RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE  22 June 1999

HUNGARY WANTS TO BE CENTER FOR BALKAN RECONSTRUCTION.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban and President Arpad Goncz,
addressing a NATO workshop in Budapest on 21 June, said
the Hungarian capital can offer its infrastructure,
geographical proximity, and regional contacts for the
international reconstruction of Kosova. Orban urged NATO
to include Vojvodina in its peace plans, as interethnic
tensions in the province could grow because of the tens
of thousands of Serbs from Kosova fleeing northward. He
stressed that the autonomy plan envisaged by Budapest
for the region provides for setting up an ethnic-
Hungarian council to provide protection for the
Hungarian minority in case of a future conflict. NATO
Secretary-General Javier Solana also said that Budapest
would be "the most suitable" center for the region's
reconstruction, Hungarian media reported. MSZ/MS

GONCZ MEETS ROMANIAN DEFENSE MINISTER. President Goncz
on 21 June told visiting Romanian Defense Minister
Victor Babiuc that Hungary supports Romania's Euro-
Atlantic integration. Babiuc said at the NATO workshop
that "the Romanian government does not believe that any
parallel can be drawn between Kosovo and the Hungarian
minority in Romania." He said the cabinet does not fear
that ethnic Hungarians in Romania will emulate the
example of the Kosovar Albanians. "The history of Kosovo
cannot be repeated in Transylvania," Babiuc concluded,
Hungarian and Romanian media reported. MSZ/MS

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