Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2017 (29. évfolyam, 1-50. szám)
2017-03-10 / 10. szám
Hungary Maintains “State Of Emergency” Hungary’s government has decided to extend by six months a state of emergency, covering the whole country, in response to the dangers presented by mass migration, the government office chief said. János Lázár told a weekly press briefing that the state of emergency would be maintained until Sept. 7. The reason to keep it in place is that 800,000 people stuck in the Balkans are unable to return to Turkey, he added. The measure also includes restoring immigration detention Smartfence - the second line of protection as well as strengthening the border with a second fence to be completed along the 150km Hungarian-Serbian section by May 1, Lázár said. Altogether 700 prisoners will contribute towards the construction, he said. Lázár noted that the government had set aside 38 billion forints (EUR 123m) for the purpose last week, bringing the total cost of the fence along the southern border to 284 billion forints. Noting a regulation passed by the European Commission on Feb. 16 requiring blanket checks at EU external borders, EU citizens included, Lázár said waiting times were bound to increase but the government would uphold the new rule to the point that “no disproportionate harm comes to society”. Reuters has reported that Hungary’s new border fence - also referred as “smartfence” - is capable of delivering electric shocks to unwanted migrants and armed with heat sensors, cameras, and loudspeakers that blare in in English, Arabic and Farsi: Attention, attention. I’m warning you that you are at the Hungarian border. If you damage the fence, cross illegally, or attempt to cross, it’s counted to be a crime in Hungary. I’m warning you to hold back from committing this crime. You can submit your asylum application at the transit zone, hungarytoday.hu US State Department Report Assesses The State Of Human Rights In Hungary In 2016 US State Department released its annual 2016 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices; among these was a report on Hungary as well. In the words of recently confirmed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the reports, which are published every year by the state department, “demonstrate the United States’ unwavering commitment to advancing liberty, human dignity, and global prosperity.” The reports are used by American legislators, judges, and federal officials “as a resource for shaping policy and guiding decisions, informing diplomatic engagements, and determining the allocation of foreign aid and security sector assistance.” This is the 41st year that the department has compiled such a list. According to the State Department’s report about Hungary; The most significant human rights problem remained the government’s handling of migrants and asylum seekers seeking to transit the country, which was marked by several reports of physical abuse and xenophobic rhetoric. International organizations and human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) continued to voice criticism of the systematic erosion of the rule of law; potential violations of international humanitarian law; weakening of checks and balances, democratic institutions, and transparency; and intimidation of independent societal voices since 2010. The issues of corruption and lack of transparency in government were also detailed by the report. In particular, it noted that, in Hungary in 2016, “officials often engaged in corrupt practices with impunity...authorities were consistently reluctant to investigate corruption allegations in a transparent, public manner.” It also discussed the “numerous” reports of government corruption that had appeared over the course of last year, most notably the Central Bank of Hungary’s (MNB) unlawful allocations of public funds worth roughly 267 billion forint ($960 million USD) to private foundations established by the bank in 2013 and 2014, as numerous controversies surrounding parliamentary and judicial responses to the scandal. The reported also noted that “as of November [2016], no criminal investigations had been initiated in the case.” The report listed prison overcrowding, the physical abuse of inmates and detainees by prison staff; a “politically determined” government registration process for religious groups; government corruption; “growing media concentration that restricted editorial independence”; and increasing government pressure on NGOs and civil society groups, as outstanding human rights issues facing Hungary. While noting that human rights groups and NGOS generally operate without facing government restrictions, the report noted that “senior government officials...continued the political smear campaign against human rights NGOs that began in 2013 and continued after the 2014 national elections.” The document particularly noted efforts on the part of the ruling Fidesz party to paint certain human-rights groups, such as the Helsinki Committee, as “fake NGOs” that are in the pocket of Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, a familiar target of Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán’s criticism. The State Department publication also mentioned among the country’s human rights problems the issues of domestic violence against women and children, sexual harassment of women, anti-Semitism, the “abuse and inhuman treatment of institutionalized children and persons with physical and mental disabilities,” as well as the discrimination and social exclusion of Roma people. The Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary (MAZSIHISZ) reported 19 anti-Semitic incidents over