EASTERN EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79B00864A000800010053-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 30, 2006
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: April 24, 1968
• Content Type: REPORT

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EASTERN EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCER OCI #0709/65
24 April 1968
Budapest Preparatory Commission Begins First Session Today
Communist party experts on international affairs began
work on 24 April on an agenda for a full-scale international
communist conference in Moscow later this year. Party re-
presentation at the current meeting reportedly will be
somewhat lower than at the Budapest Consultative Meeting
last February, which hosted sixty-six parties. Yugoslavia
and Rumania are not attending this session of the Preparatory
Commission; the makeup of other Eastern European delegations
is reported in today's Annex.
COMMENT: The current swirl of rumors in Czechoslovakia
has produced some speculation that the Czechoslovak delegation
may walk out of the meeting if Czechoslovak internal develop-
ments come under attack. An AP report acquired from a "re-
liable source" even states that the Czechoslovak delegation
has orders to walk out if this happens.
Czechoslovak National Assembly Meeting Today
Premier Oldrich Cernik presented the new government's
program, based on the "action program" and approved by the
party central committee, to the assembly on 24 April.
The government's bill on the "organization and compe-
tency of central organs" was the first item proposed for
debate. This bill proposes the establishment of ministries
for National Economic Planning, Technology, Labor and Social
Welfare, and a Bureau for State Prices. It also recommends 25X1
that some existing state commissions be abolished. Other
bills to be given priority treatment will be those dealing 25X1
with freedom of the press and freedom of assembly.
COMMENT: According to the Czech news service, the
Assembly has begun to act like a real parliament. Assembly
members demanded, for example, that the bill on governmental
reorganization be referred to the appropriate committees for
discussion before being presented to the Assembly as a
whole, and one member even demanded that the bill be
temporarily withdrawn because it was inprecise.
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Tunisian President Bourguiba To Visit Bulgaria
Bulgarian information media have announced that the
25X1
visit will take place on 3-9 July. During his visit
Bourguiba may sign an agreement allowing Bulgaria to r
25X1
rniv and build shins at the Tunisian port of Bizerte.
COMMENT: Earlier this month Bulgarian deputy Premier
Avramov signed an agreement in Tunis which provides for an
unprecedented $35.5 in credits to Tunisia. The only black
mark in the rapidly improving Tunisian-Bulgarian relation-
ship occured last January during the "Friendship" soccer
tournament. Nine Bulgarians were thrown out of the game and
the Tunisians finally quit the field in protest over Bulgarian
"hard play" after six Tunisians were injured, two seriously.
Three Croats Imprisoned for Anti-State Activities
Three Croats have been sentenced to 3-years imprisonment
for anti-state activities by a regional court in Osijek, 25X1
Croatia. They were accused of being members of an illegal
Croatian nationalist organization, the Ustashi, distributing 25X1
propaganda material, and "other hostile" activities.
COMMENT: Both Croatian and Slovenian national sentiment
have flared in the last year, but this is the first report in
some time of a conviction on charges related to activities
connected with the Ustashi which will remind Yugoslavs of
the bloodly civil war of 1941-45. The Zagreb press is cur-
rently running a series of articles on the past and present
activities of emigre groups--especially Ustashi--however,
the Zagreb daily Vjesnik in reporting the trial has made
no mention of the a en ants' alleged Ustashi connections.
Communists Support Berlin Students' Planned May Day Demonstration
The Chairman of the communist party in West Berlin (SED-
West) Gerhard Danelius,has called for large scale participation
in student May Day demonstrations scheduled for 1 May. Danelius
appealed to all "democratic forces" to make May Day a "new
climax" of antifascist unity together with the extra-parlia-
mentary opposition."
Danelius's appeal was aimed at the West Berlin workers
and other masses of the citizenry who have shown only distain
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for the radical student excesses. "Renazification and
fascism" headed the list of grievances the SED-West Chair-
man cited in his 23 April address to party functionaries.
Danelius also mentioned most of the standard student de-
mands and. concluded by calling for "normal relations with
the GDR."
COMMENT: The SED-West apparently hopes to capitalize
on the student unrest by championing student demands as
well as pushing the GDR's policies designed to sever West
Berlin's political ties with the Federal Republic.
Czec:hosloslovak Graduates Free Again to Choose Jobs
The government has revoked the 1962 decree on compulsory
placement; of students in jobs while they were in school and after
they graduated, and dropped the "class criteria" for admission
of students to higher studies. Vladimir Kadlec, Minister of
Education, noted in his announcement that the decree had been
based on directives of the party central committee.
In addition, the Food and Agriculture Minister will
no longer utilize students as free agricultural labor on an
unlimited basis, although he will still be empowered to get a
few weeks a year of such labor.
Kad:Lec also announced that as a result of an "action
program" drawn up for his ministry, it has begun to analyse
the "problems of independence" of children's organizations, 25X1
especially the young pioneers (scouts). Presumably this 25X1
analysis will lead to a change in the character of these
groups and they will become less doctrinaire.
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INTELLIGENCER ANNEX
Eastern European Delegations to Budapest Preparatory Commission
Bulgaria - Boris Velchev, politburo member and party
secretary*
Czechoslovakia - Jozef Lenart, candidate politburo member and
party secretary
- Oldrich Kaderka, head of CC international
affairs department*
East Germany
Hungary
- Hermann Axen, candidate politburo member and
party secretary*
- Paul Markowski, head of CC international
affairs department
- Zoltan Komocsin, politburo member and party
secretary*
- Frigyes Puja, head of CC international affairs
department*
Poland - Zenon Kliszko, politburo member and party secretary
- Andrzej Werblan, ideological aide
- Marian Renke, deputy head of the CC foreign
department
*Attended Budapest Consultative Meeting in February.
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