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Carolina (English) No 148
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STUDENT'S E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Faculty of Social Science of Charles University
Smetanovo nabr. 6
110 01 Prague 1
Czech Republic
e-mail: CAROLINA@cuni.cz
tel: (+42 2) 24810804, ext. 252, fax: (+42 2) 24810987
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
C A R O L I N A No 148, Friday, February 24, 1995.
EVENTS FOR THE WEEKS FEB. 8-22
Vaclav Havel Delivered a Fundamental Speech on Czech-German Relations
"Our republic will never negotiate about revision of results of the
war," said President Vaclav Havel in an address before a gathering of
Czech/German neighborhoods which started a seminar held on Friday,
February 7th, in the Charles University hall of Karolinum. Havel
initiated a new direction in Czech-German relations with this
fundamental address. He declared that the time of excuses and bill
sending in the past should be terminated on both sides, and a period of
cooperation based on the idea of civic society should begin.
The President believes both sides should drop the requirements for
war and postwar damages, except for indemnification of Czech victims of
Nazism. He pointed out that the Czech Republic was born from two
terrible wars Czechs did not take part in launching, and that Czechs are
direct inheritors of Czech statehood. Havel said the end of
Czech-German co-existence in a joint state was not caused by the postwar
removal of Sudetan Germans from the Czech borderlands, but the fact that
most Czechoslovak Germans allied themselves with Nazism. Havel described
the Germans' stance as a fatal failure, adding that they gave priority
to dictatorship, confrontation, and violence instead of democracy,
dialogue and tolerance. "If the world war was started with the attack on
Poland militarily, then politically it undoubtedly started with the
Munich diktat," said the President.
According to Vaclav Havel, a definite Czech-German reconciliation
can be reached only when both sides will decisively refuse nationalism
and build an open society.
Havel's speech welcomed by government and even opposition
representatives
Vaclav Havel's speech, Friday, was overtly welcomed by Prime
Minister Vaclav Klaus and Foreign Minister Josef Zieleniec. Klaus, who
is supposed to speak on the same topic in a week in Hamburg, said the
basic conception of the President's speech was identical with his own,
and that he liked it. Havel and Klaus acquainted each other with their
speeches on relations with Germany in advance. Minister Zieleniec, who
was also present at the gathering, declared that the president's speech
was in full accordance with the Czech foreign policy line.
There was an affirmative repercussion even by the opposition
representatives. Social Democrats' vice-chairwoman, Petra Buzkova,
considered it fundamental to express the need for separating the past
from the future. The parliament club of Left Block's chairman, Jaroslav
Ortman, and similarly the Communist leader, Miroslav Grebenicek,
commented on the speech by saying that if the President had spoken in
this way from the beginning, there would not have been so many mistakes
which occured after 1989.
In Germany Havel's Speech Unaccepted Only by Landsmannschaft
German polititians have so far issued no official statement on
Vaclav Havel's address. Most of German news media, however, agree about
the address being an honest and future-focused view of the relationship
between the two states. Disagreement was uttered only by the leader of
Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft Franz Neubauer.
"It is remarkable, and with such self-evidence, Havel expects
German indemnities to Czech victims of Nazism, and yet he simultaneously
and categorically refuses to remedy inequities in any form, not only
material inequities. He reveres human rights, but at the same time, he
insists on Benes' Decrees contradicting these rights," he said in
a statement made in Munich. This criticism was sharply contrasted by the
commentary of Germany's first TV channel, ARD, who said, "Perpetrators-
that was us - Germans. And in spite of this, we tend to forget more
easily than the victims. Not many places in Europe have surviving
victims of Nazi terror that have been forgotten and ignored as much as
in Tschechei." The Frankfurter Rundschau wrote that the Czechs give
a more fixed look to Germans than the Germans give to the Czech
Republic, agreeing with President Havel's opinion that Germany's
attitude toward their little neighbour is always an indicator of their
relation to state law and tolerance.
