The demand of the German Upper House that the Czechs should repeal all ,,expulsion decrees"followed a declaration of the Czech Government referred in connection with the removal of Germans after the war to ,,from today's perspective unacceptable events and deeds". Prague regards this formulation as final and no legal claims by German refugees can arise. The German Government insists on calling the expulsion ,,illegal"so as to build on that formulation restitution and compensation claims.

The Prague Foreign Office expressed ,,surprise"at the demand to remove the ,,Benes Decrees". Czech President Vaclav Klaus recalled that the repeated German demand for the annulment of the decrees was on contravention of the German Czech Declaration of 1997 in which Germany committed itself ,,not to burden the Czech Republic with political and legal questions raked up from the past". ,,It would have been important information for Czech voters"said President Klaus had the German Upper House put its demands before the Czech referendum on EU entry.

The Deputy Czech Prime Minister Petr Mares has meanwhile suggested the payment of ,,compensation"to the circa 50,000 German speaking minority in the Czech Republic. The Chairman of the Sudeten German Association Bernd Posselt demanded the ,,swift realisation"of this plan and in addition demanded the establishment of a ,,Round Table"between representatives of the Czech Republic and the Sudeten Germans. Some two weeks previously the President of the European Parliament Pat Cox had offered his services as an intermediary for such meetings.

See also earlier articles Sudeten Germans open ,,Embassy"and A blank Czech for the Germans