NOTICE TO READERS:
The Daily Digest will not appear on Monday, 1 May 1995, a Czech national
holdiay.

OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 84, 28 April 1995

HUNGARIAN DEFENSE MINISTER IN WARSAW. Gyorgy Keleti, on the first day of
an official visit to Poland, met with his Polish counterpart, Zbigniew
Okonski, on 27 April, Polish and international media report. Keleti said
that Hungary and Poland would cooperate to "examine the problems and
conditions for joining NATO" with the goal of gaining entry within
several years. -- Jakub Karpinski, OMRI, Inc.

CONTINUED CONTROVERSY OVER SLOVAK-HUNGARIAN TREATY. Democratic Union
Deputy Chairman Ludovit Cernak, at a press conference on 27 April, said
his party will probably not support the ratification of the Hungarian-
Slovak treaty because it is "disadvantageous" for Slovakia and because
it grants minorities collective rights. Slovak Premier Vladimir Meciar
said ratification of the treaty might be postponed owing to the negative
stand of his coalition partner, the Slovak National Party, Narodna
obroda reported. He commented that his party will try to get the SNP to
change its mind. Meanwhile, the Slovak Ministry of Education called
meeting of ethnic Hungarian educators in Komarno on 22 April a
"destabilizing" step. It said the protesters' criticism of plans to
implement bilingual education in Hungarian schools is "demagogic,"
Slovak media reported on 27 and 28 April. -- Sharon Fisher, OMRI, Inc.

HUNGARIAN PRIVATIZATION OFFICIAL RESIGNS. The Hungarian government on 27
April announced it had accepted the resignation of Istvan Farkas,
commissioner in charge of state bank sales, Hungarian media and Reuters
reported. A government spokesman told journalists that the cabinet
relieved Farkas at his own request. His resignation came, however, just
as Hungary unveiled plans to speed up the floundering sales of state
property. The government is to abolish the post of commissioner. Selling
off the state-owned banks will become the task of a new privatization
authority that Hungary plans to set up in May. The new body will combine
the various agencies now involved in the sale of public property. --
Jiri Pehe, OMRI, Inc.

UPDATE ON ROMANIAN RESPONSE TO STRASBOURG DECISION. A government
spokesman on 27 April said that Romania was closely watching the debates
in Strasbourg in order to formulate its own official stance after the
Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly voted to make Recommendation
1201 mandatory for all council members, Radio Bucharest reported.
Chamber of Deputies Chairman Adrian Nastase admitted that the issue has
been "somewhat dramatized." But he added that Article 11 of the
recommendation, dealing with autonomy based on ethnic criteria, was
"unacceptable" to Romania. Bela Marko, Chairman of the Hungarian
Democratic Federation of Romania, expressed satisfaction with the
assembly's decision. He also said statements made the previous day by
Romanian President Ion Iliescu and his spokesman, Traian Chebeleu (see
OMRI Daily Digest, 27 April 1995) were "shocking." Iliescu, in a
statement released on 27 April, said documents adopted by the assembly
were neither mandatory nor expected to be ratified by individual member
states. -- Dan Ionescu, OMRI, Inc.

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Jan Cleave

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A tovabbterjesztest a New York-i szekhelyu Magyar Emberi Jogok
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Friday, 28 April 1995
Volume 2, Issue 82

REGIONAL NEWS
-------------

**NO PROGRESS ON HUNGARIAN-ROMANIAN MINORITY RIGHTS DEBATE**
  A leader of Romania's ruling party said a treaty between
  Bucharest and Budapest over ethnic Hungarians in Romania must
  stop short of giving them autonomy, because that would split
  Romania along ethnic lines.  Adrian Nastase, parliamentary
  speaker and leader of the governing Party of Social Democracy,
  said yesterday that Bucharest would resist pressure from the
  European Union to grant broad rights of autonomy to its 1.5
  million ethnic Hungarians. Nastase is widely seen as a future
  president of Romania.  European Parliament members have put
  pressure on Hungary and Romania to agree to a Council of
  Europe recommendation on minority rights in their basic
  treaty, which has been under negotiation for some time.  The
  recommendation calls for the creation of autonomous
  administrative structures for ethnic minorities as long as
  they conform to domestic legislation.  Nastase has said
  Romania and Hungary need decentralization and greater local
  autonomy, which he claims have nothing to do with ethnic
  autonomy.  Hungarian and Romanian negotiators met in Budapest
  earlier this week for a fresh round of talks on their basic
  treaty, apparently without being able to break the impasse.

