Hungarian American Coalition News, 1993 (2. évfolyam, 1. szám)

1993 / 1. szám

PROTEST

The “Anyanyelvi Konferencia - A Magyar Nyelv és Kultúra Nemzetközi Társasága” (Native Language Conference - The International Association of Hungarian Language and Culture) which works to further the language training of Hungarian educators throughout the world and to build ties between them, noted with shock a decree issued in May 1993 by the Rumanian secretary of education. Bringing to mind the past communist regime, the decree forbids Rumanian educators from traveling abroad without prior approval from the ministry.

This violation of a basic human right especially affects Hungarian minority professors and teachers who are placed in a disadvantaged position if their vital connection with Hungary is impaired or severed.

We ask international organizations to join us in our protest, and to inform international public opinion that Rumania, while seeking to join the European Community, contradicts civilized Europe and universal human rights by ordering and enforcing such discriminatory measures.

Budapest, June 25, 1993

Native Language Conference —

The International Association of Hungarian Language and Culture.

APPEAL FOR FUNDS

The No. 3 Elementary School of Orosháza

in southeastern Hungary is asking for donations. In light of the financial difficulties affecting many sectors of Hungarian society, including the majority of schools, a foundation has been established to collect donations for the school as a supplement to state funding. According to Gyula Dancz, the school’s director, these donations will make it possible to equip a language laboratory and to make the current language and computer | science courses more effective. Contributions can be made to the following bank account: KERESKEDELMI BANK RT OROSHÁZA 264-11211.

HAHRC Newsletter — Human Rights Briefing

The Hungarian-American Human Rights | Council continues to provide up-to-date reports on the circumstances of the sizeable Hungarian minorities in northern Yugoslavia, Slovakia, Rumania, and Ukraine. Valuable information on1 legal matters and specific human rights violations are documented in each issue.

Annual subscriptions cost $50 and can be I obtained at HAHRC, P.O. Box 75, Western Springs, Illinois 60555.

Karoly Király on U.S. Tour: Report from Minnesota

by Paul Rupprecht

Karoly Király, a Hungarian leader in Transylvania and veteran of the opposition to Ceausescu recently toured the U.S. on behalf of minority rights in East-Central Europe.

Speaking in Minneapolis-St. Paul on March 1, Mr. Király said that the Hungarians in Rumania constitute an organic part of the Hungarian nation. They maintain close contact with Hungarians in other countries, wherever they may live, and are also a political entity. The message of Transylvania, then, is that ethnic Hungarians do not wish to be assimilated into the Rumanian nation under any conditions, nor are they going to move away. Hungarians in Transylvania are not immigrants, but are indigenous to the area. They have retained their identity for over seventy years, although the Rumanian leaders expropriated their land, deprived them of their rights, and instilled fear in them. “We cannot renounce our selfdetermination, because then we would give up not only our Hungarian identity, but our humanity as well.”

In the U.S. view, wherever civil rights are guaranteed, collective minority rights are not needed. In Rumania, however, they are needed because the Rumanian government claims that Rumania is a unitary, single-nation state, despite the fact that nearly a quarter of the 23.6 million people there are not ethnic Rumanians. (There are approximately 3 million Gypsies, 2.5 million Hungarians and 0.5 million others from 12 different ethnic groups.)

As a solution, Mr. Király calls for the codification of collective rights for minorities with autonomy under international supervision.

With equal opportunity provided by autonomy within a country, borders would become less and less important and eventually obsolete. This would approximate self-determination without border changes.

U.S. citizens can help politically, by informing the U.S. government of the need for selfdetermination with collective minority rights, and economically, through donations, investments, and individual involvement. He cited as an example assistance sent through a network of American Unitarian churches to sister churches in Transylvania. The Unitarian Unity Church in St. Paul, MN, provided the Unitarian church in Homorodszentpéter, Transylvania, with a tractor that is "running from morning till night;” support to improve the quality of local schools so that young people do not have to leave the area for lack of good education; and help to buy up available land, so that the ultranationalist organization Rumanian Hearth (Vatra Romanesca) would not. Future plans include a cheese factory for the Homorod Valley.

Mr. Király was shown Part One of “Hungary - A Video History.” He was greatly interested in using this excellent educational tool in Transylvanian Hungarian schools.

His trip was sponsored by Dr. Donald Harrington, an American Unitarian minister who was greatly instrumental in developing the Unitarian network. The tour group included Dr. Harrington and his Hungarian wife, Anikó Szántó, an American-trained Unitarian minister serving in Janosfalva, Transylvania, where they now live. Also on the trip was László Szegedi, an ethnic Hungarian Reformed minister at Kohalom near Janosfalva.

Special Notice from the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation:

MFN for Rumania on Fast Track

A State Department official said on July 13 that President Clinton has decided to submit to Congress a proposed U.S.-Rumanian trade agreement, which would restore Most-Favored Nation trade status to Rumania. A joint resolution, which will be introduced in Congress under a fast track procedure, requires the House and Senate to approve or reject the trade agreement without amendment within 90 legislative days.

Members of the Hungarian-American community are urged to inform their Congressmen and Senators of their views on the human rights and minority policy of the Rumanian government as Congress prepares to consider restoring MFN trade status to Rumania.

ATTENTION YOUNG HUNGARIANS!

The Office of Hungarians Living Outside Hungary (Határon Túli Magyarok Hivatal) is looking for a bilingual Hungarian/English research assistant to work on human rights issues, legal correspondence, position papers and other duties for a minimum of one year. Salary and other conditions to be discussed with our office in Washington, telephone (202) 296-9505.

8 • Hungarian American Coalition News • Summer 1993