>From Rude pravo and Mlada fronta Dnes compiled by Jindric
h
Jirasek/Jirka Sch.
Vaclav Klaus Against Enacting Of Rector's Conference
Premiere Vaclav Klaus met representatives of Czech Rector's
Conference (CKR) on Monday, February 20. The CKR was working on a new
university law whose authorization will be discussed in Parliament in
a few months. The question about anchorage of CKR in university law
(this conference unites all 27 rectores of Czech universities) was
a markedly controversial point of Monday's meeting. While conference's
members think CKR should be enacted and so become an official partner
for various negotiations, premiere Vaclav Klaus considers its existence
a matter of academic freedom and natural rectors' authority.
The next point of session was position and competence of
accreditive committee, which permits establishing of new schools,
faculties and subjects according to lawful criterions. Klaus emphasized
establishment increases could not be permitted to thoughtless
universities because quality prevailed quantity. The other side agreed.
The introduction of school fees, discussed strongly in the media,
was dealt with insignificantly. According to Education Minister, Ivan
Pilip, it's still theoretically possible to introduce payment of school
fees in the autumn, but for practical problems it won't succeed in
finding appropriate solution. Tereza Hadravova/Martina Vojtechovska
Charge Towards Secret Service Wasn't Proved
Parliamentary commission, compounded of seven members, finished its
almost three-month-old investigation in the Safety Security Service
(SIS) case initiated by the Civic Democratic Alliance (CDA) - see
Carolina 144 and 145- on Thursday, February 16.
In a ratio of 5:2, Parliament members found there was no fact to
prove that SIS had followed the activities of political parties and that
they had not deliberately leaked out potentially incriminating political
party information. The commission took SIS director, Stanislav
Devaty's, report into account. According to this report, members of
Secret Service were not in contact with the director of Credit and
Industrial Bank, Antonin Moravec, or with Head of Marklap firm, Adolf
Klapka, at time of investigation for alledged illegal financial
dealings.
The SIS was also charged with supposed unlawful cooperation with
foreign services. From July till November 1994., BIS met without
knowledge of goverment foreign intelligence services, as a result the
charge has not been accepted by Bohumira Kopecna, the highest state
substitute.
Chairman of Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) and vice-chairman of
goverment, Jan Kalvoda, admitted that a third drop in election
preference could be connected with the BIS affair, which was caused by
ODA. Chairman of parliamentary commision organ, Vlastimil Doubrava, said
that he would continue working on a charge that Criminal Police Exchange
had developed material, according to base of BIS, where some political
parties and associations were marked as extremist (i.e. Greenpeace,
S.O.S., Animal etc.).
One member of commission, Ivan Masek, (ODA) is sure about that
commission didn not take advantage of its controlling power, and he
expressed doubts about its authority.
Tereza Hadravova/Martina Vojtechovska
A proposal was the v Lizner's accusation
On February 21, the examinor of Lizner's case, Josef Palik, did not
approve the request of Jaroslav Lizner's defendor to end the conviction.
He asked about government representatives in order to accuse the former
Head boss of the Center of cupon privatisation, Lizner, of bribe taking.
Lizner was arrested on 31.of October in 1994 in front of the Asia Club
restaurant and a short time before he took more than 8 million crowns
from the representative of Trans World International (TWI) community,
Lubos Sotona. In the restaurant, they were negotiating about the
privatisation of the Klatovska milk shop, during which time, Lizner
helped the TWI firm. Last week Lizner's defendor, Jan Linda, announced
that there was not enough evidence to back up the allegation. According
to Linda, shares were sold from the Klatovska milk shop. Lizner is
threatened by a three year sentence . About the scandal wrote Carolina
n.136,137,145 and 147. Karolina Polakova
The appeal of president's office and Castle's Board as far as the temple
of sant Vit is concerned
Against District attornity's judgement in Prague 1 of the
determination of the ownership right of Saint Vit's cathedral and of
other issues in Prague's castle, the office of the president of republic
and the Board of Prague's castle appealed on Feb 9. The District
attornity decided last year in December, that the owner of the cathedral
of sant Vit and the relevant land, is owned by the catholic metropolitan
church at sant Vit (Carolina n. 142). The cause of the president's
office and the castle's board appeal was due to suppositions about some
legal arguments in the first High court. The decision of both subjects
to appeal, was, according to the director of republic, Lubos Dobrovsky,
totally independent and was not either under the pressure of media or
under civilian initiatives. Dobrovsky announced that the president's
office is concerned about other negotiations at the High court where the
majority of suppositions should be removed.
