news, Kosice Mayor Rudolf Schuster and former Foreign Minister
Juraj Hamzik announced on 13 February that they have founded a new
political party, called Party of Civic Understanding, TASR reported. The
party is to "support the development of civil society and promote
Slovakia's orientation toward North Atlantic structures." MS
HUNGARIAN PREMIER'S OFFICE CORRECTS FIGURE ON FOREIGN CRIME. The Prime
Minister's Office released a statement on 14 February correcting Gyula
Horn's earlier remarks that 80 percent of robberies and murders in Hungary
are committed by foreigners (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 February 1998). The
office said Budapest police chief Attila Berta had provided data suggesting
that foreigners account for 80 percent of criminals as well as for 80
percent of the victims of crimes in which weapons are involved. But
Interior Minister Gabor Kuncze said only 3.5 percent of all reported crimes
arecommitted by foreigners. In other news, hundreds of neo-Nazis staged a
rally at Buda Castle on 14 February to honor German occupying forces and
Hungarian fascists who fought Soviet troops for the control of Budapest in
1945. MSZ
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
YUGOSLAVIA UNDER PRESSURE OVER WAR CRIMINALS. Louise Arbour, the chief
prosecutor for the Hague-based war crimes tribunal, said in Brussels that
the voluntary surrender of two Bosnian Serbs to the court on 14 February
increases the pressure on Belgrade to cooperate with the tribunal, "Nasa
Borba" reported two days later. She warned that Yugoslavia will become
increasingly isolated the longer it refuses to send indicted war criminals
to The Hague. NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana, for his part, said the
international community will insist that Belgrade honor the commitments it
made in the Dayton agreement, including a pledge to cooperate with the
court.