The RFE/RL DAILY REPORT--a digest of the latest developments in
Russia, Transcaucasia and Central Asia, and Central and
Eastern Europe--is published Monday through Friday (except
German holidays) by the RFE/RL Research Institute, a division of
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc., which also publishes
monographs, a weekly journal, and other periodicals (see end of
transmission for further details).
Copyright 1994 RFE/RL, Inc.


> ---------------------------------------------------------------
                  RFE/RL Daily Report
                                      No. 126, 6 July 1994



CONTROVERSIAL ARCHEOLOGICAL DIGS IN CLUJ APPROVED. In a statement
broadcast by Radio Bucharest on 5 July, the ultranationalist mayor
of Cluj, Gheorghe Funar, said that the town council had approved,
in an extraordinary session, the start of archaeological digs in
Unity Square. According to Funar, the excavations will not affect
either King Matthias Corvin's statue or the Catholic cathedral
there. The controversial Cluj mayor accused the Hungarian
Democratic Federation of Romania of having tried to block the
excavations. Funar's earlier plans to move King Matthias's statue
from the center of Cluj had triggered heavy protests from the
Hungarian minority in Transylvania.  Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.

HUNGARIAN MILITIA MEMBERS DENY 1956 GUILT. On 5 July, Judge Janos
Strausz of the Budapest District Court concluded a hearing of
twelve former members of the special militia unit that helped to
put down the 1956 revolution, MTI reports. The men are charged
with firing into a defenseless crowd in the city of Salgotarjan on
8 December 1956. At least 46 people were reported killed.
According to MTI, none of the twelve pleaded guilty. Lajos Orosz,
who had previously acknowledged firing into the crowd and admitted
his guilt, withdrew his previous testimony. The judge was then
forced to read the protocol of previous hearings in which Orosz
made references not only to his own guilt but to the wrongdoing of
others who are now charged with crimes against humanity. The trial
is scheduled to continue on 7 July.  Judith Pataki, RFE/RL, Inc.

  [As of 1200 CET]
  Compiled by Stephen Foye and Louisa Vinton
Copyright 1994, RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.