VZCZCXRO5904
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHSL #0021/01 0111734
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 111734Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY BRATISLAVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0588
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRATISLAVA 000021 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KIRF LO
SUBJECT: ARCHBISHOP PRAISES FASCIST WHILE NATIONAL MEMORY 
INSTITUTE FLOUNDERS 
 
REF: A. 06 BRATISLAVA 964 
 
     ¶B. 06 BRATISLAVA 977 
     ¶C. 06 BRATISLAVA 862 
     ¶D. 06 BRATISLAVA 719 
     ¶E. 06 BRATISLAVA 586 
     ¶F. 06 BRATISLAVA 830 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  The Slovak Prime Minister and President 
publicly refuted the statements (although not the person) of 
Slovak Archbishop Jan Sokol in praise of a WWII era fascist 
leader which had outraged local minority groups and received 
international media attention.  Despite the PM's  repudiation 
of the wartime fascist Slovak state and his call for an 
independent historian to head the country's Institute of 
National Memory (UPN), coalition partner SNS (Slovak National 
Party) continues to float names of far right nationalists as 
candidates for the job.  The beleaguered UPN has suffered 
several other attacks on its credibility and mandate. 
Choosing an appropriate candidate as its Chairman could prove 
a litmus test of how far to the right the socialist Prime 
Minister will bend in his horse trading with coalition 
partners.  We have made clear to government officials the 
harm the publicity Sokol and such views cause -- including in 
the U.S. -- to Slovakia's image.  Our criticism and that of 
others may have helped disqualify some rumored candidates for 
the UPN Chairmanship.  END SUMMARY. 
 
ARCHBISHOP OUTRAGES WITH PRAISE OF FASCIST... 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Slovak Catholic Archbishop Jan Sokol of the 
Bratislava-Trnava diocese praised Father Jozef Tiso, the 
WWII-era leader of the Slovak fascist state which deported 
tens of thousands of Slovak Jews, Roma, and others to their 
deaths in German concentration camps.  Tiso was executed as a 
war criminal in 1947.  During an interview on the Slovak news 
channel TA3 on December 27, Sokol said he respected Tiso as 
the leader of wartime Slovakia.  He went on to say that 
Slovakia had been a poor country which experienced prosperity 
under Tiso.  Sokol offered this opinion in response to a 
question about whether Tiso should be beatified as 
recommended in a new biography, which is currently a 
bestseller at Matica Slovenska (ref A), an organization with 
a nationalist bent that was established to promote Slovak 
culture.  (NOTE: In a round-about answer, Sokol eventually 
opined that Tiso, as a politician, should not receive 
beatification but that the decision belongs to the Vatican. 
END NOTE.)  Given an opportunity to explain and revise his 
stance, Sokol instead defended his statements on January 3, 
noting that he had offered his personal opinion during the 
interview. 
 
¶3. (U) Slovak Jewish and Romani groups were outraged.  A 
small group of left-wing intellectuals presented a petition 
to the Slovak Bishops Conference to distance itself from 
Sokol's statements.  The Bishop's conference responded that 
the subject was a matter for historians and the Archbishop 
had a right to his personal opinion.  The Slovak media widely 
broadcast the story, which was also picked up by 
international media outlets. 
 
¶4. (SBU) In response, Prime Minister Robert Fico, while not 
condemning or mentioning Sokol by name, publicly stated on 
two different occasions that the wartime Slovak state was 
fascist and that Tiso was responsible for the deportation of 
Slovaks to concentration camps.  One of Fico's advisors 
privately acknowledged that Fico felt he could not directly 
criticize the Archbishop due to domestic political reasons. 
President Ivan Gasparovic told the media that he does not 
agree with Sokol's statements about Tiso.  Opposition 
politicians remained quiet on the matter.  Jan Slota, the 
head of SNS, ambiguously said that both positive and negative 
events occurred in wartime Slovakia. 
 
 
...WHILE NAT'L MEMORY INST SUFFERS SETBACKS 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) Meanwhile, the Institute of National Memory (UPN) 
(refs B-E), mandated by parliament in 2003 to preserve and 
publish the secret government files from Slovakia's two 
former totalitarian regimes (fascist and communist) from 
1939-1989, has suffered several setbacks at the hands of the 
government since the death of founding Chairman Jan Langos in 
a car accident last June. 
 
