OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 19, 28 January 1997

ESTONIAN PRIME MINISTER ADDRESSES COUNCIL OF EUROPE. Tiit Vahi told the
Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg on 27 January
that Estonia's future lies in a fully integrated Europe, ETA reported.
He added that he hoped the council will decide later this month to stop
monitoring Estonia. If it does, Estonia will become the second country
in Eastern Europe, after Hungary, where CE monitoring has been scrapped.
Vahi said one of his government's priorities is to help all permanent
residents, especially the Russian-speaking community, to integrate fully
into Estonian society. He also pledged to submit today the Geneva
Convention on Refugees for ratification. -- Saulius Girnius

HUNGARIAN JEWS DISAPPOINTED ABOUT SWISS LIST OF DORMANT ACCOUNT
HOLDERS.
Hungarian Jewish leaders have said that a Swiss list of 33 wartime bank
account holders is only a fraction of what they believe could be the
total number of accounts that belonged to Hungarian holocaust victims,
Reuters reported. Switzerland on 27 January handed over to Hungary the
list of accounts that were declared ownerless after World War II.
Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs commented that it is not easy to identify
the legitimate owners of the accounts because the list gives only names,
many of which are followed by a question mark. Peter Feldmajer,
president of the Hungarian Jewish Communities estimates that there could
be several thousand dormant account holders. He added that they will
search for the inheritors of the accounts and that the rest of the money
will go into a foundation soon to be established to administer
compensation to Jews. -- Zsofia Szilagyi

ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ANNOUNCES NEW FOREIGN-POLICY PRIORITIES.
Foreign Minister Adrian Severin told Reuters on 28 January that, in
order to boost its chances of early admission into NATO, Romania has put
improved ties with Ukraine at the top of its foreign-policy agenda and
is also seeking a new partnership with Hungary and Poland. Severin, who
is due to meet today with visiting British Foreign Secretary Malcolm
Rifkind, said a "strategic partnership" with Poland and Hungary must be
implemented very quickly, noting that it signaled "a different tune in
our foreign policy." He added that Romania has a "strategic interest in
the consolidation of Ukraine's independence and statehood." Romania and
Ukraine resumed talks over a basic treaty earlier this month, but
differences remain over Bucharest's insistence that the treaty mention
the unjustness of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. As a result of that
agreement, Romania lost territory now incorporated into Ukraine and
Moldova. -- Zsolt Mato
[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Jan Cleave