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

1981-04-01 / 4. szám

The Transylvanian Demands

Since October 1979, when the first issue of this quarterly was released to tell the world of the plight of the native Hungarian population of Transylvania living today under Rumanian communist dictatorship, we have published several memorandums addressed to the Congress of the United States as well as to the United Nations by different groups of American citizens appalled by the series of inhuman' acts of terror perpetrated by the ultra-nationalistic government of the Socialist Republic of Rumania against the Hungarian population. These American organizations seeking to remedy the intolerable situation in' Transylvania and find a just and workable solution to the problem were: The American Hungarian Federation, The Transylvanian World Federation. The Polish-Hungarian World Federation, Hungarian Americans in Defense of Human Rights, Federated Societies of Danube Swabians in the United States, and World Federation1 of Hungarian Jurists. Besides these American organizations we have published

memorandums by the Socialist Federation of Hungarians in Rumania, the Minority Rights Group of London, and Amnesty International.

Though the demands listed in these different memorandums varied in some details, they were identical in regard to the important aspects of human existence. Here we shall point out and underline those demands on which all interested organizations seem to agree, therefore we can take these as the UNIFORM CONSENT of all the organizations,, representing a wide scale of the American voters, nationwide.

All the organizations raising their voices in protest against the treatment of the Hungarian population of Transylvania by the Rumanian government agree that THE PREFERRED NATION STATUS PREVIOUSLY GRANTED TO THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF RUMANIA MUST NOT BE RENEWED UNTIL AND UNLESS:

1. The Hungarian language is recognized in Transylvania as the second official language.

2. The Autonomous Hungarian Province is re-established under Hungarian administration, including police force.

3. Centuries old Hungarian educational institutions, including the Hungarian Universities of Kolozsvár and Marosvásárhely are re-established.

4. Confiscated Hungarian libraries, museums, archives, churches and cemeteries are returned under the care and authority of the Hungarian churches and the re-established cultural and scientific organizations.

5. Hungarians, who were deported from their native towns and villages or moved under duress, must be allowed to return home and be employed there. Rumanians, who were settled into Hungarian towns and villages from distant parts of the country with the purpose of diluting the Hungarian character of the area, Rumanize the schools and filling better paying jobs at the expense of the native Hungarian population, must be returned into their own provinces.

THE TRANSYLVANIAN QUARTERLY m