Czechoslovakia's division -- its protagonists ten years later.

(From Czech News Agency)

PRAGUE, Dec 1 (CTK) - The talks about the new form of Czechoslovakia started soon after the end of the communist regime in November 1989 and culminated on January 1, 1993 with the establishment of two independent countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The basic change occurred after the June 1992 general elections, after which the talks were moved to the level of Czech and Slovak governments and the negotiating teams were only composed of the representatives of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS).

These are the politicians who negotiated on Czechoslovakia's demise:

Vaclav Klaus (born on June 19, 1941) - At the time of Czechoslovakia's division the Czech premier. Before he was the Czechoslovak financial minister, the chairman of the Civic Forum (OF) and in April 1991 he became the leader of the ODS. He was the premier until the end of 1997, when, at a time of a political crisis in the Czech Republic, he resigned. After the elections in June 1998 he became the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies for four years. This October he announced that he would not seek re- election as the leader of the ODS and accepted the candidature for the post of president after Vaclav Havel.

Miroslav Macek (born on December 7, 1944) - At the time of the split the Czechoslovak deputy premier and labour and social affairs minister. At that time one of the main advocates of Czechoslovakia's split. He was the deputy chairman of the ODS until November 1992 and he returned to the post in December 1996. Last September he resigned after the information surfaced that he had received several million of crowns as a reward for his advice to the Austrian Erste Bank for the privatisation of the Ceska sporitelna savings bank.

Josef Zieleniec (born on April 28, 1946) - After the 1992 general elections the Czech foreign minister. He kept the post until his resignation in October 1997. One of the founders of the ODS, its deputy chairman for many years and a close aide to Vaclav Klaus. He parted with Klaus and the ODS in the political crisis in the Czech Republic at the end of 1997. In November 2000 he was elected a senator, nominated by the Freedom Union.