¶6. (SBU) On December 21, the Kosice municipal police 
announced that Langos himself was responsible for the fatal 
car crash because he was speeding.  Despite the fact that 
Langos was well-known to speed when driving, the conclusion 
that he was solely responsible for the accident is puzzling 
 
BRATISLAVA 00000021  002 OF 002 
 
 
since Langos had the right-of-way on a highway when a large 
construction vehicle pulled out in front of him from a small 
side road.  It is also surprising that the announcement of 
the results of the investigation was handled by an assistant 
spokesperson for a municipal police unit.  Langos was a 
respected public figure, having been a dissident during 
communism, a leader of the Velvet Revolution, Minister of 
Interior for the post-communist Czechoslovak Federation under 
Vaclav Havel, and head of the democratic party in Slovakia. 
Such a person would normally merit higher-ranking coverage. 
 
¶7. (U) On January 1, PM Fico spoke critically about Langos to 
reporters at the presentation of a government award to a 
person who, according to UPN files, had been agent of the 
communist Slovak secret police.  Fico said that he did not 
trust a word Langos had said and accused the UPN of 
manipulating the files in its archives. 
 
¶8. (U) On January 3, UPN received a notice in the mail that 
the Minister of Justice Stefan Harabin (ref F) ordered the 
institution out of its current offices within the next six 
months.  The office building, which has been modified to 
include many document protection features, belongs to the 
Justice Ministry, which supposedly needs the office space for 
regional and district courts.  Deputy Prime Minister Dusan 
Caplovic, who said he was "shocked" by the eviction notice, 
expressed his support for the UPN and criticized Harabin's 
method of communication.  After a January 8 meeting between 
Caplovic and Harabin, the two announced that UPN will not be 
evicted strictly after six months and they will look for 
other options, including alternative office space for UPN 
and/or the courts. 
 
 
...GOS MULLS SUPPORTER OF FASCISM FOR HIGH PROFILE POST 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Fico stated on January 8 that the position of UPN 
Chairman should be filled by a historian unaffected by 
ideology.  He noted that the governing coalition council had 
decided upon a nominee, but would not release the name at 
that time.  By January 9, press reports indicated that the 
nominee would be a member of the extreme right Slovak 
People's Party (SLS), which patterns itself after the fascist 
political party from the wartime state.  The alleged nominee, 
Peter Mulik, had also previously published an article lauding 
the achievements of WWII-era Slovakia.  By agreement within 
the governing coalition (Smer, SNS, Movement for a Democratic 
Slovakia (HZDS)), SNS has the right to nominate the 
coalition's choice for UPN Chairman.  However, the other 
coalition partners must agree, and the Chairman must be 
approved by a parliamentary majority.  By January 10, 
advisors for the PM and Deputy PM -- responding in part to 
our criticism -- indicated that a different nominee would be 
sought.  On January 11, Slota denied that SNS intended to 
nominate Mulik. 
 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Though they have their own nationalistic leanings, 
the PM and President reacted with appropriate public disdain 
for the Archbishop's comments.  Having long-since chosen a 
nationalist coalition partner, it is not yet clear how far 
the PM will bend to SNS or to his own party's nationalist 
wing when it comes to the details of political horse trading. 
 By repudiating the wartime Slovak state, Fico demonstrated 
that there is a line to the far right that he will not cross. 
 The eventual UPN Chairman could prove a litmus test as to 
how far to the right this line stands.  However, Fico's thin 
staff and almost exclusive focus on the domestic environment 
leaves him unprepared for international criticism.  Despite 
the coalition agreement that SNS will choose the coalition's 
candidate, Fico will have final say on the choice, as he does 
on all coalition decisions.  Calling for an independent 
historian -- after the post has remained vacant for seven 
months -- is a step in the right direction, but one which has 
not yet seen appropriate follow-through.  We will continue to 
engage the GOS on the importance of the UPN and its positive 
role in looking honestly at the country's fascist and 
communist histories.  We have approached like-minded European 
embassies, some of which have also raised similar concerns 
with Slovak decision-makers. 
VALLEE