RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  21 March 2000

EXTREMIST LEADER SEES POLLUTION AS AIMED AGAINST HUNGARIANS.
Istvan Csurka, chairman of the extreme-right Hungarian
Justice and Life Party, told the parliament on 20 March that
environmental pollution originating in Romania is "an
offensive war without the crack of rifles" that is aimed
against Hungarian "living space" and the extermination of the
Hungarian nation. Csurka urged military defense as well as
economic and ecological protection against further pollution.
Foreign Ministry State Secretary Zsolt Nemeth replied that
pollution cannot be prevented by either military or economic
means and noted that Hungary has taken necessary precautions
through law suits. Free Democrat parliamentary group leader
Gabor Kuncze distanced himself from Csurka's remarks "on
behalf of all democratic parliamentary forces," noting that
the cabinet had failed to do so. MSZ

COUNCIL OF EUROPE CRITICIZES 'LATENT ANTI-SEMITISM' IN
HUNGARY. In the section dealing with Hungary, the recent
report by the Commission Against Racism and Intolerance
criticizes the living conditions of Hungary's Roma population
and "latent anti-Semitism" in some media and in society. The
report says that the legal protection of Roma is ineffective
and regulations banning discrimination are insufficiently
implemented. It also says that "elements in the parliament"
use overtly nationalist slogans, including some "coded" anti-
Semitic and xenophobic statements. MSZ

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