MINELRES: Romania: Ethnic Minority Briefs No.12

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Mediafax <divers@mediafax.ro>


DIVERS
- reporting ethnic diversity -

DIVERS is a weekly news bulletin edited by the Mediafax news agency
with financial support from Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center
(EDRC) in Cluj.
For now, the full version of the bulletin is only available in
Romanian and can be found at www.divers.ro.

SUMMARY
- ETHNIC HUNGARIAN LEADER DEEMS STATUTE LAW MUST BE FURTHER EVALUATED
- FIRST YOUTH INTERETHNIC MAGAZINE LAUNCHED IN ROMANIA

OPINION
- PSD AND THE MINORITIES TO WORK HAND IN HAND


ETHNIC HUNGARIAN LEADER DEEMS STATUTE LAW MUST BE FURTHER EVALUATED

BUCHAREST - The Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR)
leader, Marko Bela, on Wednesday, June 12, stated that the Status Law
must be evaluated for few months in order to determine whether it is
necessary any change.

UDMR chairman confirmed that the leaders of Magyar parties in the
countries near Hungary received an amendment bill enacted by Viktor
Orban government even in the last period of mandate.  Marko Bela
pointed out that, in Romania, Magyar IDs could not be requested than
early of January and, though about 200,000 such requests had been
submitted, only few persons received the documents. Moreover,
according to Marko, a very few of those possessing the Ids benefited
of the facilities offered by the statute law. (DIVERS)

FIRST YOUTH INTERETHNIC MAGAZINE LAUNCHED IN ROMANIA

BUCHAREST - On Friday, June 7, there took place the launch for the
first issue of Proetnica magazine, issued by the Ethno-cultural Roma
Project Organization (OPRE).

The magazine aims at becoming a forum for the youth belonging to
national minorities in Romania to have the chance forum to express
their  "own opinions about their condition as citizens and as
representatives of multiple culture ". "We would like to bring
contribution for us in reconfirming out ethnical and linguistic
identity as national minority, I developing a real intercultural
background in Romania", said Ionut Anghel, chief editor of the
publication.

"Proetnica" is edited with the financial support of the Interethnic
Relations Department,  a governmental body. (DIVERS)

OPINION
PSD AND THE MINORITIES TO WORK HAND IN HAND
Romania's ruling party the Social Democrat Party (PSD), signed last
week two cooperation protocols with the Social Democrat Party of Rroma
population and the Democrat Forum of German-Romanian community.
According to the two documents, PSD will receive political support for
passing bills through the Parliament in exchange of promoting the
interests of the said communities.
 
                                               ***
Shortly after the protocol with the Social Democrat Party of Roma
population, the PSD leader Adrian Nastase stated the document "is
looking toward the future" and confirms the need of close political
cooperation so that Roma community's issues find solutions. 

"We know there is a lot to do about these specific issues. There are
two options: either we pretend to have no knowledge of the problems,
and then we will continue to be taken by surprise by the reality, or
we try to influence the future by enforcing specific strategy to find
the solutions to these problems that are mostly caused by lack of
social integration", said the PSD President. 

The protocol stipulates that both PSD and the Social-Democrat Roma
Party will promote and monitor the strategy meant to improve Roma
population's life standards in Romania, will consult each other on
legislative drafts and provide mutual support in the Parliament.
Moreover, the PSD's candidate in next presidential elections will
benefit from full support from the Roma Party. 

The two parties pledge to work together to combat Anti-Semitism and
racism, make sure the Roma population is represented in the state
institutions that would help the members of the community be better
educated in such field and cooperate with the Government's offices in
the territories. 

On the same day, PSD also signed the protocol for mutual political
support with the Democrat Forum of the German-Romanians (FDGR). The
document stands as the legal frame to allow the Forum's support for
the Executive in its attempts to enforce the Governing Program, and
the economic and social development strategies. According to PSD's
point of view, said Adrian Nastase, this protocol "helps to continue
the dialogue between the two parties in an efficient and permanent
manner". 

In addition, the German-Romanian community will be restituted all the
properties sized by the communists and will receive full support to
preserve their ethnic identity. PSD promised to back FDGR's
initiatives to extend their radio-TV broadcasts in German and will
assist them in publishing the daily publication for German speakers in
Romania, Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung fur Rumanien. (Translation by
www.romania.com)