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Carolina (English) No 106
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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 106, Friday, February 18, 1994.
EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK (February 9 - 16)
Committee on Foreign Affairs to Discuss Bosnia Position
The coalition is set to discuss the situation in Bosnia-Hercegovina
in an attempt to develop a uniform position among Czech leaders.
While President Vaclav Havel has been clear in his support for the
NATO position, Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus had this to say on Thursday:
"The way out must take into account the internal situation, because
international intervention into this type of civil war, with
non-existing fronts and unambiguously positioned forces, with the
uncertainity of where the mortar came from where, any kind of global
intervention, furthermore, from the air and not the ground, threatens
far greater massacres and catastrophes."
Foreign Minister Josef Zieleniec said he believes that with the
question of NATO intervention in Bosnia, the Czech Republic should lean
towards the proposals of alliances to which it wants to belong,
presumably meaning NATO, since the Czechs have expressed a strong desire
to join the Western alliance.
Parliament rejected a proposal February 16 that it discuss the the
situation in Bosnia.
Parliament Approves New Laws
Several new laws were approved this week in Parliament, including
a law on arms exports.
The government-proposed measure makes it possible to market military
material, with the exception of weapons of mass destruction. The
government plans to develop a list of exportable weapons.
However, dealers will still need to demand a license or permit
before each sale. Under an agreement with the foreign, defense and
interior departments, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will be
dispensing the licenses. According to the new regulations, former agents
and collaborators with the secret police cannot obtain licenses.
Dealers who break the new law can lose their licence to export
military material, and be fined up to 30 million crowns. Those tempted
to use their administrative positions to make illegal export possible
will face prison sentences of up to 10 years.
In other action, Parliament approved a law raising the minimum
retirement payments. The increase will be from 100 to 2,040 crowns
a month for single retirees, and from 300 to 3,520 crowns for couples.
Unemployment on the Rise
The number of jobless people registering at work offices in the
Czech Republic grew by 13,600 from December to the end of January.
Unemployment has grown from 3.52 percent at the end of 1993 to 3.78
percent, the highest rate since February 1992.
In regions like Bruntalsko in northern Moravia, or Znojemsko in
southern Moravia, unemployment is already 9 percent. As a result,
economics ministers commissioned the Ministry of Economics and the
Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to work up proposals within two
weeks on how the state can aid the most severely affected regions in
finding a solution to their job situation.
Meanwhile, the ministers expressed satisfaction that from the
beginning of 1992, the number of small firms with up to 24 employees,
have grown from 39,000 to 150,000.
Criticism Laws to Remain
The government February 9 rejected President Vaclav Havel's proposal
to revoke laws allowing for punishment of those who criticize the
president, state symbols or the government.
This case was reported in Carolina, issues 95 and 96.
The Slovak government wants to eliminate both paragraphs to be in
agreement with the Slovak Helsinki Committee and Amnesty Interntional.
North Bohemian Village Libkovice Struggles to Stay on the Map
Four families now live where more than 200 once did, the last of
those who have refused to leave their village as it is slowly eaten away
by the brown coal mines of Bohemia. Those families, and other one-time
residents of Libkovice, are now in the eighth year of their fight to
preserve their 12th Century village.
In 1987, the Czechoslovak communist government decided that
Libkovice, in northern Bohemia, would be sacrificed to coal-mining
interests. Dozens of other villages in the area of Most had already been
surrendered to the ever-growing search for coal.
The Hlubina Mines concern purchased most of the buildings in the
village, and on the basis of a building demolishion order from the
regional division of the national committee in Most, started demolition
in 1990.
But not all of the villagers wanted to put up with forced, though
compensated, relocation. First they protested by letter to President
Gustav Husak, and after the 1989 revolution to President Vaclav Havel.
In 1992, the ecological movements Greenpeace and Duha added their
voices to the debate. Together with village Mayor Stanislav Brichacek
and those who refused to leave or sought to return, they founded The
Libkovice Renewal Society to publicize their fight.
Though young activists succeeded in attracting public attention by
defending buildings with their own bodies, the demolition firm went on
working. Hlubina Mines, owner of most of the buildings, said there was
no way to preserve Libkovice because the surroundings of the village had
been deeply undermined, damaging buildings. But the claim was challenged
by the firm Stavebni Geologie in its study.
