RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 2, No. 140, 23 July 1998

HUNGARY NOT TO BUILD CONTROVERSIAL DAM. Janos Vargha, chief
adviser to the Hungarian government on environmental
protection, told Reuters on 22 July that the September 1997
verdict of the International Court of Justice in The Hague
does not oblige Hungary to continue construction work at the
controversial Gabcikovo-Nagymaros dam. He said "the most
important element of the court's verdict is that nothing must
be further built, and what has already been built can only be
operated if we observe environmental protection demands."
Vargha was a founding member of the Danube Circle
environmental group and a leader of the 1989 demonstrations
that helped topple the communist regime. He was also involved
in protests against the previous government's negotiations
with Slovakia following the international court's ruling. MS

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