat (former Minister of Culture), J. Musil, J. Novotny and P.
Stepanek. A ninth Council member is still to be elected.
Exiles To Be Permitted To Participate in Restitution
The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic abolished the
provision in the Restitution Act that limits the application of the Act
only to persons with permanent residence in the former Czechoslovakia.
This permits Czech nationals who had been permanently living abroad to
file claims for property seized after 1948. The Court was reacting to
a recent complaint submitted by 53 members of parliament, asking that
preconditions of restitution claiments domicile be abolished from the
Act.
The new ruling will be effective as of November 1, providing no
parliament amendments are made to the Act. No new restitution claims
from people who had permanent residence in the Czech Republic but did
not apply for their seized property by the original deadline will be
accepted. If the restitution claims of the new applicants are denied,
they may take legal action for return of the property untill the end of
October 1995.
Several members of the cabinet have criticized the Court decision,
claiming that the Court exceeded its competence. The daily MF Dnes
published the opinion of Minister of Justice Jiri Novak, who declared
that the Constitutional Court can abolish only the Acts or only the
provisions of Acts which are not in accordance with the Constitution or
with international treaties binding the Czech Republic. According to him
the restitution claims deadline laid down in the Act does not belong in
such a case. "In any case it is not possible to accept the consideration
that the Constitutional Court could change the factual decision of the
parliament," said Vaclav Klaus in connection with the decision.
Iraqi Foreign Minister in Prague
Iraqi Foreign Minister Muhammad Sahhaff arrived in Prague on Monday,
July 4, despite intense domestic and foreign criticism of the visit. On
Tuesday he met with Czech Foreign Minister Zieleniec and signed an
agreement about the barter exchange of Czech and Iraqi goods with Czech
Minister Vladimir Dlouhy. This agreement lays the framework for the
liquidation of Iraqi debt (about a half billion US dollars), which can
begin only after UN sanctions against Iraq are abolished.
President Vaclav Havel publicly stated that he was not informed in
advance about the preparation and goals of the visit.
Twelfth All-Sokol-Meeting in Prague
After 46 years, Prague was again host to the All-Sokol-Meeting,
a more than a century-old sport and patriotic organization that was
abolished under the communist government. Twenty-three thousand Sokol
members participated in gymnastic and marching performances at Strahov
stadium on July 5 and 6, with President Havel in attendance on the 6th.
The weekly Respekt in its editorial said that the course of this
event was characterized by decent modesty rather than by any kind of
pathos. It became clear that the organizers did not intend to step back
into the same stream from which the original organization flowed, nor
did they want to make a dramatic symbolic point following the
organizations long absence.
After 1945 more than one million people in Czechoslovakia - 12
percent of the population had taken part in the activities of the
Sokol's sport organization.
Film Festival in Karlovy Vary
The 29th Karlovy Vary Film Festival was held from July 1 through 9,
supported for the first time solely by private contributors. The 40
million Czech crown budget was met without any state subsidies, although
the Ministry of Culture provided nonmonetary support.
The eight-member International Jury chaired by American producer
Branko Lustig awarded the main prize - the Crystal Globe - to the
Spanish film My Native Brother, directed by Marianno Baroso. Among the
Festival guests were L. Zafranovic, J. Schlesinger, P. Noiret, and Max
von Sydow. The closing ceremony was attended by president Havel and
prime minister Klaus.
Sponsors believe that the Film Festival in Karlovy Vary should be
organized on an annual basis again. Untill now, the event has been held
every second year, alternating with the Film Festival in Moscow.
News Briefs
The price of cigarettes rose 2 to 3 Czech crowns per package since
July 1.
According to a July 5 White House statement, president Clinton
agreed to transfer the operations of RFE (Radio Free Europe) and Radio
Liberty from Munich to Prague.
Josef Zelieniec attended the meeting of ten East and Central
European foreign ministers with US president Clinton in Warsaw on July
7.
The remains of Jarmila Novotna, the famous singer who died in New
York on February 9, were buried in the family crypt in Litni near Beroun
on July 8.
