BBC: Hungarians unwanted in Romania census

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Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 17:19:22 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: BBC: Hungarians unwanted in Romania census 

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BBC: Hungarians unwanted in Romania census 


Wednesday, 27 March, 2002, 14:17 GMT 

Hungarians unwanted in Romania census 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1896000/1896641.stm

By Nick Thorpe 
BBC Central Europe reporter     
 
Romania has been frequently been criticised for trying to forget about
its gypsy minority. Now, a Romanian mayor is trying to enlist the
support of local gypsies in his battle against what he sees as a worse
problem, the large number of ethnic Hungarians in his town, Cluj. 

The road to the town's rubbish dump runs out of the city beside a
railway line, before veering uphill, past shacks reminiscent of the
shanty towns of a Third World city. Some 500 gypsies live here
permanently, swollen by other, more transient arrivals. As each truck
arrives, children jump up on to the back, and start frantically
sorting through the mountain of junk, before the load has even been
deposited on the ground. "It's just a question of technique," said
Gabi, a diminutive 12-year-old, "to make sure you don't get cut by the
wheels." The gypsies sort mostly paper, iron and glass out of the
rubbish, and sell their day's work back to the state company. 

Today, the community has an unusual visitor - the mayor of Cluj,
Georghe Funar. This is not simply a friendly call, but bound up with
the fact that 27 March is the final day of Romania's population census
- the first since 1992. The 1992 census figure showed that nearly 23%
of Cluj's population was ethnic Hungarian. Mr Funar, notorious for his
hostility to ethnic Hungarians, is unhappy with that figure. Under the
Public Administration Law passed in Romania last year, if a national
or ethnic minority makes up over 20% of the population of a given
settlement, they have the right to street signs, schools, and official
proceedings in their own language. "I don't believe the Hungarians
make up more than 10% of the population of Cluj," he says. 
He is determined that this year's figure will reflect that belief. 

Identity quest 

In the crowd listening to Mr Funar, is 45-year-old Julia Eotvos.
Mother of 15 children, she holds a banner saying; "We want Hungarian
identity cards." In January, a new law came into effect in
neighbouring Hungary. 

Known as the status law, it gives special privileges to Hungarians
living as national minorities in Romania and other countries bordering
on Hungary. That includes the right to work temporarily, and a grant
of 80 euros per child per year, if the children attend
Hungarian-language schools. The gypsies of Cluj are for the most part
of ethnic Hungarian descent. There has been a rush of gypsies, as well
as ordinary ethnic Hungarians, to apply for such Hungarian identity
cards - 125,000 applications have been filed in Romania since the end
of January. For this reason, and due to the poor social standing of
Roma, gypsies may well claim to be Hungarian on their census form. 

Mr Funar is trying to persuade the gypsies to admit they are Roma,
when the census collectors visit them. He has threatened to personally
visit anyone in the town who claims to be Hungarian on the census
form, in order to verify their claim. 

-- 
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