BRATISLAVA (SITA) The police recorded 33 explosions in the Slovak Republic from the beginning of the year until July 9, 1998. In this period, they found 32 explosive devices, components, or ammunition. Four explosions were lethal and 11 persons were injured. Only a single case has been solved, a car explosion in Banská Bystrica, Peter Nemec, president of the Slovak Police Corps, told a news conference in Bratislava on Monday. Last year as many as 98 explosions were recorded in Slovakia. The police also found 43 undetonated explosive devices. Explosions left 11 persons

dead and 19 suffered injuries. These statistics include also cases of unprofessional handling of explosive devices. Explosions caused material damage worth over 11 million SKK. Mainly businessmen and objects in their ownership were attacked. The police have only solved two cases. In 1996 Slovakia posted 51 explosions, up by 36 from 1995. The police defused 14 explosives. In four cases people died in cars explosions. Material damages caused by explosions in 1996 totaled 7 million SKK. In ten cases, bomb attacks were focused on businessmen while officials of the customs administration were the object of explosions three times, natural persons 21-times, and legal entities eight-times. Eighteen explosions took place in apartment or a family house while bombs exploded seven times in or in front of a firm`s residence. There were also 17 car explosions. A paltry three out of 51 explosions have been solved. The SME and PRAVDA dailies recently provided a chronology of lethal explosions in Slovakia over the past four years. In 1995 there was only one explosion killing someone in Bratislava while in 1996 the number climbed to three. The third explosion, in front of then K-Mart, also killed a policeman. In 1997 six explosions shook the public, two in Bratislava, and one each in Žilina, Dubnica nad Váhom, and Čierna nad Tisou. In 1998 four cases of lethal explosions have been recorded. An explosion at Zlaté Piesky killed one of the alleged bosses of the Bratislava underworld and also injured a little girl. Most of the explosions were interpreted as executions of underworld figures, and the Slovak Police have not solved any of the cases yet. Another explosion in the busy city center of Žilina at 10:00 a.m. on July 9, 1998, killed two persons and seriously injured a third one.