Calvin Synod Herald, 1984 (84. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1984-06-01 / 3. szám
ISSN 0161-6900 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD Founded in 1900 Official Organ of the Calvin Synod-United Church of Christ A. lf‘ Vol. 84, No. 3., 1984. June REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA Alapítva 1900-ba A Kálvin Egyházkerület hivatalos lapja ^ELLENÜt^' 84. évf., 3. szám, 1984. június ROMANIA’S ANTI-HUNGARIAN BIAS CONDEMNED Several thousand protestors rallied on the steps of the US Capitol on May 31st against the “cultural genocide” of nearly 2.5 million ethnic Hungarians living in Romania. The protestors, representing Hungarian communities and groups from as far away as Montreal, called for the swift passage of House Resolution 147, which condemns Romania for discriminating against its Hungarian minority and calls on the president and secretary of state to press the Communist government in Bucharest to improve its human rights record. They charged that the Romanian government systematically is trying to destroy the Hungarian culture there by actively interfering with cultural, religious and teaching activities and discriminates against Hungarians in employment, education and job promotions. Rep. Thomas Lantos, D-Calif., chairman of the House Human Rights Caucus and the only member of Congress born in Hungary told the rally “Congress is deeply concerned with the deprivation of rights suffered by Hungarian minorities” in Romania and other East European countries. He said the government’s discrimination must end so that Hungarians “can use our language, use our culture and teach our children in the 1000 years of rich heritage” that has transpired. Rep. Mark Siljander, R-Mich., who said to be half-Hungarian, said he met with the Romanian ambassador in recent weeks to discuss the matter and pledged to visit the country later this year for a “firsthand look” at the problem. He said the plight of the minority could only be solved through “influence, pressure and stiff arm-twisting.” Ethnic Hungarians lived in the region, particularly in what is now the Romanian province of Transylvania, for more than 1,100 years. Transylvania was ceded to Romania when the country was created after World War I. According to the House resolution, the Romanian government “pursues a policy of denationalization” toward the minority by closing Hungarian schools, destroying cultural materials and documents and the “conscious dispersion of the Hungarian intelligentsia.” It says the government “actively interferes with the internal affairs of all its religious communities, severely limiting or banning all their social and teaching activities and discriminates against their members in employment, education and promotion” particularly toward Hungarian and German Catholic and Protestant churches. The “sense-of-the-House” resolution is expected to pass easily before Congress adjourns for its summer recess in late June. Congressman Thomas Lantos of the eleventh congressional district of California, who is the chairman of the Human Rights Caucus and the ranking majority member of the European Middle East Sub-committee of the Foreign Affairs Committee, first member of Congress of over two hundred years, who is of direct Hungarian origin, spoke the following way: (The speech was transcribed by Judith Toth of the Hungarian Radio of Montreal.) “Az amerikai kongresszus nevében, magyar barátsággal és szeretettel köszöntőm Önöket. Amerika történetében a magyaroknak díszhelye van. Mi sokat tettünk ezért az országért és ez az ország sokat tett miértünk. I want to honor you for taking the time and trouble to appear here on behalf of the Hungarian ethnic minorities in Eastern Europe. I want to tell you that as chairman of the Human Rights Caucus of the Congress we are deeply concerned with the deprivation of rights suffered by Hungarian minorities in several of the neighbouring countries. It is absolutely critical that Hungarians who have become citizens of this magnificient free republic, express themselves articulately and forcefully on behalf of their sisters and brothers, who are denied the privilege of using their own language, enjoying their own culture, teaching their children in a thousand year old civilization in all of its ramifications. The Hungarian population of Transylvania, Erdély, is historically the finest that Hungary had to offer in its almost eleven hundred years of history. Even during the long Turkish occupation centuries ago it was the people of Erdély, who maintained the culture, the civilization, the language, the very essence, the heartbeat of the Hungarian people, and it is critical that you as American citizens of Hungarian origin maintain the determination and vigilance, so that every Hungarian child, in all of the neighbouring states of Hungary be given the opportunity, of speaking, praying, reading, writing, singing in the magnificient language of his or her ancestors. So that magnificient Hungarian patriots like Miklós Duray no longer languish in a Czechoslovak jail! I pledge to you, my undying efforts as a member of the Congress of the United States, to fight for the human rights of the Hungarian nationalities in all the neighbouring countries of Hungary, until they will be able to exercise their human and cultural rights without any interference whetever! Isten áldjon meg mindannyiotokat!” Dr. Aladár Komjáthy
