Slovak premier on reasons for optimism after ten years of Slovak independence.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda has said that the ten years since the foundation of the Slovak Republic following Czechoslovakia's split have proved that "we have managed it". He praised "positive Slovak patriotism" and said that Slovakia should strive to be seen as "a just state in all respects". The following is an excerpt from a report in English by Czech news agency CTK:

Bratislava, 1 January: Slovakia has overcome the most serious teething troubles in the ten years of independence and a stage of "hew hope", crowned with invitations to NATO and the EU have given way to periods of disappointments, real crises as well as real victories, Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda said today.

"Slovakia has convinced all that it is capable of existing as an independent state, that it is capable of solving its state matter," Dzurinda said in a speech on the 10th anniversary of establishment of the Slovak Republic as one of the two successors to the former Czechoslovakia on 1 January 1993...

Alluding to the rule of [former Prime Minister and current Movement for a Democratic Slovakia Chairman Vladimir] Meciar, Dzurinda recalled the crisis which erupted shortly after the Slovak Republic was founded in 1993 because of what he said were political and moral reasons and which was accompanied by undermining of democratic principles... But it was the stand of citizens that was the "magic wand" which brought ...