Date: 03/07/99 10:27:49 AM GMT

http://www.usis.sk/wwwhnew41.html

Religious minorities

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Despite an order by the Prime Minister to withdraw a controversial history book entitled the "History of Slovakia and the Slovaks" by Milan Durica, it remains available in schools. The book has been widely criticized by religious groups and the Slovak Academy of Sciences for gross inaccuracies and distortions, particularly in its portrayal of wartime Slovakia and the deportation of Jews and Roma.

Despite protests by the federation of Jewish communities (FJC), Slovak National Party members and the official Slovak cultural organization Matica Slovenska continued their efforts to revise the history of the pro-nazi wartime Slovak State and to rehabilitate its leader Jozef Tiso. On the 59th anniversary of the wartime Slovak State, a small group of Tiso Society members and approximately 100 skinheads met in front of the presidential palace. A group of young democrats held a counterdemonstration in the main square to protest the legacy of the Tiso regime. Unlike in 1997, the event did not develop into an organized march of skinheads. The 200 police on hand confiscated a number of weapons from the skinheads.

Two other March events commemorated this anniversary. Archbishop Jan Sokol held a commemorative mass in the western Slovak town of Sastin. The mass was attended by several government coalition officials including deputy chair of the HZDS and of the parliament Augustin Marian Huska, HZDS M.P. Jan Cuper and Deputy Chair of the Slovak National Party Anna Malikova. After the mass the Slovak National Party held a reception at which the same officials were present and spoke about the importance of the first Slovak State's legacy.

On January 30, a bronze memorial plaque commemorating the 1,800 Jewish citizens of Komarno who were killed in World War II concentration camps was stolen from the synagogue in Komarno. The crime remained unsolved at year's end. In October police arrested four teenage skinheads who allegedly painted swastikas and pro-fascist slogans on a business run by a Jewish manager in Zvolen.

In May the Supreme Court upheld a prior verdict that the publisher of Zmena weekly had to publish an apology to the honorary chairman of the FJC for abusing his person and offending his religious feelings. The apology was not published by year's end.

In February the government returned approximately $315,000 (SK 10 million) to the Jewish community as settlement for the gold, diamonds, and jewelry that were confiscated by pro-nazi officials from the wartime Slovak state's Jewish citizens.

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Martin Hegedus