Daily newspapers surveyed (in alphabetical order): Cesky denik, Lidova demokracie, Lidove noviny, Prace, Rude pravo, Svobodne slovo. Weekly: Reflex, Respekt.

CESKY DENIK (right-wing). As do all other daily papers (for the last week), CD's headlines concentrate on the Kozeny-Wallis affair (which we described in detail on Saturday, 31-7-1993). It is still unclear whether the enterpreneur Kozeny had been buying secret economic information from Secret Agent Wallis, as the prosecution claims, or whether Wallis had tried to blackmail Kozeny, as Kozeny himself claims. The fact that Kozeny's company, "Harvard Capital and Consulting", has triumphed in the "coupon privatization" project and become a major shareholder in many important enterprises in the Czech Republic, is significant; when his person is put into doubt, it throws a shade on the coupon privatization process itself. (JJ: It was this project for which Vaclav Klaus received greatest credit as Finance Minister.) The question of the day, says CD, is whether other "privatization funds", which also succeeded in getting lots of shareholders under their wings in the process, were also sold valuable economic informati

on by StB agents; some of them have admitted that such information was "offered" to them.

LIDOVA DEMOKRACIE (Catholic) speculates about the alleged damaging informations about Klaus which the agent Wallis is supposed to have also offered to Kozeny. It appears, says LD. that this information - linking the Premier to the death of a homosexual journalist - had been circulated to opposition parties already before the 1992 elections...and refused by them as untrustworthy. Apparently it has been fabricated by former StB agents (like Wallis) who remained on the new Secret Service, says LD.

LIDOVE NOVINY (liberal) brings on the first page information about the action "Peace Now!" which begins in Split today. Famous Czech war reporter Jaromir Stetina writes for LN that the division of Bosnia according to ethnic principles would be a dangerous precedent, opening the door to the hell of a forced migration of nations. "It is no secret that participants of the Geneva talks expect further ethnic cleansing until the three little states are nationally purified," says Stetina, who says of "Peace Now!" that this is a politics of the future. He also praises President Vaclav Havel who gave his support to "Peace Now!" yesterday. Two prominent Polish leaders, Adam Michnik and Jacek Kuron, have also arrived in Split, says LN. Kuron, who is a Minister of the Polish Government, said: "I simply couldn't say no." He also condemned the Geneva talks about dividing Bosnia into three states on an ethnic basis.

RUDE PRAVO (left-wing) quotes the spokesman for ODA, one of the coalition parties, as saying that the Director of the Secret Service (BIS) should not be a party member. (JJ: The current Director, Stanislav Devaty, a former leading dissident, is a member of ODS. He has been widely criticized during the "Wallis affair" for his failure to control his own subordinates, and it seems that he isn't likely to survive long in this office, in which 6 men have sat in the director's chair since 1989.)

TELEGRAF (conservative) claims, somewhat surprisingly, that the new American plan to bomb Bosnian Serbs may be exactly in the interests of Slobodan Milosevic, who is unable to continue giving support to Bosnian Serbs and would probably welcome their defeat, after which he could reemerge as the Great Peacemaker.

RESPEKT (liberal) brings an interview with J.Kozak, the leader of the Czech Union in Slovakia. According to the census, there are 50,000 Czechs living now in Slovakia. (JJ: Unlike Slovaks in the Czech Republic, however, they can receive the citizenship of the country in which they live easily.) J.Kozak believes that the Union has to struggle for the introduction of dual citizenship.