Hungarian American Coalition News, 1995 (4. évfolyam, 3. szám)

1995 / 3. szám

peaceful and effective handling of minority questions.

One overall conclusion reached in the afternoon can be expressed in the form of a dichotomy: if the Eastern and Central European countries hope to join NATO and integrate with the West, they'll first have to look closer to home and put their own houses in order. Integration internationally means the need to combat disintegration and resolve conflicts nationally. In other words, Central and Eastern Europe at minimum must crane up to the Western Europe vis-a-vis their treatment of national minorities.

Frank Koszorús, Jr. made an important point in identifying the root cause of tensions in Central and Eastern Europe today as not the minorities or their desire to maintain thenunique cultural identities, but the statesponsored discrimination, persecution and attempts to forcibly assimilate them. This point is important to recognize for Americans, who are accustomed to viewing the state more as a moderating, stability-inducing entity in society, and minorities as the more aggressive, volatile element which threatens the status quo. In the Central and Eastern European context today, often precisely the reverse is true, where the state can use the military and other means of force and authority at its disposal to act in a highly destabilizing, disruptive and irresponsible fashion to achieve expansionist/exclusivist aims and suppress minority groups, who seek only the protection of their identity.

Mr. Koszorús suggested that because of the ethnic heterogeneity of Central and Eastern Europe, the nationalities issue can be solved or at least managed if minority or collective rights were to be accepted and implemented. He noted that by accommodating their national and ethnic groups, Central and Eastern European states would ensure stability for their majorities as well as for the region.

Policy Implications

In the realm of U.S. policy-making, the implications of the views expressed during the conference are as follows:

(1) With the fall of communism, a new threat to democracy and stability in Central and Eastern Europe is exclusivist nationalism (frequently government-sponsored).

(2) The path to solving this threat is not to ignore, but squarely confront if

(3) Accordingly, it is important that the U.S. closely study (not superficially dismiss, as "ancient rivalries") conflicts, clearly distinguishing between aggressor and victim. Then, having made the distinctions, the U.S. should:

(4) Act upon the conclusion by rewarding moderation and sanctioning extremism.

(5) If the national interest of the U.S. is to support regional peace and stability, and if the

U.S. is interested in maintaining its leadership position as prime advocate of enlightened democratic values, then its role would be enhanced by examining and supporting the novel proposals for minority rights protection emerging from the affected groups themselves, some of which were mentioned and described during the conference.

(6) The U.S. and Western European allies and NATO must recognize the early manifestations of, and act vigorously to curb, the extremist, anti-minority conduct of states before (as a necessary precondition) NATO membership, hi this way, the West can use the important process of NATO expansion to contribute to, not diminish, the security of Europe as a whole.

(7) U.S. policy would benefit from shedding its predilection (often baseless, superficial, preconceived notions) against dealing with minority groups, histoid of expressing, ill-informed, euphemistic and contradictory characterizations to distance itself from minority aspirations, the U.S. should first delineate clear-cut, consistent criteria and then demonstrate visible, strong support for particular minority groups which serve as significant, nonstate actors inducing regional stability.

Mr. László Hámos, (Rapporteur) President, Hungarian Human Rights Foundation, New York

Leaders of the Hungarian minorities during their presentations. From left to right: Mr. László Hámos (Hungarian Human Rights Foundation, New York); Dr. László Józsa (Hungarian Association of Voivodina); Mr. Miklós Kovács (Cultural Association of Hungarians in Subcarpathia ); Dr. Edith Bauer (Slovakia’s Co-Existence Political Movement); Bishop László Tőkés (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania); and Mrs. Edith Lauer (Hungarian American Coalition, Cleveland)

Special Edition - 1995 • Hungarian American Coalition News *6