RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  8 February 2000

HUNGARY PLANS TO SUE ROMANIA OVER CYANIDE SPILL. Romanian
Ambassador to Hungary Petru Cordos was summoned to the
Foreign Ministry on 7 February and told that Hungary intends
to seek compensation for the leakage of cyanide into the
Szamos and Tisza Rivers. Large quantities of cyanide from a
Romanian mine leaked into the Szamos River last week, and
Hungary's second-largest river, the Tisza, was subsequently
polluted, too. The 120,000 residents of Hungary's
southeastern town of Szolnok have been instructed to stock up
on bottled water since the source of their water supplies is
the Tisza River. A Romanian Environment Ministry official
said earlier that a bilateral environmental protection
agreement obliges the two countries to exchange information
and aid but not to provide compensation. MSZ

HUNGARIAN OPPOSITION ATTACKS AUSTRIA POLICY. Istvan Szent-
Ivanyi, Free Democrat chairman of the parliament's Foreign
Affairs Committee, told the parliament on 7 February that the
formation of the new Austrian cabinet was greeted with
"unprecedented grumbling and fear" in the EU and that it is
regrettable that Prime Minister Viktor Orban "did not share
those concerns, but only expressed his surprise." In other
news, Jeno Fonay, president of the Federation of Political
Prisoners in Hungary, has sent a letter of congratulations to
Austria's Joerg Haider for "implementing democracy soberly
and thoughtfully," Hungarian media report. MSZ

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