Karolina Polakova/Eftychia Damianidou
To whom the cathedral of sant Vit in Prague's castle should belong to
The majority of people (66%) believe that the temple of saint Vit
should be state's property, according to expressed the majority (66%)
according to the Institution for the research of public opinion. Lidove
noviny, which published the results on Wednesday 22. of February, stated
this opinion was predominently expressed by people from 45 to 59 years
old, well-educated, and atheists. 1023 civilians were questioned. The
research showed 16% people blieve the temple should belong to the
church, 8% are not interested in the problem at all, 7% do not have any
opinion, and 3% answered differently. Eftychia Damianidou
How To Get Money For Political Parties?
This question expressed with only one word in the Czech Republic:
Difficulty. Political parties have had to constantly force affairs since
1989, whose main roots have been to find a system of financing parties'
often expensive bureaucracy. Three of four coalition parties have faced
financing problems in the CR since 1992 election. The Christian
Democratic Party is the on exception.
The Lidova demokracie (LD) journal discovered the problematic
gaining of money in Christian-Democratic Union-Czechoslovak Civic Party
(CDU-CCP) on February 26th, 1994. According to LD information, CDU-CCP
made a shared firm deal with Italian enterpriser, Leonell Mosca, on
September 25, 1992. The firm's supposed function was to take care of
regional press development and would have been called, Charitas. In
November the same year, CDU-CCP cancelled the cooperation due to
Mosca's unreliable behavior. However, on November 3, 1992, Mosca sent
three million crowns to the Ceska Typografie account as written in the
deal on November 3, 1992. In April 1993, chairman CDU-CCP, Josef Lux,
asked to put this money in the party's account, but failed to ask the MF
directly, a crime in the Czech Republic. During that time, Mosca was
arrested in Italy for suspicion of selling drugs. The Czech Ministry of
Finances began to investigate whether or not the CDU-CCP had committed
a crime. The investigation ended in December last year. The MF found the
Civic Party guilty, and fined them half a million crowns. CDU-CCP has
appealed.
Before the elections of 1992, the CDA (Civic Democratic Alliance)
was in debt 60 million crowns at two prominent Czech commercial banks.
The owner of KPB (Kreditni a prumzslove bank), Antonin Moravec, offered
to cancel the CDA's debt at both banks, and give them a loan of 52
million crowns, with payment due in 1996. This new deal was cancelled in
Dec, 1992 by the Marklap firm, who owned 100,000 crowns at the time of
this deal, but this amount increased dramatically to 52 million crowns.
Marklap sold this 52 million crown share to the CDA. However, this share
had been acquired illegally and Michal Macek, legal representative of
Marklap and CDA, and his friend, Jan Kalvoda were arrested in connection
with this illegal operation in Dec 1994. Coincidentally, this case was
reviewed by, Miroslav Tera, Deputy Minister of Finance for the CDA.
