Slovakia's Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda said on Wednesday Slovakia will
not back a plan by his Czech counterpart Jiri Paroubek to make a
reconciliatory gesture to anti-fascist Sudeten Germans. Mr Paroubek
announced on Monday that he had prepared a plan to compensate ethnic
Germans in Czechoslovakia who were expelled and lost their property in the
years following the Second World War, despite the fact that they opposed
Nazi Germany. Mr Dzurinda says Slovakia looks to the future and not to the
past and will not re-open complicated chapters in the countries history,
such as the Benes decrees, which sanctioned the expulsions in the post-war
years.
On the home front, the Prime Minister's plan has met with anger from the
two main opposition parties, the centre-right Civic Democrats and the
Communists. President Vaclav Klaus has likewise rejected the idea,
describing it as potentially dangerous.