the course of 2016, according to the State department document. Of these, two involved vandalism; seven involved threats; six involved hate speech; and one physical assault, namely the murder of an Israeli tourist in the town of Tiszakecske last April. The report also noted that there had been 46 anti-Semitic incidents in 2015. Regarding judicial practices, the report said that while Hungary’s courts function independently, “attempts to exert political influence over the judiciary occurred.” In particular, the report cited government officials’ public criticism of a Veszprém court’s acquittal of suspects in the 2010 red sludge flooding catastrophe as an example of an attempt to influence a judicial decision, noting as well that the head of the Hungarian Supreme Court had expressed dissatisfaction with such statements. Concerning freedom of expression, the report noted that freedom of speech and of the press are officially protected by law. It also observed that “the broad powers of the media regulatory authority, however, together with a high level of media concentration and an advertising market highly dependent on governmental contracts maintained a climate conducive to self-censorship and political influence.” The document viewed the lack of objectivity on the part of state media, as well as the reduction of independent media outlets, including left-wing daily Népszabadság’s sudden closure last year, as causes for concern. On Saturday, Hungary’s foreign ministry disputed the findings of the report, arguing that it was not a fundamental human right for “crowds of people” to “march” through safe countries, violate their national laws and choose where they want to live. In its statement to Hungarian wire service MTI, the foreign ministry criticized the State Department for supposedly retaining a “Democrat-aligned apparatus,” while adding that it is in agreement with US President Donald Trump on illegal immigration, and considers the security of the Hungarian people its top priority. Current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who officially issued the report, is a Trump appointee. The Hungarian foreign ministry also claimed that “objective facts” proved that the allegations of corruntion made against the government were “baseless.” hungarytoday.hu Március 10, 2017 J ß fBESSEZSSÍ Hungary’s Prime Minister Calls For ‘Ethnic Homogeneity’ Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told a crowd in Budapest that “ethnic homogeneity” is key for economic success, and that “too much mixing causes problems.” The remarks were part of Orban’s speech at the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where he promoted the nation’s economic growth and reiterated the government’s opposition to immigration. Although Orbán makes frequent use of ethnonationalist and antiimmigrant rhetoric, these remarks are some of the most extreme from the prime minister. In the past, he has called migration a “poison” for Hungary and talked about the need to “keep Europe Christian” amid the region’s refugee crisis, hujfingtonpost.com Goverment Official Says ‘Rigged Media’ Quoted Orbán Out of Context ‘And Turned Him Into A Racist Overnight’ Zoltán Kovács, official spokesman for the office of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, claims the “rigged media” turned his prime minister “into a racist overnight” by deliberately misrepresenting his recent comments on ethnicity. During his speech, Prime Minister Orbán clarified his recently reported comments on the importance of preserving Hungary’s “ethnic homogeneity” by saying, “Of course, we Hungarians are heterogeneous ... even if you read the names [in this room], you’d have everything from Bunjevci to Swabian [a reference to ethnic groups in the region]”. “[T]his is a colourfulness within certain limits, [but] we are all from one civilisation ... Of course, as we learned from St. Stephen, we welcome everyone.” By mischaracterising this as a call for a monoracial society along National Socialist lines, says Kovács, the “liberal media” provide “a perfect example of quoting out of context to deliberately twist the meaning and swindle the reader”. He added that “many of the journalists who ran with that distorted version of events never heard or read the speech”. Kovács asserts that “the loud, ideologically-driven press simply don’t have ears to hear the real meaning of a statement and refuse to report the full picture. Instead, these journalists with an agenda quote out of context and crop the photo” - a reference to a previous incident of media distortion from 2015. “Set aside the manipulative editing on the part of the journalist and you know that PM Orbán called for the preservation of ethnic homogeneity according to our ‘colourful’ European tradition and history... That’s a big difference. Too bad the rigged media is so blinded by their own bias that they can’t see the difference or don’t want to.” The Oxford Dictionary defines “ethnicity” as “the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition” - an umbrella which could easily encompass a multi-racial society, if not a multi-cultural one. Given the context provided by Kovács, the Hungarian prime minister’s comments may be understood to reflect similar views on “Hyphenated Americanism” expressed by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, whose likeness adorns Mount Rushmore today. “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalised Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalised Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all,” he said in 1915. breitbart.com Highest Quality Care at the Best Price! 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