Daily newspapers surveyed (in alphabetical order): Cesky denik, Lidova demokracie, Lidove noviny, Mlada fronta Dnes, Prace, Rude pravo, Svobodne slovo, Telegraf.

CESKY DENIK (right-wing) informs that the members of "Professional Commandos", a private security agency now under investigation for brutal beatings of football fans, have actually been trained by a Mr.Sestak, a former officer of the StB (Communist Secret Police), who had taken part in the infamous beating of students on Nov.17,1989 (which started the 1989 revolution).

In an editorial called "A Messiah and his University", CD continues its attacks on U.S. philanthropist George Soros, whose CEU (Central European University) is - as it seems - viewed unfavorably by the right-wing press chiefly for its connection with former Premier Pithart. "There is no reason at all, why we should - at a time of economic transformation - support Messianic projects of Mr.Soros, prepared together with Petr Pithart, who also teaches at the CEU." (JJ: our right-wing journalists evidently believe that having lost an election, Pithart - a former Chartist - should vanish altogether. Ironically, the current campaign against Soros is reminiscent of the anti-Soros tirades in the Communist press before the revolution, when Soros supported Czechoslovak dissidents.) CD also comments ironically on the "harmonic cohabitation between intellectual Havel and Messiah Soros".

A comic strip in today's CD presents a fairy-tale about Havel who lost his identity and can't find it. He is told that it was a dragon called "mindless Western civilization" which stole it; the dragon's heads are heads of Vaclav Klaus. Havel defeats the dragon with the help of Sartre and Trotsky, and the dragon changes into his identity - into Jiri Dienstbier, leader of the liberal OH.

(JJ: I comment on this comic strip for the reason that so far we have seen similar cartoons only in Slovak nationalist press.)

LIDOVE NOVINY (liberal) criticize the fact that Chairman of Parliament M.Uhde announced he would make public the names of deputies violating customs rules, only to say a week later that no names will be published. Similarly, Interior Minister Ruml first granted exceptions from traffic rules to 50 political figures, and then withdrew them due to public criticism; Prime Minister Klaus denies that his party was discussing the replacement of a Minister, yet a TV shot from the corridot shows him asking his deputy whether he leaked the news of the Minister's dimissal and whether he told it to his wife; a day later, the Minister is dismissed. "Such behavior does not increase the stability of either the Government or of Parliament," comment LN.

LN also bring a two-page report on the fate of Russians, who emigrated to democratic Czechoslovakia after the Bolshevik Revolution. After the Soviet liberation (or rather "liberation") from Nazis in 1945, the Soviet Secret Police abducted hundreds of these CZECHOSLOVAK CITIZENS of Russian origin to concentration camps in Siberia, where they died; many were murdered directly in Prague by the "liberators". The Czechoslovak Government - already servile to Stalin - failed to protest.

Czech Foreign Minister Zieleniec, who is starting a tour of Asian states including China, is quoted as saying "We shall not be silent about human rights - and not only in China".

MLADA FRONTA DNES (centrist, independent) brings on the first page the case of Michael McAuliffe, an Australian citizen executed in Malaysia for alleged drug trafficking (he was arrested 8 years ago).

PRACE (trade-union). Headline: Klaus Accuses the West of Protectionism. Speaking on an international conference in Switzerland, Premier Klaus challenged the West to "give an clear signal of liberalization" on its next summit in Copenhagen.

RUDE PRAVO (left-wing, ex-Communist) publishes an interview with Jiri Dienstbier, one of the leading dissidents of the Seventies and Eighties, who was Vaclav Havel's first Minister of Foreign Affairs and is now leader of the liberally oriented OH (Civic Movement). "I believe the type of party politics, which was created in the 19th century and deformed by totalitarian ideologies in the 2Oth, is simply over," says Dienstbier. "And we should not return to the 20's or 50's, we should not build a system like the one which has just collapsed in Italy...I was wrong in one thing - in my belief that after Communisms people will not tolerate authoritarian methods. Communism, however, infected us with a need for a black-and-white vision, which leads to what I call right-wing Bolshevism." Dienstbier vows to continue - despite all hardships - in his quest for "modern liberal politics".

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By CTK News Agency:

U.S. WANTS TO BE FRIENDS WITH ALL NATIONS - CARTER

PRAGUE, June 18 (ÇTK) - Former U.S. President James Carter

said today he believed that the majority of the people in

Central and Eastern European countries want the U.S. troops to

remain on the European continent.

Speaking to journalists after his meeting today with Czech

President Václav Havel at which human rights were discussed,

Carter voiced hope that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

(NATO) would in future welcome among its members the Czech

Republic and other central European countries, and possibly also

the republics of the former Soviet Union.

During his visit to Slovakia, Carter expressed support for

the ruling Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), with

which, he said, the U.S. Democratic Party had established

contact. Carter also stressed that he did not want to

distinguish between the Czechs and Slovaks. We want to be

friends with all nations which have embarked on the path towards

freedom and a market economy, Carter said.

He said he did not meet with representatives of any

political parties in Prague because his visit here would last

only 24 hours.

vv/dr/rl