1988. február (17-31. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2
I Mii 24/D Little Rut&elt Street, LOM DONI, Ví-C.i • Tel. D4~4&0 H 26 • G. Krassá 23/1988 (E) lOth February, 1988 Karoly ¥1061*s Trial Begins Tomorrow in Subotica The court hearing of Karoly Vicéi’s criminal case, a UU year old Senta inhabi tant who was arrested on November 5th, vas postponed by the Subotica High Court from January 28th until February ll-12th. Vicéi is accused of incitement to destroy the peaceful co-existence of nations living in Yugoslavia because he stated many times that the Hungarians living in Voivodina suffer racial diserimination. In 1977 Vicéi and another uere accused of spreading hostile propaganda and sen- tenced to tvo years solitary confinement after he had tried to organise an exp- erimental Hungárián theatre in Senta. The examining magistrate fór the present criminal case - Petar Beric - is the same presiding judge who sentenced Vicéi eleven years ago. In recent years many of Karoly Vicéi’s writings have appeared in the Voivodina Hungárián language newspapers - in Magyar Szó ("Hungárián Word"), Képes Ifjúság ("Illustrated Youth"), U.i Symposion ("New Symposium") - and he has been in Növi Sad rádió programmes and has won two awards in the Magyar Szó "Mihály Majtányi" növel competition. The Hungárián language papers in Yugoslavia are silent about Vicéi’s árrést bút the Central Belgrade dailies - Politica. Politica Express and Vecem.ie Novosti - reported the case saying that according to a Hungárián writer colleague of Vicéi’s he was innocently dragged off to prison. The Voivodina Writers Union appealed to the Working Peoples Socialist Union's- the Yugoslav Patriotic Front’s - provinciái body and to the court asking that they examine the case impartially and that the seriously ill Vicéi be permitted to defend himself after his release. The court did nőt act upon this request; Vicéi remained in prison and his cell is only heated if the temperature falls below 0 degrees centigrade. In Switzerland about 200 people signed a letter of protest which was sent to the Yugoslav govemment and to the Yugoslav Embassy in Bern and the presiding judge in Subotica. Amnesty International will be represented at the trial by an ob- server - Dávid Lachat a Swiss lawyer. One of Vicéi*s friends and writer colleagues Zoltán Varga, wrote a letter to the provinciái Writers Union in December stressing that "the problems which dérivé from the co-existence of national minorities cannot be solved by denying their very existence and still less by police methods". Zoltán Varga is disturbed by incidents which "nőt only endanger free speech bút Creative freedom as well". In Yugoslavia a debate has been going on fór months about modifying the consti- tution: proposals were made to restrict the autonomy of the Voivodina and Kosovo provinces. In Belgrade there is a fear that after the Kosovo riots they will be confronted with Slovenian and Hungárián movements in Voivodina. Recently Magdolna Rövid, a sociologist, was expelled from the Party and fired from her job as manager of the Senta Social Community of Interests - a local organ of a state < institute which supports the poor. She investigated the proportion of poverty according to nationality. In the middle of January Rozália Devity and many of her colleagues were fired and expelled from the Party, she was the manager of the Senta "Lajos Thurzó" Cultural and Educational Centre. She was accused of "lacking vigilance" because she endorsed a guest performance by the Hungárián "Lajos Somorjay" concert choir in Senta and Tornyos. The local authorities
