The Eighth Tribe, 1981 (8. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1981-01-01 / 1. szám

GRIEVANCES AND LEGITIMATE DEMANDS OF THE NATIVE HUNGARIAN POPULATION OF TRANSYLVANIA

Today, at the end of the 20th century, civilised societies under majority rule firmly believe that such rule should not infringe upon the rights of minority groups.

On the authority of the Human Rights Proclamation of the United Nations these rights include:

Each individual’s right to equal education, equal job opportunity for equal pay, equal housing, welfare and protection under the law.

Each individual’s right to free worship in the church of his choice.

Each individual’s right to speak his own language, to keep and develop his ethnic cultural heritage, to keep and develop his ethnic identity without interference from the ruling majority.

Each individual’s right to live within his own ethnic group, and the right of this group to selfadministration.

THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF RUMANIA IS FOUND IN FLAGRANT VIOLATION OF EACH OF THESE BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS IN REGARD TO THE HUNGARIAN MINORITY.

1. Hungarian districts, Hungarian cities, townships and villages are denied self-administration.

2. Hungarian schools are eliminated step by step.

3. The public use of the Hungarian language is forbidden.

4. The publication of Hungarian literary and professional books, journals and periodicals are severely restricted.

5. The Hungarian Churches are under constant harassment. Archives, libraries and museums are confiscated.

6. Hungarian children are brutally beaten and punished for speaking their own language on the school grounds. Hungarian teachers are intimidated, arrested, tortured and even beaten to death.

7. Hungarian cemeteries are desecrated, torn up, tombstones removed, and turned into new Rumanian cemeteries in order to eradicate every trace of a Hungarian past.

8. Welfare packages, including Bibles, are confiscated. Welfare donations sent from overseas to Hungarian churches in Transylvania, whether they serve the purpose of renovations or to reTHE TRANSYLVANIAN QUARTERLY

lieve the needs caused by flood, earthquake and other catastrophes, are constantly redirected by the Rumanian authorities into other parts of the country and distributed among Rumanians only.

9. Hungarians are discriminated against in the fields of education, job, housing, welfare, and every other aspect of human existence.

10. Hungarians in Transylvania live under constant harassment and gross intimidation from teachers, officials, administrators, police and military personnel, with the purpose of forcing them to change their names, and declare themselves Rumanians.

11. Hungarians are constantly moved out of their homes under various pretexts, and resettled into new and foreign environments, while their homes are given to Rumanians, brought over from Rumania proper, in order to “de-Hungarize” the Hungarian-inhabited regions of Transylvania.

12. Whenever the Rumanian government establishes a new industry in a Hungarian region, the jobs in that industry are not offered to the local population, but Rumanians are imported for this purpose and settled in homes confiscated from Hungarians, who are deported into Rumania proper in order to make place for the new settlers.

13. Relatives and friends of Hungarians visiting from the West are under daily harassments by Rumanian authorities, and after their departure those whom they visited are often taken to the police station for lengthy interrogations and abuses.

14. Hungarians are allowed to participate in sports only if they change their names, and declare themselves Rumanians.

15. Those students who graduate from one of the very few schools left where the language of instruction is still Hungarian are denied entrance into Universities.

Since each and every one of these grievances not only conflicts with the Human Rights Proclamation of the United Nations, and with articles VII and VIII of the Helsinki Agreement, but are in flagrant violation of the Peace Treaties signed by Rumania as well as the very constitution of the Socialist Republic of Rumania, it has become necessary that the rightful demands of Transylvanian people be brought to the attention of the civilized World, as follows:

1. The recognition of the Hungarian language in Transylvania as the second official language.

2. The establishment of two or more Hungarian Autonomous Regions under strictly Hungarian

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