OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 134, 12 JULY 1996

U.S. SENATORS BACK POLISH, CZECH, HUNGARIAN NATO MEMBERSHIP. Hungary,
Poland, and the Czech Republic have made the most progress toward NATO
membership, members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said
on 10 July, Magyar Hirlap reported. They told visiting Hungarian Foreign
Ministry State Secretary Istvan Szent-Ivanyi that the three countries
could be entitled to $60 million in military aid; the Senate has yet to
approve that package. Szentivanyi also conferred with deputy Secretary
of State Strobe Talbott on NATO expansion. Talbott said Hungary's hopes
of joining NATO by 1999 are "realistic." Szent-Ivanyi said he got the
impression Slovenia could be next on the US's NATO list. -- Zsofia
Szilagyi

SLOVAK PRESIDENT CRITICIZES HUNGARIAN CALLS FOR AUTONOMY. Michal Kovac
said the declaration adopted at the recent Hungarian summit that called
for autonomy for ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring countries
"rouses mistrust" between Slovaks and Hungarians, he told Slovak TV on
11 July. He expressed particular concern over the connection made
between Hungarian minorities' identity and survival on non-Hungarian
territory with autonomy and a special legal position. He said the
development of identity is closely linked with "the development of
democracy and the safeguarding of individual rights." Also on 11 July,
Parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee chairman Dusan Slobodnik said
the declaration violates Slovakia's constitutional order, and he added
that the parliamentary Mandate and Immunity Committee will take measures
against the five ethnic Hungarian deputies from Slovakia who attended
the conference. -- Sharon Fisher

HUNGARIAN WRITER TO RECEIVE LEGION D'HONNEUR AWARD. Hungarian writer and
former dissident Gyorgy Konrad will receive the Legion d'honneur,
France's highest award for foreigners, Magyar Hirlap reported on 11
July. Konrad was nominated for the award by French President Jacques
Chirac for his work as a writer and as a promoter of French-Hungarian
cultural relations. Konrad has published four novels and two lengthy
essays in French, and several of his articles have appeared in the
French daily Le Monde. -- Zsofia Szilagyi

ROMANIAN COALITION WILL NOT BE DISMEMBERED. The Party of Social
Democracy in Romania (PDSR) and its extremist anti-Hungarian coalition
ally, the Party of Romanian National Unity (PUNR), agreed to continue
their partnership in the government coalition, Romanian media reported
on 11-12 July. In May, the PDSR had announced it intended to end the
cooperation. Observers attribute the reversal to the PUNR's electoral
success in June's local elections and to the PDSR's apprehension that it
might be left without potential allies after the general elections
scheduled for early November. The two sides agreed to draft "a non-
aggression pact" for the electoral contest. -- Michael Shafir

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Maura Griffin Solovar