SURVEY OF CZECH PRESS by Jan Jarab

Daily newspapers surveyed: Cesky denik, Lidova demokracie, Lidove noviny, Mlada fronta dnes, Prace, Rude pravo, Svobodne slovo, Telegraf.

LIDOVA DEMOKRACIE (Catholic): Headline: Slovakia Has Agreed with Controls for Foreigners. The Slovak Government has approved an amendment, according to which citizens of third countries will be allowed to pass the Czecho-Slovak border only through official crossings, where they will be controlled by customs officers. The rest, the so-called "green border" between both countries, will not be guarded.

Another article concerns yesterday's announcement of Greenpeace activist Dave Batker (USA) that the loan for the construction of the nuclear power plant in Temelin, which the CEZ (Czech Energy Production) hopes to receive from the American Bank for Export and Import, will never be approved by the U.S. Congress. Batker says that Congress will recognize that U.S. taxpayers can hardly afford to support such a project in a country which could reduce its current energy consumption by 50% simply through rationalizing its use. CEZ spokesmen, however, expressed their firm conviction that the U.S.Congress will accept their project.

MLADA FRONTA DNES (centrist, independent) says that there are documents proving the presence of a toxic gas, sarin, in the measurements done by Czech and Slovak soldiers in the Persian Gulf War. The number of soldiers suffering from health problems after the war amounts to five, says MFD; it hasn't been proved so far whether these problems actually occurred in connection with the war and exposure to poison gasses.

In a large article devoted to the problems of the medical profession, MFD informs that highly qualified doctors in the Czech Republic work for 38 crowns (1.2 dollars) per hour, and that with overtime night services etc. their income is around 6500 crowns per month (i.e., 220 dollars) - an amount for which no automobile repairworker would lift a finger. In fact, many surgical operating rooms are closed not for a lack of doctors, but for a lack of cleaners and other low-qualified personnel, because the hospitals are unable to pay these people as much as they would get elsewhere, writes MFD.

RUDE PRAVO (left-wing) writes that former Communist leader Jiri Svoboda, who was injured by a would-be assassin in December 1992, claims that the mask of his assailant was different from the one produced by the police, which was allegedly found on the spot. Petr Wohlmuth, a young anarchist, is accused of the crime and awaiting trial. Wohlmuth and other anarchists claim that the indirect evidence produced against him (lie-detector tests, identification of the mask) have been fabricated.

SURVEY OF SLOVAK PRESS by ÇTK News Agency

BRATISLAVA, July 28 (ÇTK) - The newspaper +Slovenský Denník+

today focuses on the performance of the Slovak National Party

(SNS) in the coalition discussions with the Movement for a

Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), and remarks that its steps ressemble

those of a drunk. The daily, close to the opposition Christian

Democratic Movement (KDH), claims the SNS has been as

disappointing in opposition as its chairman has been in the once

promising coalition. Premier Vladimír Meçiar has adopted his

characteristic standpoint -- "Either me or him" -- but the

situation today will not allow him to retreat without losing

points, +Slovenský Denník+ writes.

The present, artificially dramatised situation is, however,

nothing to get excited about, according to +Slovenský Denník+.

There are two possible solutions. Either the opposition, after

an obligatory apology by the SNS, agrees to resume talks or

Meçiar once again emerges as saviour of the situation or

Slovakia itself, the daily writes.

In an interview with the independent +Národná obroda+ today

Peter Weiss, chairman of the Democratic Left Party (SDL),

declares that in the event of the HZDS-SNS talks being

unsuccessful the SDL "definitely could not rely on the SDS

keeping its word." Weiss says any collaboration with opposition

groups will be fairly difficult because the SDL refuses to join

forces with anybody merely on the basis of "some irrational

anti-Meçiarism or personal aversion towards an individual."

Weiss also states that Slovak politics are currently in a

very complicated situation. It confirms the SDL's analysis that

when a minority government fails to form an effective coalition

the most sensible way out of the resulting stalemate is early

elections. But they are opposed by many deputies, Weiss says.

The left-oriented daily +Pravda+ considers the approval of

the amendment to the Czech-Slovak Agreement abolishing the need

for visas, noting that now one of the awkwardest Czech-Slovak

problems has been safely defused.

If the Slovak government had not approved the amendment,

there would still have been border crossings, but only on the

Czech side and so the Slovaks would have shed none of their

problems and indeed would have gained the problem of "worsening

federal relations," +Pravda+ comments.

The daily +Smena+, close to the governing HZDS, today

reports on the meeting of executive directors of the

International Monetary Fund in Washington which among other

things approved loans to the Slovak Republic. According to

sources close to the IMF, the sums concerned are lower than

originally expected.

The June agreement between an IMF mission and the Slovak

government states that the Slovak Republic will receive half of

a "financial information systems loan" by the end of July,

+Smena+ reports.