RFE/RL NEWSLINE 
Vol. 1, No. 85, 31 July 1997


HUNGARIAN ENVIRONMENTALISTS APPEAL TO PREMIER. Nineteen
environmentalist groups concerned with the outcome of the
Gabcikovo dam trial at the International Court of Justice in The
Hague on 30 July wrote to Prime Minister Gyula Horn, asking him not
to make a separate deal with his Slovak counterpart, Vladimir
Meciar, at their meeting scheduled for 15 August, Hungarian media
reported. The letter says that Hungary's aspirations toward European
integration justify the "consistent pursuit" of the lawsuit at the
International Court of Justice. Since State Secretary Janos Nemcsok's
appointment as commissioner for Danube matters, suspicion has been
growing that the two countries' leaders are preparing an agreement
behind the scenes. Gyoergy Szenasi, Hungary's legal representative in
The Hague, said he was not aware of any such deals.

SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

UNFOLDING SAGA OF HUNGARIAN FLAG IN CLUJ. Gheorghe Funar,
the nationalist Cluj mayor, on 30 July again ordered the Hungarian
national flag hoisted at Budapest's Cluj consulate to be taken down.
The same day, he went to the consulate at a head of a team that
included the three persons who recently stole the flag (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," 28 July 1997). The deputy head of the local police ordered
the group to leave. The mayor claimed that the hoisted flag was not
that of Hungary but one that bore the Hungarian symbols of
Transylvania. That allegation was denied by the Hungarian consul in
Cluj, RFE/RL's correspondent there reported.


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