Hungarian Heritage Review, 1991 (20. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1991-02-01 / 2. szám
|3 Dateline: Budapest HUNGARIAN STATEMENT OF PROTEST TO ROMANIAN AMBASSADOR -BY A SPOKESMAN OF THE FOREIGN MINISTRYOn November 29, 1990, Ferenc Somogyi, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, summoned Romanian Ambassador Simion Pop to the Foreign Ministry, informing him of the following: Romulus Neagu, Secretary of State at the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had summoned the Flungarian Ambassador to Bucharest to the Foreign Ministry on November 17, shortly after Imre Szokai's departure from Bucharest, and, in language most unbecoming to diplomatic contacts, made totally unfounded accusations against the Hungarian Deputy Secretary of State. According to the Romanian Secretary of State, his Hungarian negotiating partner had ulterior motives when he came to the consultation, and acted in an unseemly way. The Romanian Secretary of State went further still, hurling recriminations at official Hungarian policy as a whole, and including the top in the barrage of criticism. Although the above was offered as Mr Romulus Neagu's personal opinion, we cannot rule out the possibility that the extremely grave slanders and accusations were voiced by Mr Neagu in his capacity as State Secretary, a member of the Romanian government, playing a major role in the development of Hungaro-Romanain relations. Answering a question from our Bucharest ambassador, he confirmed that his personal views could not be entirely put aside when acting as a government member in charge of Hungaro- Romanian relations, meaning that they might exert no small influence on his official activity, too. The facts relating to the presidential message go without saying, given that they are only facts. However, we are at a loss to understand Mr Neagu's allegation that the head of the Hungarian delegation brought no message with him, since not only was a verbal message from Mr Árpád Göncz presented, but written draft documents were also handed to President Iliescu. What really shocked the Hungarians was the harsh language of the Romanians politician, and the patently disparaging comments he made. That the Romanians branded a high-ranking Hungarian diplomat a liar as regards the message - an unprecedented occurrence - was clearly also intended to discredit the sender of the message. The Hungarian government firmly rejects the insults from Secretary of State Mr Neagu and his accusations sullying the upper echelons of power. On November 19 the Foreign Ministry spokesman issued a statement detailing the events of the Hungaro-Romanian foreign affairs consultation of November 15-17 and the intentions of the Hungarian party. The statement touched on the fact that the talks had depended for their success on the Romanians alone, a fact also well-known to the Romanians. The Romanian government bears the historic responsibility for rejecting the cooperating attitude of the Republic of H ungary with regard to the minority issue by treating it as solely internal affair. We are convinced that this kind of co-operation would serve not only the interests of the large number of Hungarians living in Romania but also those of Hungary's Romanian population, as well ascontributing to strengthening European stability. Furthermore, we deem it regrettable that in the affair of the Hungarian consulate general in Caluj the Romanian government has refused to correct the unlawful §tep of the Ceausescu dictatorship, maintaining the same policy of discrimination. We find it incomprehensible and inexplicable that Romania should be unwilling to admit the obvious fact of the rfugee question, as a result of which we are unable to help the Romanian —continued next page FEBRUARY 1991 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW 9
