Slovak minister survives vote on test fiasco

SLOVAK INTERIOR minister Robert Kalinak survived a parliamentary vote of no-confidence last night over the botched security test that resulted in a passenger unwittingly carrying explosives on board an airliner from Poprad-Tatry airport to Dublin.

Mr Kalinak survived in his post after 44 MPs supported a motion to oust him and 53 voted against. He has weathered fierce criticism from opposition parties and media, who called the incident just the latest fiasco to embarrass Slovakia’s police force.

Electrician Stefan Gonda travelled to Dublin on the January 2nd Danube Wings flight from Poprad-Tatry in central Slovakia, unaware that his rucksack held 96 grammes of high-grade plastic explosive that a policeman had forgotten to remove after conducting a test for his sniffer dog.

Three days later, gardaí responded to information from Slovakia by closing roads and evacuating buildings around Mr Gonda’s flat on Dorset Street in Dublin, where he was arrested and the explosives retrieved.

After calls between the Garda and officials in Slovakia and the country’s embassy in Dublin, Mr Gonda was released.

He returned to Slovakia shortly afterwards and is expected to receive compensation from the Slovak government.

Only one senior policeman resigned over the incident, which officials blamed on the dog-handler, who, after forgetting about the explosives then failed to tell his police superiors about the incident for some 48 hours.

He did immediately tell air traffic controllers, however, but they wrongly informed the pilot of the Boeing 737 that the explosives were not in fact explosive.

Critics of the government said the debacle laid bare serious problems in Slovakia’s air safety and security systems and exposed Slovakia to international ridicule.

They also blamed Mr Kalinak for offering severely limited and allegedly misleading information about the incident.

“It doesn’t bother me that people laugh at Kalinak,” former justice minister and opposition MP Daniel Lipsic said in a parliamentary debate before the no-confidence vote, “but when they laugh at the police force it bothers me. And when they laugh at the whole of Slovakia, it makes me furious.

“The interior minister should be a model of honesty and courage. As minister you have shown that you lack courage,” he added.

He accused Mr Kalinak of “at first hiding away, and . . . [later] blaming everyone else: the dog handler, the airport, the Irish police, the opposition, even the rucksack itself.

“He should take responsibility like a man.”

Prime minister Robert Fico has praised Mr Kalinak for helping to reduce crime and road accidents and for improving the standard of Slovakia’s police force.

He accuses the opposition of seeking to undermine the government some five months before a general election.

Police unions have also backed the interior minister and staged rallies in his defence.