Hungarian American Coalition News, 2002 (11. évfolyam, 1-2. szám)
2002 / 2. szám
has promised to take the issue before the university's senate should the needed government directive materialize—which hasn't— but the body can still veto the initiative, as it has done in the past. 3. Official Harassment of Csángó Hungarians The right to identity and native-language education is not secure in Romania. In fact, you can be harassed for asserting these as is the case with the Csángós, a culturally distinct, centuries-old ethnic Hungarian community numbering more than 100,000 who live in the northeastern part of Romania. The Csángós very existence is continually denied by the authorities, coupled with the falsification of census data, and forceful action is taken when they attempt to assert their aspirations through legitimate means. Although the legal mechanism for their native-language instruction exists in the Law on Education and the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on National Minorities, local and national-level authorities refuse to implement these in the case of the Csángós. For example, on November 14, 2001, the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers adopted a resolution supporting the Parliamentary Assembly's Recommendation 1521 (2001) on Csángó Minority Culture, among others, urging the Romanian government to ensure their nativelanguage education. Nevertheless, on the very same day, Deputy School-Inspector of Bacau/Bákó County Livia Liliana Sibisteanu threatened with fines and house searches those Csángó families in Cleja/Klézse who offered native language classes held in their own homes. Five days later, inspectors of the local Institute of Public Health visited the houses in question, banning the holding of classes. 4. Continued Imprisonment and Harassment of Ethnic Hungarians The continued selective prosecution and conviction of ethnic Hungarians for resistance to the Ceausescu regime in December 1989 present compelling evidence of a strong anti-Hungarian bias in the judicial system. Of the six police fatalities that occurred in the two Hungarian majority inhabited counties of Hargita and Covasna—three ethnic Romanian and three ethnic Hungarian—prosecution occurred only in the ethnic Romanian cases. 12 years after the overthrow of the Ceausescu dictatorship, as recently as July 2001, an ethnic Hungarian from Targu Secuiesc/Kézdivásárhely, Antal Reiner, was imprisoned. A total of six ethnic Hungarians were singled out for the lynching of the local representative of dictatorial rule, Aurel Agache, a particularly brutal police major who, on December 22, 1989, armed with his service revolver, tried to prevent the mob from entering the local Communist Party headquarters in the town. The Council of Europe’s Opinion 176 of 1993 specifically called on the Romanian authorities to “reconsider in positive manner the issue of releasing those persons imprisoned on political or ethnic grounds. ” Yet, these six defendants were sentenced to several years in 1999, a full six years after the recommendation, four of them in absentia, while Reiner and Dezső Héjjá (who was granted a presidential pardon this March) were imprisoned. The government could introduce a law in the Parliament which would exonerate these individuals, but until now has not shown a willingness to do so. 5. Shortcomings in the Implementation of the Law on Public Administration Implementation of the Law on Public Administration, adopted May 23, 2001, is frequently obstructed at the local level. The law mandates the use of the native language in localities where the given minority population exceeds 20 percent and includes the display of bilingual government institution, street- and place name signs in these settlements. Outside of compactly Hungarian-inhabited areas though, this law is blatantly ignored despite the will of the people. Moreover, those in a position to intervene on the part of the central government do not do so. The most egregious examples occur in Cluj County. The ultra-nationalist Mayor of Cluj/Kolozsvár (22 percent ethnic Hungarian), Gheorghe Funar, has repeatedly declared that the signs will not be displayed as long as he occupies his post, thereby overriding the local council's decisions. Similarly, mayors of several localities in Cluj County: Cornets/Magyarszarvaskend (59 percent ethnic Hungarian), Luncani/Aranyosgerend (35 percent), Bontida/Bonchida (22 percent) refuse to display bilingual inscriptions. The central government's representative, County Prefect Vasile Soporan, obligated with upholding the law according to Romanian law, has so far failed to take action in any of these cases, nor has the Minister for Public Administration intervened. 5 • Hungarian American Coalition • July 2002
