The Eighth Tribe, 1980 (7. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1980-01-01 / 1. szám

the Rumanian Government. We appeal to you, and those representing you, to use the opportunity offered by such meetings to express a serious concern for the fate of the Hungarian minority in Rumania.

We are certain that your firm stand on basic moral principles will restore the prestige of this nation, and we pray that God give you the strength, the wisdom and the clear sight needed to fulfill this great mission.

Hungarian-Americans in defense of human rights

o-o-o-o

RESOLUTION

OF THE SOCIETIES OF DANUBE SWABIANS OF THE UNITED STATES, INC.

WHEREAS, Romania’s communist regime has deported all able bodied members of the once half million Danube Swabian minority to concentration camps, into foreign exile and to the desert of Baragan, where a great number fell victim to inhuman conditions ;

WHEREAS, Romanian bureaucrats, through control of the labor market, are dispersing the survivors of said concentration camps throughout the country, to disintegrate their ethnic communities, in addition to immediately denying these individuals the right to work, if they apply for family reunion with relatives in the west;

WHEREAS, Romania systematically confiscates private property without compensation, impounds records, archives and objects of art, gradually liquidating the cultural, religious and educational institutions of the Danube Swabian minority;

WHEREAS, Romania’s president Nicolae Ceausescu is ruthlessly pursuing an extremely nationalistic program, combined with psychological terror and exploitation, against that country’s Danube Swabian, Transylvanian Saxon, Hungarian and Jewish minorities, to forcibly change their rich cultural, spiritual and ethnic identity;

WHEREAS, the abovementioned facts furthermore violate the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights, the Helsinki Accord, as well as the Romanian Constitution itself;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Directors of the Societies of Danube Swabians of the United States, Inc., for humanitarian reasons, hereby formally PROTESTS the abovementioned state of affairs in the name of thousands of American citizens and formally petitions its Government for assistance in helping to alleviate a situation which has become unbearable.

Matthias Aringer Theodor Junker

Secretary General President

(Published in the “DER DEUTSCH-AMERIKANER” in June 1977)

THE TRANSYLVANIAN QUARTERLY

ETHNOCIDE IN RUMANIA...

(continued from page 1)

ment, the elimination of Hungarian officials from towns and cities with a large portion of Hungarians) Király continues: “It is clear... that a multitude of factual realities violate the constitution... the tendency is to forcefully assimilate nationalities in Rumania..”

Michael Dobbs, a reporter from the Manchester Guardian quotes Király, by then in internal exile in Caransebe8 (Washington Post, March 2, 1978) : “Government action includes the deployment of armed patrols, house to house arrests and the harassment and interrogation of hundreds of Hungarians...”

Eric Bourne adds the following (Christian Science Monitor, May 2, 1978) : “Last week, three more protests became known. Their authors were: Hungarian-born Deputy Prime Minister János Fazekas, who listed minority grievances in a letter to the party, Transylvanian Hungarian writer and candidate member of the party committee András Sütő, who protested restrictions on Hungarian-language education. Lajos Takacs, a former rector of the Cluj (Transylvanian) University, which had separate Rumanian and Hungarian faculties until the mid-1950’s, when all were merged under mainly Rumanian direction... Mr. Takacs itemized 18 areas in which laws of minority rights were not being observed.”

The turning over of Northern Transylvania to the Rumanians in 1945 was done with the stipulation that Rumania “secure the rights of the nationalities.” However, the “Nationality Statute” of February 6, 1945 was discarded after the 1947 peace treaties of Paris. In their Section II. Political Clause, art. 3, these treaties guaranteed equal rights to the inhabitants of Rumania without regard of race, language, religion or authenticity. (Based on these guarantees) as early as April 2, 1949, the United Kingdom and the United States filed a strong letter of protest with the Rumanian government for the violation of human rights.

The equality of nationalities is reasserted in Decrees 57/1968, 24/1971, and 468/1971. In Section 22 the use of minority languages is guaranteed in those villages, cities and counties where there is a “mixed population”. The law requires the appointment of officials conversant in minority languages. IN PRACTICE, HOWEVER, RUMANIAN OFFICIALS USE ONLY RUMANIAN. Király (1978) complains that the “use of the native tongue is severely restricted at meetings of the party, the Young Communist League, the trade unions, and the various workers’ councils.

VU