Archive of articles - September 2002, page 8

Accused killers freed on error

SEVEN accused murderers have been released from jail following the failure of a judge to request the extension of their pre-trial custody within the 10-day period set by law.The men, who have been charged with the 1999 gang machete murder of an underworld figure in east Slovakia's Košice, tasted freedom on September 9 for the first time in almost three years. Most were picked up by family members and friends outside their Košice prison, vowing legal action against the state and journalists."We'll be visiting our lawyers today," said shaven-headed Marcel Brozman, wearing a sleeveless shirt exposing brawny arms, before stepping into a dark car with a young woman.

SDKÚ: "What could be better and nicer"

ŽILINA - THE RULING SDKÚ party's election campaign is not a patch on its stirring 1998 bicycle tour around Slovakia which then roused voters to give the party a 27 per cent result, say recent rally goers.After an hour's wait in vain for an SDKÚ pre-election rally in the small north Slovakia town of Rajec, a 38-year-old female factory labourer said angrily: "It's not nice. They've been misleading people for the last four years, and now they're doing it again."The party is now running at below 10 per cent in the polls on a right-wing platform, having been blamed for many of the perceived failures of the Dzurinda government such as corruption and lack of reform.

Around Slovakia

Mečiar loan came from Swiss businessmanNegligence charges weighed against Schuster doctorMartinka arrest warrant annulledKorean kicked out for arms tradingWoman gives herself abortionRusko virus infecting nationHelping the cops help us

OTP bank puts murky IRB past to rest

THE CHILD of the sale of Investičná a rozvojová banka (IRB), one of Slovakia's most troubled banks, kicked off operations in August this year renamed OTP Banka Slovakia, with an eye on becoming one of the country's strongest banks and part of a larger regional banking network.Although the now-renamed IRB had been one of the most problematic banks in the 1990s, Slovakia's banking sector cleanup between 1998 and 2000 cleared much of the bank's bad debt and sparked the interest and eventual entry of Hungary's largest bank, the National Savings Bank (OTP)."Today, I can say openly without any exaggeration that we have all the preconditions to be, within five years, among the strongest Slovak banks," said OTP Slovakia head Károly Hodossy in late August.

Smer: Slick Fico show goes down well

TRNAVA - "MAMA, I'm lost," cries a small boy who has come adrift from his minders at a political rally for Robert Fico's Smer party.His thin wail draws the attention of organisers, who lift him to the stage. Fico hands the boy his microphone, the boy gives his name to the crowd, and promptly starts crying again.As the boy's mother rushes to collect him, Fico, microphone again in hand, says to applause: "You see - politicians can do good deeds."

Mečiar: Next cabinet will have to compensate deposit fund victims

FORMER PM Vladimír Mečiar has suggested that if his HZDS opposition party entered government following September 20-21 elections, the state would compensate hundreds of thousands of Slovaks who lost their savings in the crashes of several pyramid funds this past spring.Speaking to journalists in the north Slovakia town of Žilina September 9, Mečiar said the current Dzurinda government was responsible for allowing funds such as Horizont, BMG Invest, Bonifikačný Drukos Výnos (BDV) and AGW to collect deposits from people without a license from 1999 to 2002.The next government, he said, had only two choices. "The first is that people sue the state, and I know they'll win their cases. The second option is a compromise between the government and the representatives of depositors. A certain level of compensation will be approved."

Slovakia, Romania look to increase trade

EIB ploughs on in Slovakia despite clouded bridge tender

DESPITE controversy over a recent tender for a new bridge in Bratislava, and despite its unwilling involvement in a previous hot corruption scandal, the European Investment Bank (EIB) says it is undeterred from investing in Slovakia, and that it has no doubts about transparency.The bank's latest project, known as the Košická bridge, is slated to be the Slovak capital's fifth link across the Danube river. It is being co-financed by the EIB, a non-profit European institution which supports capital investment projects in economically weak regions of the European Union and beyond.The bank is supposed to supply a loan of 45 million euros covering 50 per cent of the estimated cost of the Bratislava bridge; the other half will be financed through Slovakia's state budget.

Quote of the Week

The right way?

