Due to a mapping mistake made more than 50 years ago, the Czech Republic has to hand over to Poland 365 hectares of land situated in the Western Sudety mountains, Czech public radio has informed.

Prague intends to right the errors committed in demarcating the border by turning over a part of the Liberec region, lying in-between Polish localities Swieradow-Zdroj and Bogatynia.

This is being protested by regional authorities, with the Mayor of Liberec suggesting that the Czech Republic buys from Poland the land in question.

The problem with border demarcation concerns most of the borderland regions of the Czech Republic. Part of this results from mapmakers’ mistakes, others from the so-called “border debt” from 1958, when the final demarcations were being carried out.

At the time, Czechoslovakia received 1205.9 hectares from Poland and Poland received 837.46 hectares. The difference has not been settled to date. A special Polish-Czech Standing Commission was established in 1992 at the Interior Ministry in Warsaw to resolve the problem. (ek/jb)