RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE  7 October 1999

U.S. FIRST LADY IN SLOVAKIA. Hillary Rodham Clinton met with
President Rudolf Schuster and Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda
in Bratislava on 6 October, AP reported. Clinton encouraged
the government to continue to work for the improvement of the
situation of the country's national minorities. She said that
by signing an agreement with Hungary on reconstructing the
bridge linking the two countries over the River Danube, "you
are making a statement about the world Slovakia wants to be
part of." MS

HUNGARIAN PARTIES WITHDRAW FROM BY-ELECTIONS. Istvan Csurka,
chairman of the extreme-right Hungarian Justice and Life
Party (MIEP), announced on 6 October that his party is
withdrawing its candidates for the local by-elections in
Szekesfehervar and Siofok in order to benefit the "national
side." MIEP spokesman Bela Gyori said the party had not
received a request for support from the governing coalition,
but he added that MIEP supporters "will know for whom to vote
on 10 October." Prime Minister Viktor Orban, chairman of
FIDESZ, and Ibolya David, chairwoman of the Democratic Forum
(MDF), have agreed that the MDF-People's Party candidate in
Szekesfehervar will step down in order to benefit the FIDESZ-
Smallholders' candidate. MSZ

NO FOUNDATION STONE LAID AT 'RECONCILIATION PARK' IN ROMANIA.
The 6 October ceremony at which the foundation stone of the
Romanian-Hungarian reconciliation park was to have been laid
was cancelled without explanation. The same day, a Hungarian
delegation headed by Justice Minister Ibolya David attended a
Mass in memory of the 13 generals executed by Austria in
1848; later, they laid wreaths at an obelisk commemorating
the generals. The delegation was heckled by some 100 Greater
Romania Party sympathizers, who shouted obscenities and
called for the death of Reformed Bishop Laszlo Toekes, an
RFE/RL correspondent in Arad reported. Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Simona Miculescu said the ministry considers "the
manipulation of national sentiment for the purpose of
building political capital irresponsible." She said relations
between the two countries are "irreversibly good" and must
not be influenced by "fear of historical shadows or the
shadows [cast by] statues." MS

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