RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 188, 29 September 1998

OFFICIALS FROM MECIAR'S PARTY MEET PROSPECTIVE COALITION
PARTNERS. Parliamentary speaker Ivan Gasparovic on 28
September said after a meeting of representatives of Vladimir
Meciar's Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) with
officials from the Slovak National Party (SNS) that although
the election outcome was "a failure" for the HZDS, the party
remains the largest in the parliament and "that is not
insignificant." Gasparovic said the HZDS is interested in
negotiations "with all parties that show the same interest,"
RFE/RL's Bratislava bureau reported. Before the meeting, SNS
leader Jan Slota said his party will "respect a stable
coalition" formed by opposition leader Dzurinda, but he added
that such a government must exclude the Hungarian Coalition,
which he called "a threat to Slovak statehood." Meanwhile,
representatives of the opposition parties met again on 28
September and repeated their intention to seal an agreement
leading to the formation of a new government, AP reported. MS

HUNGARIAN POLICE REMOVE KOSOVA REFUGEES FROM CANADIAN
EMBASSY. Police have removed more than 30 Kosova Albanians
from the grounds of the Canadian Embassy in Budapest,
Hungarian media reported on 29 September. The refugees were
demanding political asylum. Canadian diplomats asked police
to negotiate a settlement but later authorized the refugees'
forcible eviction after the talks failed. The refugees, 19 of
whom are children, put up no resistance when riot police
placed them into a bus and returned them to a refugee camp in
Bicske, some 40 kilometers west of Budapest. Some members of
the group had submitted  asylum requests three months ago and
wanted to pressure the Canadian authorities to process their
applications. MSZ

ROMANIAN PRESIDENT REACTS TO 'FEDERALIZATION' INCIDENT...
Emil Constantinescu on 28 September asked the cabinet to file
an official complaint with the Austrian government about  the
demand made last week by an Austrian citizen of Hungarian
descent  for Romania's federalization. He said that he will
also write to his Austrian counterpart about the incident.
Eva Maria Barki had told a Hungarian forum in Transylvania
that the problems of Romania's ethnic Hungarians can be
solved only if Romania is federalized. Constantinescu said
the declaration infringed on Article 30 of the constitution,
which forbids "territorial separatism and incitement to
public violence." Barki was declared "persona non grata" by
the government of Nicolae Vacaroiu in 1994, but that status
expired three years later. MS

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