RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  17 August 1999

BALTIC DEFENSE COLLEGE OPENS. The Baltic Defense
College, located in Tartu, Estonia, opened its doors on
16 August. A total of 32 cadets from the three Baltic
States, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, and the U.S.
make up the initial student body. The curriculum meets
NATO standards, and most instructors are from NATO
member states. The three Baltic States are sharing
maintenance costs, while material assistance is supplied
by Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great
Britain, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden,
Switzerland, and the U.S. MH

HUNGARY DENIES JAMMING YUGOSLAV BROADCASTS. In a
statement to "Magyar Hirlap" published on 17 August,
the Foreign Ministry denied the Yugoslav claim that
broadcasts on Serbian radio and television are being
jammed in Hungary and Croatia. The statement added
that the ministry has received no official complaint
from Yugoslavia (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 August
1999). MS

ROMANIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY SENDS 'MESSAGE TO
TRANSYLVANIA.' Democratic Party leader Petre Roman
revealed in Targu Mures on 16 August his party's
"Message to Transylvania," RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau
reported. Roman said that his party does not want the
Romanian majority to "merely coexist" with the Hungarian
minority because "coexistence [means] separate
development." The Democrats, Roman said, want the region
to build on its historical traditions and spearhead
cooperation among all Romanians on the country's
progress toward integration into European structures.
Addressing the region's Hungarian ethnic minority, Roman
said "we respect and back your fidelity toward your
national cultural values and we expect to receive from
you a political pledge of fidelity toward the Romanian
national unitary state." MS

ROMANIAN OPPOSITION LEADER PROTESTS FRENCH-SWISS TV
PRODUCTION. Party of Social Democracy in Romania leader
Ion Iliescu, in an open letter addressed to Romanian
political leaders and journalists, demanded that a
protest be launched against the French television
channel TV 5's showing of what he called "a profoundly
anti-Romanian" movie, Romanian media report. The movie,
which was aired on 12-13 August, depicts the ordeals of
an ethnic Hungarian who returns to Romania after 1989
and finds out that his brother has been killed by the
Ceausescu secret police. Iliescu said that the film is
based on "falsehood and myth, ignorance of historical
reality [and] fabricated lies." A spokesman for the
channel told AFP that the movie was "fiction, which by
definition cannot be guided by the same criteria of
objectivity as a report." MS

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               Copyright (c) 1999 RFE/RL, Inc.
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RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE  18 August 1999

AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY FACULTY FOR SLOVAK HUNGARIANS?
Deputy Prime Minister Pal Csaky, who is in charge of
minority issues in the Slovak cabinet, told the
Hungarian daily "Magyar Hirlap" on 17 August that he
is proposing the establishment of an autonomous
Hungarian-language university department for the
country's 600,000-strong ethnic Hungarian minority. He
also said the Education Ministry has asked him to
outline his ideas for training primary-school teachers
and pastors for the country's ethnic Hungarian
community. MS

SLOVAK HUNGARIAN PARTY WARNS AGAINST REFERENDUM ON
LANGUAGE LAW. Also on 17 August, Csaky warned that if
President Schuster decides to call a referendum on the
law on minority-language use in contacts with the
authorities, Slovakia's "international credibility"
will "suffer again," SITA reported. Csaky, who is
deputy chairman of the Hungarian Coalition Party, said
the referendum would contravene those provisions of
the constitution prohibiting plebiscites on human
rights issues as well as infringe international
conventions. Two out of three teams of experts have
advised Schuster not to call the plebiscite. The
opposition Movement for a Democratic Slovakia warned
that if he does not call such a vote, it will launch a
petition in favor of early elections. MS

OPPOSITION CRITICIZES HUNGARIAN FAR RIGHT. Balint
Magyar, chairman of the opposition Free Democratic
Party, warned on 17 August that the 20 August
demonstration planned by the Justice and Life Party
(MIEP) will endanger ethnic Hungarians living beyond
the country's borders and harm Hungary's external
relations. The demonstrators intend to express support
for annexing a part of Vojvodina to Hungary. MIEP
chairman Istvan Csurka said that ethnic Hungarians in
Vojvodina cannot wait for democratic changes in
Yugoslavia. He added that the area that MIEP wants
annexed is "small even in Vojvodina terms" and that
MIEP will continue its campaign to "show that the
borders established in Trianon are no longer binding."
MS

HUNGARIAN OFFICIAL ON RELATIONS WITH MAGYARS ABROAD.
Foreign Ministry State Secretary Zsolt Nemeth said in
Debrecen on 16 August that a "key concern" of
Budapest's foreign policy is to help Hungarians living
abroad improve their situation and remain where they
are. Nemeth noted that a Permanent Council of
Hungarians was set up in February for this purpose and
helped Vojvodina's Hungarians draft a blueprint for
their demand for autonomy. MS

HUNGARIAN PROSECUTOR-GENERAL ORDERS INQUIRY INTO ANTI-
SEMITIC PUBLICATION. The Prosecutor-General's Office
on 17 August launched an investigation into the recent
publication of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion,"
saying the book serves as a "propaganda tool inciting
hatred against Jews," "Magyar Hirlap" reported (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," 11 and 16 August 1999). The
Federation of Jewish Religious Communities and the
Association of Hungarian Book Publishers and
Distributors welcomed the announcement. MS

ROMANIA'S HUNGARIAN CHURCH TO SET UP PRIVATE
UNIVERSITY. Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania
honorary chairman Bishop Laszlo Tokes, addressing a
forum of the Ady Endre Academy in Debrecen, Hungary,
on 16 August, said that a Hungarian-language high
school in Oradea will be transformed in September into
a private ecclesiastic university for the Hungarian
minority, Romanian Radio reported the next day. Tokes
said that in 2000 the new university, to be called the
Partium Christian University, will set up branches "in
all of Transylvania." MS

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               Copyright (c) 1999 RFE/RL, Inc.
                     All rights reserved.
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