Hungarian American Coalition News, 1999 (8. évfolyam, 1-3. szám)
1999 / 3. szám
The Hungarian District government oversees regional development; regional and trans-border cooperation; environmental protection; and guaranteeing conditions for the official use of the Hungarian, Serbian and Croatian languages. Given the District’s special character, the District government has the right of consent in the appointment of regional and financial courts of justice, local and regional prosecutors, local authorities of the Interior Ministry, and taxation authorities. The rights of Serbs and Montenegrins within the Hungarian District are guaranteed. PERSONAL AUTONOMY: Building Communities Through Individual Affiliation As stated above, the rights of the national minorities are guaranteed by the provincial Agreement. But it is through “personal autonomy” that Vojvodina’s nationalities will actively exercise these rights. Personal autonomy is, in short, the means by which each minority will make its own decisions on issues affecting their national identity. Personal autonomy is exercised by individual citizens through the election of a National Council as the representative organ of their minority. In the case of the Hungarians, for example, the Hungarian National Council has the authority to make decisions in the following issues as they affect the Hungarian national minority: education, culture, media, language use, protection of historical monuments, use of national symbols, and the funding of all of the above. The Hungarian National Council exercises control over the educational and cultural institutions and media organs which serve the Hungarian minority - in cooperation, naturally, with provincial and Hungarian District officials. Any citizen of Vojvodina who declares him/herself to be ethnic Hungarian may be entered on the electoral register of ethnic Hungarians; other voters may also be eligible according to criteria set down in the Agreement. A key feature of personal autonomy is that it enables any member of an ethnic minority, regardless of where he/she lives in Vojvodina, a democratic (and entirely voluntary) means of participating in, and benefiting from, the institutions set up to preserve national identity. For the many smaller nationalities, and small scattered Hungarian communities, personal autonomy represents a vital connection to the larger ethnic community and a sustaining reason to continue living in a community, province and country that feels like home. S. 720 THE SERBIA DEMOCRATIZATION ACT OF 1999 The Hungarian Human Rights Foundation reported that the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously adopted a bill (S.720) sponsored by chairman Jesse Helms on the principles of a political resolution to the issue of Yugoslavia. At Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd's initiative, the Committee also adopted Section 502 on the "sense of the Congress with respect to ethnic Hungarians of Vojvodina." The section briefly outlines the Hungarian minority's current situation — the harassment and intimidation campaign against them — and establishes that "during the past 10 years this form of ethnic cleansing has already driven 50,000 ethnic Hungarians out of the province of Vojvodina." The text determines that it is the sense of Congress that the President of the United States should "(1) condemn harassment, threats, and intimidation against any ethnic group in Yugoslavia as the usual precursor of violent ethnic cleansing; (2) express deep concern over reports on recent threats, intimidation, and even violent incidents against the ethnic Hungarian inhabitants of the province of Vojvodina; (3) call upon the Secretary of State to regularly monitor the situation of the Hungarian ethnic group in Vojvodina; and (4) call on the NATO allies of the United States, during any negotiation on the future status of Kosovo, also to pay substantial attention to establishing satisfactory guarantees for the rights of the ethnic Hungarian community of Vojvodina, and of other ethnic minorities in the province, including consulting with elected leaders about their proposal for self-administration. " Voting by the Senate is expected in October following the summer recess. [Í/.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Washington, D.C.), Jul. 28, 1999] 5 • Hungarian American Coalition • Special VOJVODINA ISSUE • October 1999
