The Radical Party office in Prague received a letter from Milos Zeman, chairman of the Social Democrats, who are the leading opposition party in the Czech Republic, on Nov. 16, 1993. In the letter, Mr.Zeman included a belated signature of the appeal for the International Tribunal with a vow that his party will interpelate the Government in Parliament for its stand on the Bosnian conflict, with the aim of changing its policy.

THE CITIZENSHIP LAW REMAINS UNFAIR AND DISCRIMINATORY

In his letter, Mr.Zeman also thanked the Radicals P.Horak and J.Jarab for their legislative proposal - an attempt to novelize the discriminatory law on Czech citizenship. The law currently makes it hard - and in some cases even impossible - for citizens of Slovak origin to receive the Czech citizenship, even if they had lived for many years on the territory of what is now the Czech Republic; in fact, many people who were born in the Czech Republic and never lived in Slovakia will be denied citizenship because their parents (!) were born in Slovakia and they themselves have a criminal record. The Social Democrats legislative group met and accepted the Radical proposal, which would make it easy for every citizen who lived on Czech territory before the split of the federation to receive the citizenship without any special requirements. The Radical's proposal was presented in Parliament by Social Democratic M.P. Vaclav Grulich in the form of an interpelation of the Government, and it was answered by Stanislav H

enych, the Deputy Interior Minister who is known as the author of the law; Mr.Henych claimed that changing the discriminatory law now would "be unfair to those who have already passed through the process", i.e. who have gone successfully through a complicated legal and bureaucratic process and received the citizenship of the country in which they have lived for years. The Parliament accepted only a very limited novelization of the law, which does not change the basic facts.

According to a study by Tom Gross, a British lawyer working for the Tolerance Foundation, a high percentage of Gypsies (Romanies) living in the Czech Republic will be left without citizenship because their parents came from Slovakia (in many cases, they were deported from Slovakia by force during the Communist era), the original population of Czech Gypsies having been almost entirely wiped out by Nazis in extermination camps. According to the Gross report (sent to Torre Argentina and due to arrive soon), more than 50 percent of Czech Gypsies - i.e., around 100 000 people - will be left without citizenship. The findings of the field research of Mr.Gross confirm the fears of Czech Radicals, which were expressed in their documents about the situation.

Czech Radicals believe that at this stage only international pressure, especially from institutions like the European Parliament, can make the ruling right-wing majority in the Czech Parliament change its mind about the law. We will present in AGORA tomorrow a draft of a proposal to be signed by Radical parliamentarians - especially those in the European Parliament - and sent to the Czech Government and Parliament. We believe such action is necessary to prevent a Yugoslavization of politics in this country.