WITH ELECTIONS less than a week away and political rhetoric heating up, a close look at the economic programmes of Slovakia's leading parties reveals a lack of substance and a blurring of lines between political right and left, says a recent study.All of Slovakia's major parties are pointing to the same economic issues as priorities under the next government - a near 18 per cent unemployment rate, unravelling fiscal discipline, debt-ridden schools, a still-unreformed health care sector, a failing pay-as-you-go pension system and continuing sluggish growth in investment.However the study, carried out by the non-partisan F.A. Hayek Foundation, a Bratislava-based organisation which promotes free market principles, says that few parties have set concrete plans for how to solve such economic problems, or how to pay for them.

Ano: Non-supporters "will be sorry"

MARTIN - BEFORE the secretary of the non-parliamentary New Citizen's Alliance (Ano) party, Jozef Banáš, left his house to join the party's election campaign in Martin on September 6, his wife reportedly asked him: "Are you going to bother the people again?""Once I decide to walk the political path with my friends, we will fight to create a power that will help this country," Banáš, 53, claimed to have replied.By his 'friends', Banáš meant largely Ano leader Pavol Rusko, 38. Rusko's success as the founder of the country's most popular TV station, Markíza, has attracted many young voters to the party since its founding last year.

Mečiar: 'No' if offered role in next cabinet

VLADIMÍR MEČIAR, on the eve of Slovakia's third national elections as an independent state, says he has never made any serious political mistakes, and that the West has no right to raise the "finger of warning" against his possible participation in the country's next government.In an interview with The Slovak Spectator on September 6, Slovakia's three-time former PM nevertheless said he would not accept a role in the next government even if offered, in order not to threaten the country's future acceptance to Nato and the European Union.Unquestionably Slovakia's most controversial politician, Mečiar has been ostracised by both Western governments and Slovak political parties for his autocratic behaviour while in government from 1994-1998.

SMK: "We're realists" about attracting Slovak voters

GALANTA - DESPITE the governmental Hungarian Coalition Party's (SMK) claims to have opened up to more than an ethnic Hungarian electorate, it is still difficult for ethnic Slovak voters to find a path to the SMK. Literally.In the central Slovak town of Galanta, where the SMK was supposed to hold an election rally on September 7, the small square in front of the local cultural centre was empty half an hour before start time.Light standards in the town did bear SMK invitations to join the rally, but were exclusively in Hungarian.

Archbishop: Don't vote for naked bottoms and immoral liberals

A TOP CHURCH official shocked politicians and his fellow bishops by telling the nation two weeks ahead of general elections which parties "good Slovak Catholics" should not vote for.Archbishop Ján Sokol gave his election advice in a circular that was distributed along with a traditional 'shepherds' letter' - this time an appeal from bishops to their flocks to encourage participation in the elections.In his personal circular, which was distributed in churches in his Bratislava and Trnava regions diocese, the clergyman said good Christians should not vote for "liberals, former communists and atheists".

Spa idyll could be more patient with fish

IF IT WERE NOT for the thermal spring in this north Slovak town, there would probably not be a restaurant to write about.Built on an island in a picturesque lake, and joined to the mainland by a wooden bridge, the Rybárska bašta restaurant is part of a modern restructured spa complex in Rajecké Teplice. Girdled by the panorama of the Malá Fatra mountains, this natural paradise is only a 20-minute drive from Žilina.Rybárska bašta's cuisine can best be enjoyed after spending several relaxing hours in the spa's large whirlpools and four different saunas - herbal, salty, Arabic and Finnish.

ST prices blamed for inflation rise

NBS: We'll be watching, but it's up to banks

MILAN Horváth, head of banking supervision at the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS), believes that the country's admittedly bank-heavy market has turned the corner following five messy crashes from 1999-2001, and that further mergers could follow as new foreign investors sort out the bad management practices of the past.Horváth added that a revised Banking Law valid from January 1, 2002 was "very significant" in forcing bank leaders to be more responsible to shareholders."Management is now responsible for the efficiency with which they conduct their bank's business," he said.

Jobs, and joblessness, declines

Little money left for industrial parks