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

1980-01-01 / 1. szám

-The

T r ansy lvanian Quarterly

Dedicated to the oppressed peoples of Transylvania, to their right to self-determination, self-administration, and

the free development of their cultural heritage.

NO. 2 — JANUARY 1980.

Published by the U.S. Branches of the Transylvanian World Federation and Affiliated Organizations.

Editors: A. Wass de Czege and István Zolcsák Washington Representative: Mrs. Ilona Boissenin

Editorial Office: American Hungarian Literary Guild — Rt. 1, Box 59 — Astor, Florida 32002.

ETHNOCIDE IN RUMANIA

Under the above title Prof. Michael Sozan (Dept, of Sociology-Anthropolgy, Slippery Rock State College) published an article in the December 1977 issue of the CURRENT ANTHOPOLOGY (Vol. 18, No. 4, pages 781 and 782 ) which came under heavy attack by the “Rumanian Research Group” at the University of Massachusetts, Profs. Sam Beck, John W. Cole, David Kideckel, Marylin McArthur, Steven Randall and Steve Sampson. The attack calls Prof. Sozan’s findings “badly misleading” and asserts that there is no discrimination whatsoever against Hungarians in the Socialist Republc of Rumania.

The attack, followed by Mr. Sozan’s reply was published in CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. 20, No. 1, pages 135-147, in March 1979. We are bringing here excerpts of the reply:

During and after the Hungarian revolution of 1956, the Rumanian government feared that Hungarians in Rumania would engage in a similar radical movement. The government allowed the detention of four revolutionary leaders, among them Prime Minister Imre Nagy (who was also executed by the Rumanians, Editor’s remark) on Rumanian soil and carried out mass arrests. A document smuggled out of Rumania (see THE OBSERVER, Apr. 14 and May 5, 1963) indicated “wide-scale arrests, deportations, and ... executions of Hungarians”. The CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Aug. 8, 1964, revealed that close to 40,000 Hungarians were arrested, and in 1958 alone 56 of them were tried, of whom 10 were executed. Bailey (1964:26) reported that “thousands of Hungarians were arrested, hundreds put to death. In one trial alone in Cluj, thirteen out of 57 were executed.”

More recently, as a part of a sweeping effort to silence all possible signs of independent-minded expressions within the Hungarian minority, the Rumanian secret police (SECURITATE) arrested scores of Hungarian intellectuals. They were subjected to savage beatings and other forms of torture. Among them Jenő Szikszai, teacher from Brasov and wife, Sándor Kuthy, teacher from Brasov, Zoltán Zsufka, teacher from Covasna, István Kocsis, dentist from Sfintu Gheorghe, Joseph Haszmann, teacher from Papaut, Paul Kállay, clerk from Covasna, Péter Erős, librarian from St. Gheorghe. (Jenő Szikszai, Sándor Kuthy died from the effects of the tortures, Editor.)

Among the complaints widely reported in the world press we find the testimonies of communists (hardly a source of “anticommunist agitation). First, there is evidence presented by Károly Király, vicepresident of the Hungarian Nationality Workers’ Council, and Central Committee member of the Rumanian Communist Party. In his letter to another member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party he wrote “Anxiety and concept compel me to write about the manner in which the nationality question has been handled in our country of late.. Enumerating blatant violations of the constitution (i.e. school policies, minority language usage curtail-(Continucd on page 7)