[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 22, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3464-S3466]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     SLOVAKIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES

 Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I rise today to call to my 
colleagues' attention human rights developments in Slovakia. These 
developments point Slovakia in the opposite direction from the road 
their neighbors have been traveling. Their neighbors accept western 
values and seek integration into western institutions, developments 
leading to individual freedom, political democracy, and economic 
prosperity in a free market system. In stark contrast, Slovakia is not 
in compliance with some important Helsinki process commitments and is 
showing signs of regression toward authoritarian, if not totalitarian 
relations between the state and its citizens.
  This country, which showed so much promise upon gaining independence 
in 1993, has failed to press ahead with vitally needed democratic 
reforms, in contrast with so many other countries in the region, 
including other newly independent countries. While the Czech Republic, 
Hungary, and Poland have worked hard to qualify for EU membership and 
NATO accession, Slovakia has lagged behind. While states like Lithuania 
and Slovenia have emerged from repressive empires to bring prosperity 
and hope to their peoples, Slovakia has not. Even Romania, which has 
struggled profoundly with the transition from totalitarianism, has 
managed to undertake significant reforms in the past few months.
  From the outset, members of the Helsinki Commission have supported 
the

[[Page S3465]]

democratic transformation in Slovakia. We believe that a strong, 
democratic Slovakia will enhance stability and security in Europe.
  Unfortunately, human rights and democratization in Slovakia have 
taken a severe beating--both literally and figuratively--in recent 
months. The hopes raised by free and fair elections and by the passage 
of a democratic constitution have been dashed
  Last month, I understand some officials in Bratislava criticized a 
congressional report on NATO enlargement and complained that the 
discussion of Slovakia's progress toward democracy was too superficial. 
Well, I will provide a little more detail for those who genuinely want 
to know what worries us here in Washington.
  Parliamentary democracy in Slovakia took a bullet in late November, 
when parliamentarian Frantisek Gaulieder, after announcing his 
resignation from the ruling coalition's Movement for a Democratic 
Slovakia, was stripped of his parliamentary mandate through 
antidemocratic means that are unheard of anywhere else in Europe. His 
removal has been protested by the European Union and the United States 
at OSCE meetings in Vienna, but, so far, to no avail.
  Even more outrageously, there was a bomb attack against Mr. 
Gaulieder's home, while he and his family were present. This is a 
tactic that reminds me of the Communists, fascists, and other similarly 
bloody and ruthless groups.
  The 1995 kidnaping of President Kovac's son is not only still 
unsolved, but the manner in which this matter has been investigated has 
fueled speculation that the government's own security forces were 
directly involved in this crime. The murder last year of Robert Remias, 
who may have had key evidence in this case, and the ineffectual 
investigation of that case has deepened these suspicions.

  Adding to this disturbing pattern, questions are already being raised 
about the official investigation of the December bomb attack on 
Frantisek Gaulieder's home: Mr. Gauliedier has reported that some of 
his testimony regarding the attack is missing from his police file, 
that the first investigator was removed after only 3 days on the case, 
and that the Slovak Minister of Interior has, shockingly, suggested 
that Mr. Gaulieder may have planted the bomb himself--the same ``he-
did-it-himself'' story that no one believes regarding the kidnaping of 
Mr. Kovac, Jr.
  I am now informed that this investigation, like the Kovac and Remias 
cases, has been ``closed for lack of evidence.'' For a country 
supposedly seriously committed through its OSCE obligations to the 
establishment of a ``rule of law'' state, this is a damagingly poor 
performance.
  In addition to these acts of violence, it has been reported that the 
President, the President's son, and members of the Constitutional Court 
have been subjected to death threats. In fact, in early December the 
Association of Slovak Judges characterized the anonymous, threatening 
letters addressed to Milan Cic, the Chair of the Slovak Constitutional 
Court, as an attack against the court as a whole and a means of 
political intimidation.
  It has also been reported that on February 24 an opposition political 
figure in Banska Bystrica, Miroslav Toman, was attacked by four 
assailants.
  We see a country where politically motivated violence is on the 
increase, where public confidence in the government's intent to provide 
security for all Slovaks has plummeted, and where acts of violence and 
threats of violence have brought into question both the rule of law and 
the very foundations of democracy.
  The ruling coalition has continued to pursue an openly hostile agenda 
toward a free and independent media and free speech in general. During 
the course of the past year, two newspapers--Slovenska Republika and 
Naroda Obroda--have seen a total of 21 editors quit over alleged 
political interference with their work. Defamation suits launched by 
public officials appear to be a common vehicle for harassing one's 
political opponents.
  Most recently, on November 19, the government barred four journalists 
from attending a regular press conference after the weekly cabinet 
meeting because the journalists were believed to be unsympathetic to 
the government. Although this decision was ultimately rescinded after a 
public outcry--including a protest from the journalists' union--it was 
further evidence of the government's relentless efforts to curb any 
reporting it doesn't like.
  In fact, in one of the more shocking episodes of the battle for free 
speech in Slovakia, it has been reported that Vladimir Meciar--the 
Prime Minister of the country and, not insignificantly, a former 
boxer--warned journalist Dusan Valko just a few weeks ago that ``I will 
punch you so that your own mother will not recognize you.'' So much for 
Mr. Meciar's tolerance for other points of view and nonviolence.