The biggest party - Civic Democratic Party (CDP) - has faced only
small financing problems, the least in comparison with the other
parties. The CDP Vicechairman, Petr Cermak, borrowed a Mercedes for
party purposes from the Helbig brothers car dealership. There was an
international warrant out for the Helbig brother's arrest as a result of
not paying German taxes. However, Czech police did not possess the
correct papers for arresting them, and the Helbigs disappeared. CDF's
sponsor dinner on November 30, 1994, on Prague's island Zofin, was
intended to show CDF's clean-up of money raising activities. The CDP
raised state budget funding from this dinner as a result of large,
state-owned enterpises paid attendance. These cases influenced the
acceptance of a new law regarding state owned companies. According to
the new law, accepted by government on Feb 8, 1995, state enterprises
cannot sponsor political parties in any way. Now, the only accepted form
for financing political parties is legal money from state budget. Each
registrated political party receives money from a number of places in
Parliament and then this money is transferred separately. By that, CDP
gets 32.5 million crowns for 65 MPs and a state support of 4.3 million
crowns. Ludek Stanek/Jiri Chvojka
In Czech Republic More People Die Than Are Born
For the first time since 1945, the mortality rate is higher than
the rate of birth, according to data at the Czech Statistics Office.
According to specialists, only 110 000 children were born last year,
eleven thousand less than in 1993. Mortality had been gradually dropping
in the last few years, but the mortality rate grew to 115 000 this year.
According to goverment statements, a contemporary crisis of birth rate
can become a serious problem, threatening the state economy in a few
years. Calculations of Ministry of Work and Social Security show that
there is a possibility the number of people capable of production will
decrease. Stepanka Kucerova/Martina Vojtechovska
FROM SLOVAKIA
Victor Cernomyrdin on a two- day visit of Slovakia
A Russian delegation led by the Russian prime minister, Victor
Cernomyrdin, arrived in Bratislava. The delegation included the
vice-chairman of the Russian government, Jurij Jarov, the minister for
Atomic Energy, Viktor Michajlov, the chairman of the State Committee for
the Defense Industry, Jurij Glulich, and the secretary of the Minister
of Foreign Affaires. This was the first official state visit of the
Slovak Republic since the installment of the third Meciar's cabinet.
After initial private talks, the prime ministers of Russia and
Slovakia signed numerous government treaties. Among them, were treaties
regarding open travel borders between the countries, mutual employment
of inhabitants, and cooperation in education. Two treaties regarding
entrepreneurs were signed. Their talks also dealt with the possibility
of the Slovak Republic joining NATO. During the press conference, that
was held the day after, Meciar said that "Russia regards this issue as
Slovakian internal affair." Both delegations were satisfied with the
talks. Lukas Zentel/Vera Vitkova
Peter Weiss Remains the Chairman of the Party of Democratic Left-Wing
Despite certain predictions, the third convention of the Party of
Democratic Left-Wing (SDL) re-elected, Peter Weiss, as leader of the
party. Out of 243 valid ballots, 131 were in his favor. The remaining
votes went to Lubomir Fogas, 82, and Milan Ftacnik, 30.
The party was set up after transformation of the Communist Party of
Slovakia. Weiss's leadership of this party was then criticized after
political failure in the Parliamentary elections in the end of 1994. The
critics suggested that the party enter into a govermental coalition with
Meciar.
The most important outcome of this convention is SDL's remaining
status as a party in opposition. This party aims to enter into the
Socialist International, according to Weiss. Another major goal is to
extend its attention from the parliamentary to the local level. The
party is represented by 670 mayors in different local communities.
Lubomir Fogas rejected his candidature on the post of a vice-chairman,
because he disagrees with Weiss's conception of the party's leadership.
Yet, he remains active and will continue in partisan debates.
Miroslav Langer/ Vera Vitkova
SPORT
Frantisek Chvalovsky is to lead Czech football again
The most important event happened during winter's football break
was the annual meeting of Czech-Moravian Football Union (CMFU) in
Prague. ("when" is missing!) There was not the awaited row betwwen CMFU
and opositional Clubs' Owners Union (COU). Frantisek Chvalovsky was
voted with majority as the chairman again, while COU did not nominated
their candidate (Trainer josef Masopust did not accept the COU offer).
