OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 199, 14 October 1996

HUNGARIAN PRIVATIZATION SCANDAL UPDATE. Recently dismissed Industry and
Trade Minister Tamas Suchman, speaking publicly on the subject for the
first time, accepted political responsibility for the privatization
scandal that led to his sacking but denied involvement in the affair,
Hungarian media reported on 11 October. Marta Tocsik, the consultant at
the center of the scandal, failed to attend the hearings for the second
day in a row, pleading illness. On 12 October, press reports revealed
that five other parties -- including a department head at a major
Hungarian bank -- received part of the 804 million forint ($5.2 million)
commission paid to Tocsik by the state privatization agency. -- Zsofia
Szilagyi

ROMANIA AND NATO. Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu on 14 October
continued the Romanian campaign to convince NATO states that his country
should be among the first admitted to NATO. Melescanu is traveling for
this purpose to London and Paris, meeting British Foreign Minister
Malkom Rifkind and the French Minister for European Affairs, Michel
Barnier. On 11 October in Brussels, he met NATO General Secretary Javier
Solana, to whom he conveyed a message from President Ion Iliescu, and
also conducted talks with his Belgian counterpart, Erik Derycke. Also on
14 October, a new NATO exercise within the Partnership for Peace Program
is starting at Bucharest's Otopeni airport. Four NATO countries (the
United States, Turkey, Greece, and Italy) as well as the Czech Republic,
Slovakia, and Moldova are participating in the exercise. Hungary,
Slovenia, and Macedonia are sending observers, Radio Bucharest reported.
-- Michael Shafir

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Tom Warner