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[Or NATO leadership in Central-Eastern Europe. The minor question of dispossessing and eliminating some 3.5 million citizens, regardless of ethnicity, in a comparatively small nation is of no concern to the humanitarians in Brussels. The 'communist coup' so subtly alluded to by the *happening* Sorosite rag Czech Happenings is the 1948 election of Klement Gottwald as president of Czechoslakia, an election recognized worldwide as free and fair. Of course Gottwald had nothing to do with the infamous Benes Decrees, an exclusive prerogative of the free, enlightened West.] Czech Happenings April 11, 2002 Benes decrees not to affect Czech EU accession -- Verheugen � - 11.4. ���PRAGUE, April 11 (CTK) - The decrees of president Edvard Benes are a matter of the past, EU enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen told journalists. ���In a joint statement with Premier Milos Zeman he said that the post-war presidential decrees depriving Czechoslovak Germans of their citizenship and confiscating their property have no legal effect at present. ���Verheugen has thus confirmed an earlier position of the European Commission that the decrees are not part of EU accession talks and will not affect them in any way. ���He and Zeman said that 25 February 1948, the day of the communist coup, was the ultimate date for property restitutions in the Czech Republic. ���"Property restitutions are not an affair of the EU, but of the Czech Republic. We have never highlighted the issue and we are not about to do so," Verheugen said. ���The statement recognises that some of the Benes decrees do not correspond with the current standards of law and justice, but stresses that they are a matter of history. ���Zeman said it was good that European Parliament was debating the elimination of a part about the Benes decrees from its report about the Czech Republic. The report, which devotes five out of its 13 paragraphs to the decrees, speculates about their discriminatory nature. ���"I am asking all the parties involved to contribute to the creation of politics establishing good neighbourly relations in Central Europe which fully accepts the spirit of European integration seeking the elimination of the differences from the past and a better future," Verheugen said. ���He repeated several times that European integration should overcome past differences. ���Verheugen said that he wanted to contribute to the moderation of the stormy debate about the decrees, their discriminatory nature and possible legal effects which is being led not only in the Czech Republic, but also in Germany, Austria and European Parliament. ���Verheugen is scheduled to meet the Chamber of Deputies chairman Vaclav Klaus, the Senate chairman Petr Pithart, Foreign Minister Jan Kavan and Social Democrat leader Vladimir Spidla later today. � __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
