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Havel on Czech-German Relations
President Havel has made his first major comment since his
post-surgery complications last week. The topic, Czech-German
relations. Olga Szantova reports.
Vaclav Havel's standpoint was made public by the head of the
press department of the president's office, Martin Krafl.
The president of the Republic, Vaclav Havel is convinced that the
current exchange of views on Czech-German relations does not
reflect their real state, Martin Krafl said. The situation is much
better, than it would seem, says Havel, citing cooperation in the
sphere of European integration, security policy, economic
contacts, educational programs, youth exchanges and the Czech-
German Future Fund. Other politicians have also commented on
German Chancellor Kohl's latest remarks accusing the Czech premier
of interfering in German elections. Those are due on September
27th and Helmut Kohl is seeking a fifth term after 16 years in
office. The Sudeten Germans, 3 million of them were expelled from
the border regions of Czechoslovakia after the Second World War,
are an important part of the electorate. Under the circumstances,
any remarks coming from the Czech Republic will meet with
supersensitive reaction on the German side. Premier Zeman has made
some rather unfortunate remarks lately and the deputy chairman of
the opposition Christian Democratic Party, Jan Kasal says that the
Czech premier should think three times before he jumps. Czech
foreign minister Jan Kavan has stated he believed tensions between
the two countries would ease as soon as the German elections are
over and his German counterpart Klaus Kinkel says that most
important of all are steps towards good neighbourly relations for
the future.
Hunger Strike
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan said on Thursday that he does
not intend to comment on the hunger strike being held by Professor
Julius Tomin in protest at his ministerial appointment. Pauline
Newman has more.
Julius Tomin, a professor of Philosophy living in England, went on
hunger strike on Thursday. A former dissident and signatory of
Charter 77, he decided to go ahead with this protest on the basis
of the latest findings of the British Broadcasting Board looking
into the truth of a documentary film made in the eighties, which
touched on Kavans' activities. The Board decided that current Czech
Foreign Minister Jan Kavan lied in court when testifying against a
journalist who made the film about the delivery of dissident
literature to Czechoslovakia. Kavan's recent appointment by Social
Democrat Premier Milos Zeman as Foreign Minister has been quite
controversial, Professor Tomin's hunger strike is the latest in a
series of objections from home and abroad.
Kavan himself has denied allegations that he lied before the court,
saying: "My foreign partners, including many British politicians
know the truth. This means that they know what happened and
another hunger strike by Mr Tomin is not going to change anyone's
mind".
At the beginning of the eighties, the BBC showed a documentary
film, claiming that Kavan who was at the time living in England,was
in charge of transporting dissident literature to czechoslovakia.
What made the film so controversial, was that it alleged that the
parcel of literature contained the names and addresses of many
dissidents living in England at the time. What this implied was
that Kavan was collaborating with the former Czechoslovak Secret
police, working as an informer.
Kavan lodged a complaint with the British Broadcasting Board, whose
findings at the time were in Kavan's favour. However, in 1992, the
Board reversed its decision, saying that he had given misleading
evidence. Kavan said on Thursday that he had at the time, witheld
evidence in court in order to protect the dissidents, who were
harrassed by the police, but not actually arrested.
The journalist who had been originally found guilty of distorting
the truth, in his hunt for sensationalism, was later cleared. He
said to Czech Television: "Kavan accused me of lying and then lied
himself. All along, he was only defending his own interests."
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