The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1982 (9. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1982-04-01 / 4. szám

121 Members of Congress raise their voices in behalf of the Hungarians in Transylvania

Initiated by Congressman Robert J. Lagomarsino (Rep. California) the following letter was sent to Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig bearing the signatures of 121 Congressmen representing 31 States:

“Dear Secretary Haig,

“We, the undersigned, members of the United States House of Representatives, would like to call your attention to the continued deprivation of human rights of the national minorities in Transylvania, particularly those Hungarians assigned to Rumania in the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty.

“These 2.5 million Hungarians of Transylvania, a province that had constituted part of the Hungarian Kingdom for a millennium was assigned originally to Rumania in the 1920 Trianon Peace Treaty — which the United States has never ratified.

“The fate of the Transylvanian Hungarians was systematic denationalization and discrimination under the royal Rumanian regime as well as under Antonescu’s Fascists and the Communist rule of Georghiu-Dej and Ceaucescu.

“In the 1947 Peace Treaty, where the United States had yielded to extreme Soviet pressure to allow the reattachment of Northern Transylvania to Rumania, the four great powers compelled Rumania to guarantee the human rights of its citizens, a promise repeatedly broken since 1947.

“For more than two decades, Rumanian pressure against the Hungarians of Transylvania assumed characteristic of ethnocide, including complete suppression of the social and youth activities and the internal independence of the Hungarian churches; destruction of the Hungarian-language schools still in existence in 1958 and their replacement with a steadily declining number of Hungarian-language “sections” in the Rumanian schools; the systematic destruction of the documents of the Hungarian past of the province and finally conscious dispersal of the Hungarian intellegentsia and the settlement of large numbers of Rumanians amidst the Hungarian regions of the province.

“Under these circumstances may we ask you to discuss the above grave violations of human rights and national self-determination, guaranteed in the Declaration of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe of August 1, 1975 and in the International Covenant government of the Socialist

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Republic of Rumania and in talks with the other guarantors of the 1947 Peace Treaty — the United Kingdom, France and the U.S.S.R. The issue concerns both human rights and self-determination rights of the Hungarians in Rumania, living mostly in Transylvania.

“To do so would be in harmony with our 205-year old ideals of liberty, self-determination and human rights so eloquently expressed in the Declaration of Independence and steadily pursued by many Administrations.”

On January the 7, 1982, Congressman Lagomarsino received the following answer from Walter J. Stoessel, Jr. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs:

“Dear Mr. Lagomarsino:

“I have been asked to reply to the letter you and 120 of your colleagues sent to the Secretary on December 8 concerning the treatment of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania by the Rumanian Government.

“The Department has kept itself informed of the status of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania for many years, and has examined with care numerous reports to the effect that the Rumanian Government systematically has pursued a policy of depriving Hungarians in Rumania of their rights.

“The department has concluded, as indicated in our Human Rights reports over several years, that although the Rumanian Government permits some expression of the Hungarian minority’s cultural traditions, that expressions is limited.

“The Rumanians maintain that the treatment of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania involves questions of internal Rumanian policy. Nontheless, the United States has repeatedly raised with the Rumanian Government our concerns for the wellbeing of the Hungarian minority in Rumania. Where specifically-documented cases of human rights violations have been brought to our attention we have not hesitated to protest to the Rumanian Government. On other occasions we have called to the Rumanian Government’s attention to the negative impact which its perceived poor treatment accorded the Hungarian minority in Rumania has had on our bilateral relations. We intend through these periodic U.S. approaches to the Rumanian Government to help preserve the cultural traditions of the Hungarian ethnic minority. You may be sure we shall continue to follow the issue closely and

THE TRANSYLVANIAN QUARTERLY