Events - May

Good weather finally arrived in the CR in May with temperatures at the beginning of the month reaching 30 degrees. The state of public finances, however, continued to worsen, with the total deficit increasing by another 12 billion to a total CZK of 28.8 bln for this year.

3. American president George Bush expressed his thanks to President Vaclav Havel for his personal support of the clause on human rights in the UN Cuba resolution.
4. Vladimir Vetchy was sacked as Defence Minister and replaced by his Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs, Jaroslav Tvrdik.
9. The Belarus embassy handed over to the authorities of the Czech Republic a list of almost a thousand of Czechoslovak Jews executed by the Nazis in 1942.
8. Leading public representatives, including Vaclav Havel, ministers and top army officers, paid respect to people who died while defending Czechoslovakia in World War 2. The ceremonial swearing of an oath by new members of the presidential guard was part of the ceremony. The president also appointed twelve members of the army, police force, and fire brigade to the rank of general.
A total of eight letter bombs were received by people connected to building company H-System, which collapsed leaving hundreds of creditors. M. Slouf, former senior Communist and current advisor to PM Miloš Zeman, and J. Sup were members of a business trip to South Africa during which H System hunted for clients among Czech emigrants there.
10. Petr Saha, the former deputy of the Technical University in Brno, became Head of the Tomas Bata University in Zlin. Zlin University was founded by a merger of faculties of Technology and Management formerly situated in Brno with the Institute of Advertising and Marketing in Zlin.
12. Some of the fans of the Swedish hockey team could not cope with the disappointment at their team's loss in the semi-final and threw raw eggs at the front wall of the Czech embassy in Stockholm. In an unsigned letter, the fans accused the Czech team and the "bribed" referee of stealing the gold medal from their team, and used forthright language in calling on Czech embassy staff to leave Sweden.
15. Anica Dvorakova, chairwoman and founding member of the deaf person's club is one of the candidates for this year's Olga Havlova award. Dvorakova organizes lip reading courses and cam paigns for the introduction of hidden subtitles for TV programmes and films.
17. A metal sculpture by Czech sculptor Karel Meloun depicting naked Adam and Eve making love aroused protests from the local public when displayed in the Upper Austrian spa town of Bad Hall.
18. The Office for the Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism completed its investigation of the case of top communist officers Milous Jakes and Jozef Lenart, both accused of treason in related to the entry of Warsaw pact armies to Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
20. Tomas Halik gave a talk and held prayers in memory of victims of communism during a ceremony at the graveyard in Motol where the communists used to empty the ashes of tortured and executed political prisoners. The ceremony marked a beginning of the Week of the Victims of Communism organized by the Confederation of Political Prisoners.
21. German company F-LOG AG obtained a 51% majority in Predplatne tisku, which has a 75% market share in the press subscriptions market. Czech Vydavatelsky holding retains a 49% stake.
26. Cyril Svoboda, the former head of the four-coalition, replaced Jan Kasal as leader of the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL).
Former political prisoners held a ceremony to commemorate the years of communist terror in Jachymov, close to Karlovy Vary, where thousands of people were forced to work in uranium mines during the 1950s.
29. The German authorities started a crack down on Czech truck drivers without work permits loading and unloading EU goods in Germany. Several drivers have already been fined or deported.
30. The Government agreed that the Czech Republic should sign the Treaty on Stateless Persons from 1954. Although this is one of the oldest human rights agreements, it became topical again in the 1990s after the falling apart of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
Industry Minister Miroslav Grégr became Deputy Prime Minister. President Havel hesitated for several weeks before signing the appointment. Grégr is an enthusiastic supporter of the Temelin nuclear power plant, "revitalisation" plans for heavy industry, and trade with China and post-Soviet countries.

Eighty-nine-year-old forward Gestapo officer Anton Malloth was found guilty of crimes committed against Jewish prisoners of the Terezin concentration camp during World War Two. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and the court rejected the defence's argument that Malloth should be excused from prison on the grounds of age. When will the CR at last take off the kid gloves and deal with its citizens who have committed crimes against humanity on their fellow citizens?