Czechoslovak Officials Assail Hungary for Stopping Work on Danube Project

Government officials accused Hungary on Monday of violating international law by halting work on a joint dam project and said that Prague will seek compensation.

The regional Presidium in Slovakia, the eastern portion of federated Czechoslovakia, said Hungary must finish its section of the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros twin dam project on the Danube River.

Budapest said Saturday that it will make a final decision on whether to continue work on the Nagymaros dam, about 20 miles northwest of Budapest, after a two-month review.

Hungary’s official MTI news agency quoted a senior Czechoslovak Water Ministry official as saying that canceling Nagymaros would cost Czechoslovakia $2.7 billion and that Prague would ask Budapest for damages.

“The unilateral step of the government of Hungary contradicts valid Czechoslovak agreements and international law,” the Slovak presidium said in a statement carried by CTK news agency.

“The presidium asks the federal government to adopt immediate steps necessary for the fulfillment of the valid international agreement between Czechoslovakia and Hungary, and requests Hungary to consistently keep the agreement.”

Earlier, the Czechoslovak Communist Party newspaper Rude Pravo accused Hungarian opposition forces of using the dam project as a means to attack the Budapest government.

Opposition in Hungary to the Nagymaros project has been mounted on ecological and economic grounds, and 150,000 people have signed a petition condemning it.

In Hungary, the dam project has come to symbolize the rift between Premier Miklos Nemeth, a reformer who wants to scrap the scheme, and party leader Karoly Grosz, who has said he would vote to complete it.