21.   A Council of Europe official urged Bulgarians Wednesday to ignore political divisions stemming from their communist past in order to move faster toward stable democracy.

22.   A congress of his ruling Socialist Party last weekend was replete with symbols of the Communist past.

23.   A former Communist, Milosevic thus won a suspension of economic sanctions and appears intent on moving Yugoslavia away from nationalism and back toward its Communist past.

24.   Also lagging is Romania, where a democratically elected government has been too mired in the communist past to race ahead with market reform.

25.   Anxious to expunge that Communist past from his record now that he is a staunch nationalist, Tudjman single-handedly renamed the old Dinamo club Croatia.

26.   Another threat to the popular incumbent is a proposal in parliament that would bar anyone with a Communist past from office.

27.   At the same time, Poland and Hungary are eager to join as the last step in shaking off their communist past in Eastern Europe.

28.   Brazauskas cited his age and concerns that the campaign would focus on his communist past.

29.   But his communist past makes many others suspicious of him.

30.   But if a return to the communist past is impossible, a leap forward for reforms may be equally elusive.