HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------[NATO member Hungary is picking up where Hitler left off, fighting for the "rights" of minorities in the former Czechoslovakia: "Hungarians...see themselves as economically more advanced than their fellow ex-communist neighbours and hanker culturally for the past glories of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Analysts say the long-term UPSHOT of the row may be that Hungary, the most advanced of the membership candidates, gradually leans away from its eastern, SLAV COHORTS and develops closer ties with Austria, Germany and Italy. Both Austria and Germany agreed RELUCTANTLY to uphold the post-war settlement, despite wanting the Benes decrees annulled, by signing cooperation pacts after Czechoslovakia split into two states in 1993. But on Monday AUSTRIA LEAPT INTO THE ROW when Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said there was a suspicion the old decrees still had a discriminatory effect today..."This is an historic opportunity to join forces with the AGGRIEVED (POST-WAR) PARTIES, AUSTRIA AND GERMANY, and GET THE CZECHS AND SLOVAKS TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND SEE IF THEIR LEGACY IS EU-COMPATIBLE"...ORBAN, roundly condemned by his neighbours and by the Socialist opposition at home, already FEELS VINDICATED that the European Parliament has asked a panel to look into the decrees."]
ANALYSIS-Row over old laws points to E.European realignment
By Ian Geoghegan
BUDAPEST, March 15 (Reuters) - Instead of buddying up as they push to join the EU together, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have fallen out over laws passed half a century ago that expelled ethnic Germans and Hungarians from Czechoslovakia.
The upsurge in nationalist rhetoric reeking of bygone wars and empires coincides with elections across the region -- but could also presage a realignment of allegiances within an expanded European Union.
Eastern European countries are supposed to be helping, not hindering, each other's EU candidacies. But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, with a canny eye on an election in April, angered his neighbours last month by saying the post-war Benes decrees in what was then Czechoslovakia violated EU norms.
The decrees, issued by the exiled president Edvard Benes in 1945, expelled 2.5 million ethnic Germans or "Sudeten Germans" in retaliation for Nazi annexation of Czech territory in 1938.
Tens of thousands of ethnic Hungarians were also stripped of their Czechoslovak citizenship and property. Many more were forcibly moved from what is now Slovakia -- a separate state since 1993 -- to work on Czech land, a move aimed at weakening the Hungarian minority in Slovakia.
Not surprisingly, the issue still rankles.
"We're talking about an awful lot of warm bodies and disrupted lives," said Rudolf Tokes, political analyst at Global Research, a Budapest-based think-tank.
CULTURAL DIVIDE
For Orban, the issue can be guaranteed to appeal to many Hungarians who see themselves as economically more advanced than their fellow ex-communist neighbours and hanker culturally for the past glories of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Analysts say the long-term upshot of the row may be that Hungary, the most advanced of the membership candidates, gradually leans away from its eastern, Slav cohorts and develops closer ties with Austria, Germany and Italy.
Both Austria and Germany agreed reluctantly to uphold the post-war settlement, despite wanting the Benes decrees annulled, by signing cooperation pacts after Czechoslovakia split into two states in 1993.
But on Monday Austria leapt into the row when Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said there was a suspicion the old decrees still had a discriminatory effect today.
"The timing could be campaign-related, but Orban has a pretty clear sense of Hungarian national interests," said Tokes.
"This is an historic opportunity to join forces with the aggrieved (post-war) parties, Austria and Germany, and get the Czechs and Slovaks to look in a mirror and see if their legacy is EU-compatible."
GERMANY
Germany, too, may find itself being drawn in.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder cancelled a planned trip to Prague that threatened to be dominated by the Benes row.
His conservative challenger in elections in September is Edmund Stoiber, premier of Bavaria, where many of those expelled from Czechoslovakia settled after the war.
Meanwhile the Czech and Slovak leaders reacted to Orban's stance by boycotting a regional summit to discuss EU negotiating tactics, denting prospects for cooperation in the tricky entry negotiations.
Prague insists it will never abolish the expropiations and expulsions, which are still part of the Czech legal code.
The ruling social democrats, themselves facing elections in June, are aware of concern among Czechs that annulling the Benes decrees might unleash a flood of foreign -- notably German -- demands for compensation or the return of confiscated property.
And Slovakia was already irked by a new Hungarian law giving ethnic Hungarians abroad access to welfare benefits in Hungary -- a law which has stirred ethnic divisions in the Slovak parliament.
The EU itself says the Benes decrees are "defunct," and EU enlargement chief Guenter Verheugen has urged that entry talks should not be burdened by these "relics from the past."
But Orban, roundly condemned by his neighbours and by the Socialist opposition at home, already feels vindicated that the European Parliament has asked a panel to look into the decrees.
-- If you're interested in more on Hungary's elections, please visit http:/www.reuters.hu/election
07:31 03-15-02
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