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

GERMAN PRESIDENT IN SLOVAKIA. Slovak President Rudolf
Schuster told visiting German President Johannes Rau on 16
September that his country wants "equal treatment" with
Hungary and the Czech Republic in being considered for
membership in the EU. Schuster said that Slovakia has already
atoned for "having been shown the yellow card" by the EU and
it is time now to allow her to return to where her neighbors
are. He said that Germany could play "a decisive role" in
making this possible, CTK and dpa reported. Rau, however, was
noncommittal and said that Germany will ensure that admission
talks are "fair" and that "no artificial delays" will be
allowed. MS

SLOVAK, HUNGARIAN PREMIERS SIGN AGREEMENT TO REBUILD BRIDGE.
Premier Dzurinda and his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orban,
signed an agreement on 16 September to rebuild the bridge
between the Slovak town of Sturovo and the Hungarian town of
Esztergom, TASR reported. The Danube River bridge was blown
up by the Nazis at the end of Word War II. It will be rebuilt
by 2001 at an estimated cost of $20.2 million, with the two
countries equally sharing the cost. MS

HUNGARY KNEW OF NATO INVASION PLAN. Former chief of staff
General Ferenc Vegh on 16 September told journalists that
NATO had a plan for ground intervention in Yugoslavia on 15
September if by that date the Yugoslav leadership had not
agreed to pull its forces out of Kosova, "Nepszabadsag" and
"Magyar Hirlap" reported on 17 September. Vegh said that
Prime Minister Viktor Orban was informed of the plan. One day
earlier, British Defense Secretary George Robertson, the next
NATO secretary-general, revealed that such a plan existed
under the name Bravo Minus. MS

HUNGARY SIDES WITH BULGARIA IN DISPUTE WITH ROMANIA. Defense
Minister Janos Szabo on 16 September told his visiting
Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Ananiev that he will inform his
NATO colleagues at an informal meeting in Toronto next week
on "the need to build a bridge between Vidin and Calafat" and
will "insist on their support." Bulgaria and Romania have
long disagreed on the location of a new bridge over the
Danube River, with Romania wanting the bridge to be built
further east than the Vidin-Calafat stretch favored by
Bulgaria. Szabo said that he is convinced that the passage of
NATO troops, including Hungarian troops, across Bulgaria to
Kosova would be greatly facilitated by a Vidin-Calafat
bridge, BTA reported. MS

CLUJ EXTREME NATIONALIST MAYOR DOES IT AGAIN. Police on 17
September dismantled a sign put up during the night in front
of the Hungarian general consulate in Cluj at the order of
extreme nationalist Mayor Gheorghe Funar, Romanian radio
reported. The inscription read "Seat of Hungarian espionage."
Funar said the inscription had been put up "in line with the
provisions of the law" and that it came to "draw attention to
the appointment of Laszlo Alfoldi as general consul, a person
declared persona non grata and expelled from the country in
1988." Interior Minister Constantin Dudu Ionescu ordered
police to dismantle the inscription after being warned by
Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania Executive
Secretary Csaba Takacs that a diplomatic incident was
imminent. MS

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