JANUARY 13, 1999

C O M M E N T A R Y

[ January 12 ] [ January 11 ]
[ January 8 ] [ January 7 ] [ January 6 ] [ January 5 ]

Mr. O'Brien said that most Roma asylum seekers were fleeing poverty, not persecution and stressed the need to deal with the problem in the Czech Republic. Peter Smith attended the press conference after Mike O'Brien's meeting with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan, and heard the British junior Home Office Minister stress that Britain strongly supported the Czech Republic's membership of the European Union.

The British visitor also spoke about the re-imposition of visas for Slovak citizens, triggered off by the number of asylum seekers from that country. As for Czechs visiting Britain, Mike O'Brien sees the situation differently:

Streaming RA / RA Download

Mr. O'Brien cited his visit to Brno as an example of the breakdown in Czech-Roma relations

Streaming RA / RA Download

According to Mr. O'Brien, certain public figures in the Czech Republic are only worsening the situation - in particular the Mayor of Usti nad Labem, whose plan to build a wall in the town to isolate the Roma community has made the headlines in Britain

Streaming RA / RA Download

After the press conference, Peter Smith asked Mr. O'Brien whether the whole Roma issue was threatening to severely damage British-Czech relations..

Streaming RA / RA Download

Streaming RA / RA Download

But what about the potential side-effects..

Streaming RA / RA Download

With the cheapest pill retailing at around 350 CZK, isn't the pill at little too expensive for the average Czech male. Pfizer's Business Unit Director, Martin Krispin..

Streaming RA / RA Download

On Tuesday, Zaab Setna, speaker of the British-based Iraqi National Congress (INC) told CTK News Agency that Iraq's Consul to Prague, Djabir Salim, is most probably in Great Britain seeking political asylum. An official confirmation has not been given but that's the scoop that's been going around the Iraqi community in London, he added. Although Salim is said to have been in charge of Iraqi intelligence in Prague, Mr. Setna did not find him to be a threatening figure to Saddam Hussein's government.

On the other hand, the London-based Arab paper Az-Zaman, does not consider Salim's defection to be a trivial affair. One of its editors told BBC on Tuesday that the Iraqi Consul, whose main responsibility last year entailed a campaign against Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's broadcast to Iraq, was in possession of deciphering codes, secret documents and $5000, which all belong to the Iraqi Embassy. The thirty-four year old left with his wife and nine children and needed some money to start off, he explained, and stated that it was the right moment to distance himself from the Iraqi government as he felt a decreasing popularity after the recent U.S. and British air-strikes on Baghdad. Furthermore, the paper expects Salim to have been in contact with other secret services, most probably from Germany or Britain.

Another voice of a source that wanted to remain annonymous believes that the Consul accepted an offer by the U.S. Central Intelligence Service to provide an attractive sum of money in exchange for classified information.

But the most popular speculation remains to be Salim's defection to Britain for personal reasons. The British government, however, has refused to comment on the affair.

In its main evening newsreel on Tuesday, Czech TV informed that 180 jobs are threatened and that rumours are percolating through the factory about imminent and massive lay-offs. But according to the company's management and trade unions SKODA AUTO is offering other job opportunities to those who might be sacked: "For those employees who might lose their jobs, the factory has established a councelling centre, where they can get advice from a lawyer and a sociologist, free of charge," Czech TV reported. New jobs are being created due to the natural mobility of the workforce turnover. Czechs will also be offered jobs now held by foreign workers, mainly Poles.

Spokesman Milan Smutny has described the slumping sales of Felicias as a natural phenomenon, regarding the fact that Skoda will shortly replace them by an advanced new model which however is a closely guarded secret. In spite of this, however, SKODA intends to manufacture a quarter of a million Felicias this year. Last year alone the factory produced 403 thousand cars, which was 12 percent more than in 1997. But, according to Mr. Smutny, the latest model, Skoda Octavia, sells much better. And, as Czech TV pointed out, if the sale of Felicias continues to drop, then even more people in Mlada Boleslav are expected to lose their jobs. 

Please send us your comments

RP Home / Radio Prague in English / Commentary

Radio Prague Internet Team
cr@radio.cz

Radio Prague, Vinohradska 12, 12099 Prague 2, Czech Republic
tel (+4202) 240 94 608 * fax (+4202) 242 182 39
WWW http://www.radio.cz/opinion/