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Carolina (English) No 104
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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 104, Friday, February 4, 1994.
EVENTS OF THE LAST WEEK (JANUARY 26 - FEBRUARY 2)
Czech Politics in World- Wide Economical Forum
Premier Vaclav Klaus, Minister of Economy Karel Dyba, and Minister
of Industry and Trade Vladimir Dlouhy returned February 1 from
a six-day trip to the World Economical Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Since January 27, politicians were dealing with bilateral economical
problems.
Dlouhy said the Czech Republic was named as "country over water"
because it' s a country that has managed to lay the foundations of
a trade economy and now faces political and economical problems just
like other European country. No one questioned the pace of rising
foreign capital in the the Czech Republic, he said.
For those reasons, the admission of foreign investors in the Czech
Republic won't be accelerated or retarded, Klaus said. Klaus also spoke
about the anticipated change to full convertability of the Czech crown,
saying he doesn't want to consider this as a political question and that
many world- known specialists had advised against hurrying.
Finland's Minister Visits the Czech Republic
Finland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Heikki Haavisto, visited the
Czech Republic for two days this week.
He met with his Czech colleague Josef Zieleniec and spoke only about
mutual affairs of the countries and European matters, he said at a press
conference in Cernin Palace.
"We are trying to conclude the process of us becoming a member of
the European union (EU). I think that as a member of the EU we will be
able to work on reinforcing safety structures. On the other hand we
don't wish to become members of NATO," Haavisto said.
Because Czech-Finnish affairs are still under discussion, Prime
Minister Vaclav Klaus and Zieleniec are going to visit Haavisto in
Finland.
Delegates of the Finnish Parliament plan in the future visit the
Czech Republic.
Conflicts Roil Around Minister of Justice
The Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS) is
demanding the resignation of Justice Minister Jiri Novak. Council
representatives demanded the resignation because not enough judges have
been purged from the courts, which before 1989 sentenced political
prisoners.
VONS feels that the justice system, state agencies and prisons
haven't changed much in the past four years, representatives said,
claiming that the corruption of the former regime still casts a shadow.
But Novak sees no reason to resign, he said. He believes that
VONS's reservations regard eight judges, who were not named by the Czech
parliament until 1992. Novak said the parliamentarians' decision should
not be changed.
Of the 1,906 current judges, half never served in the former regime,
Novak said. More than three-forths of Justice Ministry employees left
their jobs following the change in regime, and 14 percent of workers
stayed at the former office of the General Director for the Commitee of
Corrections. Novak claims to have effected the same changes at the state
agency within a few days.
Many political parties joined Novak in rejecting the demands of the
council. VONS was formed in 1978 and now President Vaclav Havel was
a member. Novak's Citizens Democratic Party gave their minister full
support. Opposition communist and social democratic parties condemned
VONS's demands as being absurd.
American Bank Wants to Guarantee Loan for Temelin
The American Import-Export Bank board of directors decided January
27, to back a loan for the completion of Temelin, a nuclear power plant
under construction in southern Bohemia.
Within the month the U.S. Congress must approve the decision.
Austria, which opposes construction of the plant, requested that
Congress turn down the proposal.
Austria will again offer a proposal to reconstruct the nuclear plant
so that it runs on conventional fossil fuels.
Four Hundred Czech Crowns for a Ride on Highway
Owners of automobiles and motor vehicles could pay 400 Czech crowns
for using highways and roads in the Czech Republic.
For an automobile weighing 3.5 to 12 tons, the price will be 1,000
crowns, for a heavier vehicle, 2,000 crowns.
An owner of a vehicle using only provincial highways or roads will
not pay anything. But using a highway without authorization would be
subject to fines.
This amendment to the road law was discussed February 2 by the
governmental legislative counsel.
Jan Kalvoda, head of the government's legislative counsel, said that
according to the proposals, taxes would also apply to foreigners.
Gerd Albrecht Rejects Concert in Vatican
According to President Vaclav Havel, the rejection a concert in
Vatican for logistical reasons by the Czech Philharmonic harms the Czech
Republic and the orchestra's interest.
The Czech Filharmonie was invited to play at the Vatican on February
7, for a ceremony of mutual recognition of Israel and the Vatican and
also in honor of monuments destroyed by Holocaust.
Anti-semitic Magazine's Head Editor Sentenced
The chief editor of the anti-semitic magazine "Political Weekly"
has been sentenced to an year of prison. The Prague 1 District Court
gave Josef Tomas a conditional deferment of five years, and forbade his
publishing for three years.
The verdict was carried out in the form of a penal order, without
a full trial. According to an amendment in the penal code, this method
may be used when there is no doubt about a person's guilt. The case will
be looked into further, because Josef Tomas has appealed the penal
order.
Information about the magazine and a movement of similar intent was
carried in Carolina, issue 97.
Czech UNPROFOR Soldiers Convicted of Smuggling Military Material
The Austrian mountain police stopped three members of the Czech
contingent unit UNPROFOR on the Czech-Austrian border January 26. The
soldiers, returning from service with UN forces in the former
Yugoslavia, were originally convicted of illegally transporting six
grenades and one pistol.
According to the Czech Military Police statement, however, the
soldiers were carrying a captured Mauser gun, with 10 cartridges, one
defunct grenade, one sharp anti-aircraft cartridge, and six other sub
machine-gun cartridges. Although the soldiers claimed to be taking the
weapons and ammunition home as souvenirs, the Austrian police have not
excluded the possibility that they may have been marked for
black-market sale.
Austrian authorities used an anti-terrorist commando unit at the
border crossing Wullowitz-Dolni Dvoriste to stop two buses filled with
Czech soldiers. From the 70 on board, 67 were let through. An
Austrian-TV crew was waiting along with the police units.
This suggests a previously prepared action, said Czech Defense
Minister Antonin Baudys. Baudys criticized the handling of the Czech
soldiers were handled, saying "They aimed submachine-guns at them, and
treated them like terrorists or criminals, and that bothers me."
However, the case will not harm the very good relations between the
Czech Republic and Austria, Baudys said.
Tug of War Over Dean
When the Academic Senate of Masaryk University's Law Faculty in Brno
elected Docent Jiri Kroupa as Dean at the end of last year, they had no
idea what kind of scandal they would provoke -- nor that he would
quickly resign.
His resignation Tuesday came after demands that he testify about
possible collaboration with the secret police under the communist
regime.
Deputy Minister of Education Ivan Pilip announced in January that
Kroupa's name had been printed several times in the press on lists of
former secret police agents. Pilip warned the school administration that
the dean hadn't turned in the neccesary testimony concerning his past
activities under the Czech lustration law. The law required state
officials to obtain certificates that they were uninvolved in certain
communist and secret police activities. Pilip threatened to cut state
grants for schools.
The case got a lot of publicity, with representatives of the
Confederation of Political Prisoners claiming Kroupa's appointment was
scandalous. Kroupa refused to resign, and denied that he had worked with
the secret police.
Kroupa said he hadn't requested the lustration verification, which
could show his guilt or innocence, because he opposes the lustration
law.
Under pressure of the ministry and press, the Academic Senate voted
in a secret ballot Monday to abide by the conditions of the lustration
law, and demand Kroupa's testimony from the Ministry of the Interior.
The vote was a reversal from a week earlier, when they said they
didn't want to request the testimony. Kroupa resigned the next day.
WEATHER
This week was ruled by cold wind, rains and snow. The sun didn't
appear.
On January 28, winds reached 130Km/h, which tore out many trees.
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