OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 169, 30 August 1996

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        Note to readers: The OMRI Daily Digest will not appear
                 on 2 September 1996, a U.S. holiday
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ROMANIAN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH POLITICAL LEADERS TO DISCUSS TREATY WITH
HUNGARY. President Ion Iliescu on 29 August met with leaders of all
parliamentary parties to discuss the Romanian-Hungarian basic treaty,
Romanian and Western media reported. The treaty is due to be signed next
month. Most politicians expressed support for the treaty, but
nationalist and neo-communist leaders reiterated their criticism of the
document, which they perceive as a threat to Romania's territorial
integrity. Gheorghe Funar, leader of the chauvinistic Party of Romanian
National Unity, repeated his remark that the treaty is "an act of
national treason." Adrian Paunescu, first deputy chairman of the
Socialist Labor Party, described it as a "capitulation" to Hungarian and
Western pressure. Bela Marko, chairman of the Hungarian Democratic
Federation of Romania, noted that the treaty was offering less than
Romania's ethnic Hungarians had expected. -- Dan Ionescu

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Jan Cleave