The only edge moment was discussion about a part of the new CMFU rule,
which covers problems of enterprisers in football teams. Both parts,
CMFU and COU, agreed after separated meetings with new rule, but there
is a quotation taht the problematic point will be novelized up to the
end of 1995. there will be exceptional meeting due to this problem.
Rudolf Cernik/Jiri Chvojka
Good Feats and Silver Medal from Biathelon World Championships
The world biathelon championships finished in Italian Anterselva.
Czech men finished second and women fourth in team competitions. In solo
competition, Czech athletes placed in the second 10, due to their poor
shooting. Among women competitors, Hakova received ninth place in 7.5 km
cross country. In relay competition, men were disqualified and women
finished 12th. Ruda Cernik/Mirek Langer
Hockey Extraleague
Extraleague teams have three rounds to play before the play-offs.
Already, six teams have an definite place in the tournament. Litvinov
has a good chance to win, however, they have lost their recent matches.
Three teams are evenly matched, but the remaining teams, Pardubice and
Jihlava, have no chance to win.
39th round: Vsetin - Kladno 5:1, Slavia Prague - Plzen 3:3,
Pardubice - Sparta Prague 3:2, Litvinov - Jihlava 6:4, Olomouc - Zlin
3:0, Vitkovice - Ceske Budejovice 4:3. 40th round: Zlin - Pardubice
3:1, Ceske Budejovice - Litvinov 8:3, Plzen - Vsetin 3:1, Sparta Prague
- Slavia Prague 6:4, Jihlava - Olomouc 4:2, Kladno - Vitkovice 4:3.
41st round: Vsetin - Sparta Prague 6:1, Slavia Prague - Zlin 3:3, Plzen
- Vitkovice 4:1, Kladno - Ceske Budejovice 2:3, Olomouc - Litvinov 3:0,
Pardubice - Jihlava 5:2.
Standings: 1. Kladno 50 5. Olomouc 46 9. Vitkovice 37 2. Vsetin 50 6.
Plzen 44 10. Slavia Prague 37 3. C. Budejovice 46 7. Litvinov 40 11.
Pardubice 31 4. Zlin 46 8. Sparta Prague 37 12. Jihlava 29
Mirek Langer
UEFA President Lennart Johansson Did Not Bring Good News
Lennart Johansson, president of the European football federation
UEFA, affirmed bad news for Czech football during his short visit in the
Czech republic. Our team results from before Czechoslovakia's
disintegration will not be included to quotient for clubs entries into
the European cups. The Czech Republic is now on the same level as the
Faroen Islands, Moldova and Azerbajian. Onlz one Czech team will be
allowed to play in either the Champions league or the UEFA Cup. If
Sparta Prague, the Czech Republic's best team last season, does not win
the league, no Czech team will be allowed to start in the Champions
league. In addition, only one place remains for the Czech republic in
the changed Intercup League. Czech football federation representatives
object to these changes. The Czech football union was founded in 1901
and entered to the European federation only six years after. Mister
Johansson promised a negotiation between the Czech Republic and the
UEFA, but didn't offer much hope. Ruda Cernik/Mirek Langer
The Footbal League is About to Start
The spring season of the Czech First Football League starts this
weekend through its 16th round. During the winter break, we noticed
several new transfers. The withdrawal of the best league forward,
Obajdin, from Slovan Liberec to the German footbal team of Eintracht is
the most important change. The teams in the first half of the footbal
chart did not report any major changes on their staffs, but the teams
struggling to remain in this chart, drafted new players. In Benesov, the
last team on the chart, six new players arrived. Hradec Kralove hired
Cerny, a player who had returned from his contract in Japan. Yet, this
team , on the other hand, lost Breda because of his new contract in
Jablonec. Two foreigners, Borodin of Russia and Dvirnik of Ukraina,
anchored themselves in Bohemians Praha. The Drnovice team added, stopper
Nesicky of Cheb, Bernady of Ostrava, and forward Timko, a player
representing Slovakia, arrived. Rudolf Cernik/ Vera Vitkova
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