WORLD : Prague Party Official Kills Self

PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia — A former high-ranking Communist official ousted during the November revolution for his part in crushing Czechoslovakia’s 1968 reforms has committed suicide, the state news agency said today.

The body of Viliam Salgovic, 70, was found by his wife hanging in the laundry room of his home in the Slovak capital of Bratislava late Monday, CTK said.

Salgovic, a former member of Slovakia’s Communist Party Politburo who had close ties to the Soviet KGB, was the first senior member of the leadership that crushed reform after 1968 known to have committed suicide after last fall’s peaceful revolution.

At least two police officers have killed themselves since November, and former Prague Communist Party boss Antonin Kapek was hospitalized with severe injuries after trying to shoot himself last month.