**ILLEGAL IRANIANS NABBED ON ROMANIAN BORDER**
  Romanian police said they've arrested 21 Iranians, including 13
  children at the border with Hungary.  Romanian authorities said
  the Iranians were detained yesterday after they tried to enter
  Hungary on false Israeli passports.  Police spokesman Nicolae
  Bucur said the adults in the group, detained by border police
  at Bors in northwestern Romania have been charged with forgery
  and assuming false identities.  Bucur said the Iranians bought
  the Israeli passports in Turkey for $500 each.  If convicted
  they could face up to three years in jail.  A spokesman for
  the Iranian embassy in Bucharest said it had no knowledge of
  the case.  --Lewis McVey

  

BUSINESS NEWS
-------------

**HUNGARY STREAMLINES BUREACRACY**
  The Hungarian government announced yesterday it had accepted
  the resignation of its commissioner in charge of state bank
  sales, adding that a new privatization body would take over
  the banks' sell-off.  Bank Privatization Commissioner Istvan
  Farkas's departure comes at a time when Hungary is just
  preparing to speed up the floundering sales of state property.
  According to government spokesman Elemer Csak, the cabinet
  relieved Farkas from his post at Farkas's own request.  The
  government won't replace him because his position will cease
  to exist.  Instead, selling the state-owned banks will be the
  job of the new privatization super-authority Hungary plans to
  set up next month. 
    

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#+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
#|    A Magyar Nemzeti Bank hivatalos deviza- es valutaarfolyamai     |
#|      Official exchange rates of the Hungarian National Bank        |
#|    Az adatok tajekoztato jelleguek, felelosseget nem vallalok.     |
#| Az esetleges hibakert elnezest kerek. Velemenyeket es javitasokat  |
#|                       szivesen fogadok.                            |
#|     FYI, no responsibility. Opinions, corrections are welcome.     |
#+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
#|     vetel/BUY  eladas/SELL |  A kereskedelmi bankok arfolyamsavjai |
#| USD  113-117     119-125   |       Rates of commercial banks       |
#| DEM   82-85       86-91    |                 (HUF)                 |
#+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
#
# VALUTA; KOZEP; VETEL; ELADAS; EGYSEG; MEGJEGYZES
# TYPE;   MEAN;  BUY;   SELL;   UNIT;   REMARKS
DATE=1995-APR-28
UNIT=HUF
SOURCE='NAPI Gazdasag, 1995-APR-29, p.11'
GBP;  195.82;  193.95;  197.43;    1;  angol font (skot es eszakir is)
AUD;   88.50;   87.55;   89.15;    1;  ausztral dollar
BEF;  427.88;  424.47;  431.39;  100;  belga (es luxemburgi) frank(100)(!!)
DKK;   22.29;   22.18;   22.54;    1;  dan korona
FIM;   28.48;   28.27;   28.73;    1;  finn marka
FRF;   24.76;   24.62;   25.04;    1;  francia frank
GRD;    0.00;   53.45;   54.37;  100;  gorog drachma(100) (kozepar nincs)
NLG;   78.14;   77.93;   79.19;    1;  holland forint                  (!!)
IEP;  198.37;  196.74;  200.20;    1;  ir font
JPY;  143.93;  143.66;  145.86;  100;  japan jen(100)
CAD;   88.84;   88.01;   89.59;    1;  kanadai dollar
KWD;  414.30;  410.54;  417.78;    1;  kuvaiti dinar
DEM;   87.82;   87.30;   88.72;    1;  nemet marka                     (!!)
NOK;   19.51;   19.37;   19.69;    1;  norveg korona
ITL;   71.84;   70.66;   72.06; 1000;  olasz lira(1000)
ATS;   12.48;   12.41;   12.61;    1;  osztrak schilling               (!!)
PTE;   82.92;   82.37;   83.77;  100;  portugal escudo(100)
ESP;   98.70;   97.55;   99.27;  100;  spanyol peseta(100)
CHF;  106.46;  105.90;  107.60;    1;  svajci frank                    (!!)
SEK;   16.70;   16.56;   16.86;    1;  sved korona
USD;  121.10;  119.99;  122.13;    1;  USA-dollar
XEU;  161.29;  159.95;  162.67;    1;  European Currency Unit (ECU)