Hungarian American Coalition News, 2002 (11. évfolyam, 1-2. szám)
2002 / 2. szám
Slovakia 1. Benes Decrees Discriminate Against Ethnic Hungarians Post-communist property restitution is a tough, painful, though unavoidable issue that Slovakia has still not faced in order to become a truly functioning democracy. The 1945 Benes Decrees—as a precursor to the infamous modern-day practice of ethnic cleansing— sought to create an ethnically pure nation-state, among others, by summarily revoking the citizenship of all ethnic Hungarians, confiscating all of their properties, closing their centuries-old schools and ordering their en masse expulsion. But, the discriminatory legal impact of the Benes Decrees remains in effect today. Even though, upon its July 1993 accession to the Council of Europe, Slovakia obligated itself to overcome this legacy, it has failed to do so. Today, ethnic Hungarian Slovak citizens are denied rightful claim to property restitution to which ethnic Slovaks are. Thousands of acres of land confiscated from ethnic Hungarians and given to ethnic Slovaks under the decrees still remain in the latter's possession. The assets of all Hungarian community organizations confiscated between 1945 and 1948 have yet to be returned to their rightful owners. The 100,000-member Hungarian Reformed Church, which had the majority of its buildings and schools confiscated, still has no legal recourse. Nor is there any expressed intention to redress these legal inequities. Most recently, Prime Minister Mikulás Dzurinda exclaimed “I take the liberty to declare with certainty that the Benes Decrees need not be abolished and will not be abolished” (OMRÍSlovak Digest, March 11, 2002). Can NATO embrace an aspirant country, which refuses to overcome this anachronism? 2. Ethnic Hungarians Gerrymandered and Denied Representation The adoption of the laws on redistricting and regional election in July and December, 2001, precluded a Hungarian majority in any of the eight new territorial units and therefore prevented the election of a single ethnic Hungarian chairman to head up any of these units. Through a combination of gerrymandering, a tworound election system, and fierce propaganda for Slovaks to vote for “Slovaks” (criticized by European Parliamentary Rapporteur Wiersma to no avail), Hungarians, who were previously relatively well-represented at the local level, now suffer serious under-representation on precisely those local issues (education, culture, public administration) of greatest importance to the cohesiveness of a minority. On July 4, 2001, in an about face, all members of the governing coalition—save the Hungarian Coalition Party (HCP)—-allied themselves with the opposition Meciar-led Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) and the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS). As a result, the Slovak Parliament actually voted in favor of the existing Meciar-era eight district system in force since 1996! The implicit anti-Hungarian bias of these measures, coupled with certain provisions in, and omissions from the laws, cast serious doubt on the Slovak leadership's commitment to the principles of devolution, regionalism, and promotion of a democratic and civic society and seriously questions whether in fact public administration reform occurred at all. But the Slovak leadership considers this issue to be behind it and has not indicated any willingness to amend the laws. 3. Hungarian-Language Higher Education Imperiled The state of Hungarian-language higher education has reached crisis proportions in Slovakia: Today, nearly half as many ethnic Hungarians graduate from institutions of higher education (3.6 percent) than ethnic Slovaks (7.5 percent) at the national level. The number of ethnic Hungarian graduates from Konstantin University—where enrollment by minority students has dropped by a whopping three-fifths in the past five years—does not replace retiring teachers. Yet, for more than a year, the senate and accreditation committee of the university have failed to take up the issue of implementing a January 2001 government recommendation to create an independent Hungarian-language division of six departments within the institution for which monies have already been allocated. The purpose of the college would be to provide adequate training of ethnic Hungarian teachers for the 520,000 strong community as no such independent facility exists in the country. Upon joining the government coalition, the Hungarian Coalition Party relinquished its goal to establish of an independent Hungarian-language university, which would be necessary to reverse the declining trend in native-language education, in favor of pledges by the government to create the division at Konstantin University and narrow the gap between ethnic Hungarian and Slovak graduates. The government has failed on both counts. 6 • Hungarian American Coalition • July 2002