  The Slovak Government continues to pursue a minorities policy that 
would be laughable if it were not so wrong and harmful. This policy has 
included everything from banning the playing of non-Slovak national 
anthems last year to the more recent decision to bar the issuance of 
report cards in the Hungarian language, reversing long-standing 
practices. Such petty gestures are beneath the dignity of the Slovak 
people, whose heritage has survived more than a thousand years of 
foreign--and often markedly repressive--rule. The Slovak language and 
culture, now protected in an independent Slovakia, are not so weak that 
they can only flourish at the expense of others.
  More seriously, it should be noted that past repressive crackdowns on 
minorities--for example, in Cluj, Romania, and in Kosovo, Serbia--began 
by whittling away at the minority language opportunities that had 
traditionally been respected by the majority community. Accordingly, 
these seemingly small restrictions on the Hungarian minority in 
Slovakia may very well be the harbinger of more repressive tactics 
ahead.
  With this in mind, the failure of the Slovak parliament to adopt a 
comprehensive minority language law, and the recommendation of the 
Ministry of Culture that such a law is not even necessary, defy common 
sense. Current laws on minority-language use in Slovakia do not provide 
adequate or satisfactory guidance regarding the use of Hungarian for 
official purposes, as the recent report-card flap shows. Much harm can 
be done until a minority language law is passed based on a genuine 
accommodation between the majority and minority communities.
  Finally, recent reductions in government-provided cultural subsidies 
have had a disproportionately negative effect on the Hungarian 
community. The Slovak Government's defense, that all ethnic groups have 
been equally disadvantaged by these cut-backs, is unpersuasive in light 
of the Culture Minister Hudec's stated intent to ``revive'' Slovak 
culture in ethnically mixed areas and to make cultural subsidies 
reflect that goal.
  While Hungarians suffer from a more direct form of government 
intolerance, other ethnic groups suffer more indirectly. Put another 
way, it is not so much government action which threatens Romani 
communities in Slovakia, it is government inaction.
  According to the most recent State Department report on Slovakia, 
skinhead violence against Roma is a serious and growing problem; three 
Roma were murdered as a result of hate crimes last year, and others 
have been severely injured. Some Roma leaders, in response to their 
government's inability or unwillingness to protect them, have called 
for the formation of self-defense units. Obviously, the Slovak 
Government is just not doing enough to address the deadly threats they 
face.
  Moreover, the repugnant anti-Roma statements that have repeatedly 
been made by Jan Slota, a member of the ruling coalition, have fostered 
this climate of hatred. The fact that the Czech Republic, Germany, and 
other European countries also confront skinhead movements in no way 
relieves Slovakia of its responsibility to combat racism, just as 
Slovakia's skinhead problem does not relieve the other countries of 
their responsibilities.
  It is time and past time for Prime Minister Meciar to use his moral 
authority and political leadership to set Slovakia on the right course. 
He must make clear, once and for all, that Jan Slota--who also called 
the Hungarian minority ``barbarian Asiatic hordes''--is not his 
spokesman, and that the Slovak National Party's unreconstructed 
fascists do not represent the majority of the people of Slovakia.
  Mr. President, the leadership of the Helsinki Commission, including 
my co-chairman, Representative Christopher H. Smith, and ranking 
members Senator Frank Lautenberg and Representative Steny Hoyer, have 
raised our concern about developments in Slovakia with Slovak officials 
on a number of occasions. Unfortunately, all we hear from the Slovak 
leadership is one excuse after another, and all we see is a search for 
one scapegoat after another: it's the Hungarians, it's the Czechs, it's 
the Ukrainian mafia, it's the hostile international community seeking 
to destroy Slovakia's good name, it's a public relations problem 
abroad, not real problems back home--in short, there is always somebody 
else to blame besides the people that are, in fact, running the 
country.
  I don't mean to suggest that there have been no positive developments 
in Slovakia over the past 4 years. In fact, I have been especially 
heartened by the

[[Page S3466]]

emergence of a genuine civil society that is increasingly willing to 
express its views on a broad range of issues. But positive initiatives 
by the Government have been too few and too far between.
  I make this statement today in the hope that the leadership in 
Bratislava will start to make real reforms, like their colleagues in 
Romania, and begin to restore the promising future that the people of 
Slovakia deserve. Their present policies are leading down a path toward 
international isolation, increasing criticism, and economic deprivation 
for their people. One Belarus is enough.

                          ____________________