RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  16 February 2000

HUNGARY PREPARES THREE LAWSUITS OVER CYANIDE SPILL. Prime
Minister Viktor Orban announced on 15 February that Hungary
will bring lawsuits against the Australian-Romanian joint
venture Aurul as well as against its Australian co-owner,
Esmeralda, to seek compensation for damages caused by the
company's cyanide spill into the Szamos and Tisza rivers (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," 11 and 15 February 2000). The cabinet is
"also weighing the options" of claiming compensation from the
Romanian government, Orban said. He added that an unsolved
conflict with Romania would "only harm bilateral ties." But
visiting Hungarian State Secretary Zsolt Nemeth said in
Bucharest that Hungary has not demanded Romanian
compensation. Romanian Foreign Minister Petre Roman told
reporters in Brussels that the Hungarian government reacted
"reasonably" to the spill and "did not make a political issue
of it." MSZ/MS

BALKAN COUNTRIES AGREE MEASURES AGAINST CORRUPTION.
Representatives of the governments of Albania, Bosnia,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, and Romania agreed in
Sarajevo on 15 February on a package of measures to combat
corruption. Alpo Rusi chaired the session in his capacity as
deputy to Bodo Hombach in the administration of the EU's
Balkan Stability Pact. Bosnian Deputy Defense Minister
Gvozden Bosko told the session that his country will cut
defense spending by 15 percent in 2000 and that he hopes
other Balkan countries will do likewise, Reuters reported. PM

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