On July 8 the District court of Prague 5 acquitted Miroslav Gabriel,
the publisher of an anti-Jewish fake document The Protocols of the Zion
Sages, from the Penal Code suit, because the Court was not able to prove
an intention of antisemitism. Mr Gabriel's activities were thus
considered only as entrepreneurial publishing. The verdict is being
appealed.
On July 12-13 Egyptian president Mubarak had a two-day visit to
Prague where he met with President Havel and Prime Minister Klaus.
According to the Central Statistics Office, more than half of the
pregnancies in the Prague metropolitan area end in abortion.
The return of the Bojnice Altar to Slovakia in exchange for ten
Slovak gothic religious paintings once owned by the Czech National
Gallery and now in Bratislava may not occur by the August deadline
following Czech Minister of Culture Pavel Tigrid's opposition to placing
the paintings on permanent loan in the Slovak National Gallery.
President Havel will spend the summer holiday in Slovenia, partly at
the seaside partly in the mountains. Prime Minister Klaus stated that he
will depart for "the absolutely hidden Austrian village, where not only
the fax but even the hotel is nonexistent" and will spend the second
week of his summer holiday at his country house in South Bohemia.
Slovak crowns are in short supply at the Czech banks; vacationers to
Slovakia may purchase Slovak currency only in a few banks in Prague and
Brno. Allegedly, the big banks are recommending that tourists exchange
Czech currency in Slovakia, since dealing with Slovak currency is not
profitable for the banks.
The soccer team Dukla Praha now ceases to exist after the end of the
1993-94 extra league season, when it finished in the very last place
among the competitors.
EXCHANGE RATES OF THE CZECH NATIONAL BANK (valid from July 12)
CHECKS CASH
country Buy Sell Middle Buy Sell
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Australia 1 AUD 20.335 20.539 20.437 19.37 21.51
Belgium 100 BEF 86.788 87.660 87.224 84.52 89.92
Great Britain 1 GBP 43.310 43.746 43.528 42.11 44.95
Denmark 1 DKK 4.554 4.600 4.577 4.38 4.78
Finland 1 FIM 5.407 5.461 5.434 4.93 5.93
France 1 FRF 5.215 5.267 5.241 5.04 5.44
Ireland 1 IEP 42.820 43.250 43.035 41.04 45.04
Italy 1000 ITL 17.978 18.158 18.068 17.30 18.84
Japan 100 JPY 28.403 28.689 28.546 27.25 29.85
Canada 1 CAD 20.011 20.213 20.112 19.22 21.00
Luxemburg 100 LUF 86.788 87.660 87.224 84.22 90.22
Netherlands 1 NLG 15.978 16.138 16.058 15.58 16.54
Norway 1 NOK 4.081 4.123 4.102 3.95 4.25
New Zealand 1 NZD 16.812 16.980 16.896 16.15 17.65
Portugal 100 PTE 17.392 17.566 17.479 16.30 18.66
Austria 1 ATS 2.548 2.574 2.561 2.50 2.62
Greece 100 GRD 11.851 11.971 11.911 11.20 12.62
Germany 1 DEM 17.921 18.101 18.011 17.55 18.47
Spain 100 ESP 21.644 21.862 21.753 20.75 22.75
Sweden 1 SEK 3.606 3.642 3.624 3.46 3.78
Switzerland 1 CHF 21.253 21.467 21.360 20.86 21.86
USA 1 USD 27.852 28.132 27.992 27.29 28.69
EC-ECU 1 XEU 34.188 34.532 34.360 -- --
IMF-SDR 1 XDR 40.534 40.942 40.738 -- --
Slovakia 1 XCU -- -- 34.360 -- --
WEATHER
After a brief period of cooler weather July 7-9, the heat wave returned
to the country. The daily temperatures are exceeding 30 degrees
centigrade throughout the Czech Republic. Good news for students and
their summer holiday. Bad news for the pedagogue who has had to produce
the Carolina issue alone, with the help of the Czech daily and weekly
press only.
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