Edition: U.S. / Global

West Says Slovakia Falls Short of Democracy

Published: December 26, 1995

When Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany delivered a speech about Europe's future this month, he called for enlargement of the European Union and suggested three candidates: Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Mr. Kohl's list was notable for a conspicuous omission.

Slovakia, which he once cited as a prime candidate, is no longer on his list of leading candidates.

Recent events in Slovakia have led Western Governments to complain with unusual force that this country is failing to live up European standards of democracy. Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar and his allies have responded by accusing foreign Governments of seeking to threaten and intimidate them.

"I'm not sure they're aware of the fact that they're slowly being pushed aside," said Frantisek Sebej, who was chairman of the foreign relations committee in the Czechoslovak Parliament from 1990 until the country split at the end of 1992, and who now belongs to a small opposition party here.

"We are becoming an authoritarian country run by people with no ideology, just an insatiable hunger for power. The word fascism doesn't fit, but this is becoming an intolerant, highly centralized nationalist state," he said.

Western diplomats here assert that Mr. Meciar's Government is seeking to consolidate its power with undemocratic tactics.

The civil service and the Government-run television system, for example, have been purged of people suspected of being insufficiently loyal. Judges who are considered unreliable have found their budgets cut. Members of Parliament from the opposition Democratic Union are being threatened with expulsion on the ground that their election petitions included invalid signatures.

Political loyalty has also become a factor in handing out federal subsidies to local governments. In the capital, Bratislava, many street lights are dark at night. Local officials say the city cannot pay its electric bills because Mr. Meciar is withholding funds to punish voters for choosing an opposition Mayor.

Several draft laws now circulating among members of Parliament, all of which would centralize more power in Mr. Meciar's hands, have also caused concern in Western capitals. One proposal would reduce autonomy at universities, another would make it more difficult for the Constitutional Court to declare laws unconstitutional, a third would restrict the activities of private organizations and a fourth would punish citizens who make negative statements about the country that they cannot prove to be true.

Two opposition figures, Peter Toth, a journalist, and Frantisek Moklosko, deputy chairman of the Christian Democratic party, have recently reported being assaulted on the street by thugs who were not interested in robbing them. Both suspect that the beatings were a form of retribution or warning from elements of the newly invigorated secret police.

Last month, Parliament approved a law requiring the use of the Slovak language in many circumstances. Like many Slovak laws, this one is vague and open to various interpretations. But it has deeply upset leaders of the country's ethnic Hungarians, who constitute about 11 percent of the population.

The Hungarian Ambassador, Jeno Boros, said he feared that "bureaucrats at lower levels" would use the law to discriminate. Mr. Boros described several cases that have already come to his attention, including one in which an ethnic Hungarian was not allowed to send a telegram in Hungarian.

"There is an old expression in this part of the world that says that the more languages you know, the better person you are," he said. "Now you hear a new expression: 'The more languages you know, the worse Slovak you are.' "

In recent weeks, Western Governments have expressed their concern about these developments in a series of blunt messages. The European Union delivered a formal diplomatic complaint about human rights abuses, and the United States followed with one urging the Government to place "greater emphasis on the toleration of diverse opinions."

Soon after, the European Parliament adopted a resolution charging the Slovak Government with following "policies which show no respect for democracy, human and minority rights and the rule of law."

The chairman of Slovakia's Parliament, Ivan Gasparovic, who is a close ally of Prime Minister Meciar, warned that these condemnations were "creating dangerous tension and nervousness in the country."

"A large number of Slovaks are beginning to have serious doubts about the sincerity of Western states' desire to integrate Slovakia into the E.U. and NATO," Mr. Gasparovic asserted.

Leaders of the governing Movement for a Democratic Slovakia complain that criticism of their record is based on a lack of information. Senior officials, however, are often unavailable to explain their positions to visiting foreigners.

Mr. Gasparovic and Prime Minister Meciar declined repeated requests for interviews this month, but one leader of the governing party, Dusan Slobodnik, chairman of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, agreed to speak briefly during a break in legislative debate.