"Eventual soil decline cannot lead to serious damage of the houses
if the mining stops in front of Libkovice," reported the Concrete and
Brick Construction Institution of the Technical University in Brno.
Minister of Industry and Trade Vladimir Dlouhy called for an end to
demolition in February 1993. Hlubina's director, Zdenek Struzka, reacted
on television saying the mines would disregard the ministry opinion.
While Struzka was dismissed a few days later, his successor Ladislav
Funiok favors quick demolition.
From May 1993, demolition of the houses continued under the approval
of Jiri Kicl, mayor of Marianske Radcice, which Libkovice became a part
of that January.
During the passive defence of the buildings, activists were
assaulted several times by workmen of demolition firm, they said, and
two of them, Petr Vozak and Jan Pinos, were injured.
Five citizens of Libkovice have entered a lawsuit against Hlubina.
Libkovice Renewal Society member, Petr Pakosta, said the court should
reverse the actions of the government and Dlouhy, who now maintains
there is no way to save the village.
But the state firm Diamo offered to Hlubina a method that enables
preserving undermined villages, a method that has already been used in
Bohemia. A group of Prague residents, meanwhile, offered to pay for the
project.
Nowadays there are four families left and from original 228 family
houses and less than twenty of the original 33 block of flats. Last
November 22, the demolishing firm, assisted by a security agency with
dogs, destroyed another 25 buildings.
But within a week the regional prosecution office in Most found the
decision of the previous regional committee in 1990 concerning the
destruction of buildings not owned by Hlubina was illegal. The regional
prosecutor in Most, Bedrich Koubek, appealed the three-year-old
decision.
The Duha movement, which initiated the appeal, asked that until
a decision on the appeal by the Ministry of Economy there should be no
demolition in Libkovice.
The fate of Libkovice provoked young artists to produce an unusual
photography exhibition, now showing in the center of Prague on Narodni
Street under the name "Libkovice - Conscience of the North."
"Last Temptation" Scandalizes Religious Circles
The Secretary of the Czech Bishops Conference has protested the
showing of America-director Martin Scorcese's film "The Last Temptation
Of Christ," which aired February 9 on Czech TV.
In a letter to Czech TV, the secretary wrote that the plot is
historically untrue and offends the religious feelings of believers.
Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus said he does not expect a reaction to
the film reminiscent of that to Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses."
"We are not in Iran and I do not have the feeling we would follow
their methods", Klaus was quoted as saying.
FROM SLOVAKIA
Political Crisis In Slovakia
Slovakia's political crisis prompted Prague's Mlada Fronta Dnes to
cover itself Wednesday with the headlines, "Meciar loses support of the
president," and "Michal Kovac recommends changing Premier."
The turmoil was touched off by the formation within Prime Minister
Vladimir Meciar's Movement For A Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) of the
splinter-group Alternative for Political Realism.
The Alertnative critisized the ruling strategy and favors creating
a broad goverment coalition without the current rulers.
Alternative for Political Realism consists of about a dozen members
of parliament, including Vice-Premier Roman Kovac and Foreign Minister
Josef Moravcik. On Saturday, they were expelled from HZDS.
The expulsions were criticized by Slovak President Michal Kovac, who
belonged to HZDS until becoming president. He also said HZDS needs to
clarify its political orientation, even if that means creating factions.
The rebels Roman Kovac and Josef Moravcik were ejected from the
meeting of the goverment by Meciar on Tuesday, but the pair said they
would resign only after the decision of the president and that they are
ready to go on working for the goverment.
HZDS wants to resolve the situation of a minority goverment (in
Parliament it has about 65 supporters to the opposition's 85) by calling
elections this June. That proposal was rejected by Parliament on
Tuesday, and the opposition's proposal has yet to be considered.
The opposition Left Democratic Party Chairman Peter Weiss suggested
a November date to give enough time to develop an alternative program.
Frantisek Miklosko, previous chairman of Slovak National Chamber and
now an MP for the Christian Democratic Party, called on Wednesday for
Meciar's government to resign. He said the government, for a year and
a half in the minority, is not able to agree with anybody and it is in
permanent conflict with the President.
If the Parliament approves the November date of elections, Meciar
said he will force a June election by organizing a petition drive, which
if it obtained 350,000 signitures would require an election. Collection
of signatures could start February 21.
WEATHER
Temperatures dropped during the last week to minus 15 degrees
Celsius, and remained below zero by day.
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