The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1983 (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1983-08-01 / 8. szám

Could this Borika Bodó be the same girl who was happily singing Hungarian folk songs in the cornfields of Szék? We will probably never know, though the name is not the kind you run into every day. Any attempt to investigate is greatly hampered by the fact that Rumanian communist authorities flatly deny the existence of a “Bardogoci Mental Research Institute”, and Dobni ja, as such, is forbidden territory to foreign visitors.

But whoever that poor girl may be, we pray God that the curse which lies heavily today over the land of Transylvania may be lifted soon, so that girls who feel like singing under God’s blue sky may do so freely. While those who are hell-bent on murder, torture, destruction and genocide will be swept away by the broom of Divine Justice.

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TYPEWRITERS DECLARED “DEADLY WEAPONS”

In the first week of April, Dictator Ceausescu declared a new law, which stands unique in the history of mankind. Every typewriter in the country in the possession of private individuals had to be taken to the local police station, where it was recorded and “fingerprinted”. “Loyal citizens” received permits for the possession and use of their typewriters, while to those who are regarded by the police as “enemies of the regime” permit was denied and their typewriters confiscated without any recompense, as the Orlando Sentinel expressed it in its April 15, 1'983 issue “Rumania is banning possession or use of typewriters by citizens . . . who pose a ‘danger to public order or state security’.”

The first known “victim” of this new law in the city of Kolozsvár/Cluj—Napoca was an 84 year old widow, Mrs. Ilona Bartha, whose husband, once a free lance journalist, left behind a big, old fashioned typewriter stored in the attic of the old Bartha-home, now shared by six families. Mrs. Bartha, who has only one room left to her use in her old home, walked over to the police station and reported her husband’s old typepewriter, collecting dust in the attic. “You must bring it in”, the SECURITATE officer in charge told her. “I can’t” she replied, “it is much too heavy. Send somebody to get it. You can have it for good.”

One week later the police came to the house on the Monostori Street, took the typewriter and arrested Mrs. Bartha as the “illegal owner of an unregistered typewriter. She was sentenced to three months in jail.

WORLDWIDE REACTION

Dictator Ceausescu’s new offensive against the 3 million strong native Hungarian population of Transylvania brought forth a strong reaction in the West during the last few months. For the lack of space we are listing here only the more important articles dealing with the oppression of the minorities in Rumania.

Nov. 20, 1982, THE ECONOMIST:

Transylvania, Echo in the Conch.

Dec. 6,1982, FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: The fate of Hungarian poet in Transylvania uncertain.

Dec. 11, 1982 DIE WELT: Transylvanians worry about their culture.

Dec. 11, 1982 DIE PRESSE, Wien, Austria: Ceausecu’s Second Class Subjects, the Hungarians.

Dec. 19, 1982, THE TRANSYLVANIA OBSERVER, Australia: The eyes of the world are on Transylvania!

Dec. 24, 1982, THE WASHINGTON TIMES: In Romania the angels must sing underground.

Jan. 2, 1983, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL:

Life getting harder in Romania. Stalinist regime is most repressive in Soviet bloc (Robert D. Kaplan)

Jan. 3, 1982, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: US versus Romania (Eric Bourne)

Jan. 13, 1983, NEUE ZÜRICHER

ZEITUNG: The Hungarian Minority in Rumania - the former Citadel of the West.

Jan. 14,1983, LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR: When Ceausescu hunts for Hungarians..” (Antoine de Gerando)

Jan. 20, 1983, THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Erasing a people’s history.

Jan. 23,1983 VALEURS ACTUELLES, Paris: Tension in Transylvania (Gilles Mermoz)

Feb. 28, 1983, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Hungarians restive in the East Bloc. (Victoria Pope)

March 8, 1983 THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Education tax was only one of many Rumanian human rights abuses - but it was the last straw. (Eric Bourne)

The Transylvanian Quarterly}» a supplement to the Eighth Tribe bi-lingual monthly magazine. Subscription is $10.00 per year — $12.00 in Canada, payable in U.S.A. funds. Eighth Tribe, P.O. Box 637, Ligonier, Pennsylvania 15658.

THE TRANSYLVANIAN QUARTERLY

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