Romania: Ethnic Minority Briefs No.5

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From: MINELRES moderator <minelres@mailbox.riga.lv>

Original sender: Mediafax <Divers.Buletin@mediafax.ro>

Subject: Romania: Ethnic Minority Briefs No.5


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No. 5 / April 29, 2002

DIVERS
- reporting ethnic diversity -


SUMMARY

1. ROMANIA SIGNED LEU 1 BN FOR MINORITIES' TEXTBOOKS
2. FINAL AGREEMENT ON TIRGU-MURES HIGH SCHOOL
3. ROMANIA DENIES PLANS TO RENEGOCIATE MEMORANDUM WITH HUNGARY ON
STATUS LAW
4. ROMANIAN POLITICIANS WELCOME RESULTS OF HUNGARIAN ELECTIONS
5. TESTIMONIES ABOUT MAGYARS IN ROMANIA ON 1945-1955 PERIOD

OPINION
6. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE SOCIAL INTEGRATION STRATEGY OF THE RROMA
POPULATION?...


ROMANIA SIGNED LEU 1 BN FOR MINORITIES' TEXTBOOKS
SIBIU - Romanian Ministry of Public Information (MIP) will finance
editing works for high school textbooks meant to the pupils who study
in their mother language, and the unit allotted Leu 1 bn (some
$31,000) in this respect. The announcement was made by the MIP
Minister, Vasile Dincu, within a session of Education Board of
National Minorities Council. The representatives of the county
inspectorates complained over the stiffness showed by the educational
system, as being very reluctant to new education forms. In this
respect, they reminded the obstacles they meet in developing primary
education for youth and adults part of Roma community, who did not go
to school in childhood. (DIVERS)
                           
FINAL AGREEMENT ON TIRGU-MURES HIGH SCHOOL
TIRGU-MURES - Prime Minister Adrian Nastase and leaders of Hungarian
minority party in Romania (UDMR) last week agreed that the pupils from
the Romanian teaching classes in "Bolyai Farkas" High School in Tirgu
Mures (central Transylvania) will naturally be allowed to finish their
studies, without being compelled to transfer to another high school.
According to UDMR Chairman Marko Bela, starting this fall, the "Bolyai
Farkas" Lyceum "will not receive pupils for Romanian classes anymore".
"This solution is suitable to all the parties involved and meant to
ease the tensions that were artificially created," said Marko, adding
that Romanian PM also agreed to this "simple" decision.
Following this solution does not means that here will not be less
Romanian teaching classes in Tirgu Mures: "The three classes to be
removed from Bolyai Farkas will start in other high schools", Marko
mentioned.
On his turn, Prime Minister Adrian Nastase previously said that the
situation at the "Bolyai Farkas" High School is "delicate" and pledged
that the government "will find the right solution". Nastase added he
"can understand" both the parents of ethnic Hungarian children who
consider the school to be "a place of learning with a long Hungarian
tradition," as well as the protesting ethnic Romanian pupils.
Several hundred pupils in the Romanian teaching classes within the
"Bolyai Farkas" High School in Tirgu Mures protested, a few weeks ago,
against the division of the schools using ethnic criteria and refused
to attend the classes. They claimed being "sold out by the government"
and disapproved the agreement between ruling Social Democratic Party
(PSD) and UDMR concerning restoration of teaching in Hungarian alone
at the Tirgu Mures High School. (DIVERS)

ROMANIA DENIES PLANS TO RENEGOCIATE MEMORANDUM WITH HUNGARY ON STATUS
LAW
BUCHAREST - Romania does not plan to renegotiate or to suspend the
implementation of the memorandum signed last December related to the
Hungarian Status Law, according to Romanian Foreign Affairs State
Secretary Christian Diaconescu.
Diaconescu said that by 26 June 2002 the Status Law has to be amended
in line with the Venice Commission recommendations, and do away with
any discrimination based on ethic criteria. However, he added he was
satisfied with the signals received from the future Hungarian
government and said Bucharest was also open for dialogue and
cooperation with the colleagues of Budapest. On the other hand, in an
interview with Romanian radio, Hungarian Socialist Party Chairman
Laszlo Kovacs said that the "Status Law is a good law," but the
Socialists disagree with the memorandum on its implementation. Kovacs
also pledged that the new government in Hungary will not interfere in
the internal matters of parties representing ethnic Hungarians and
will not take sides for or against factions in those formations.
(DIVERS)

ROMANIAN POLITICIANS WELCOME RESULTS OF HUNGARIAN ELECTIONS 
BUCHAREST - Prime Minister Adrian Nastase said last week that the
outcome in the recent Hungarian election confirmed "the electorate's
attachment to European values and to European and Euro-Atlantic
integration." On his part, President Ion Iliescu believes that the
future government in Budapest will "opens the door to strengthening
and consolidating relations between the two countries". Marko Bela,
chairman of the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR) has
said that the UDMR "maintains an equal distance from all political
parties in Hungary". Marko expressed the hope that the Status Law will
continue to be implemented and that the new government will introduce
additional benefits for ethnic Hungarians abroad. (DIVERS)

TESTIMONIES ABOUT MAGYARS IN ROMANIA ON 1945-1955 PERIOD
CLUJ-NAPOCA - By continuing to display the documents about the
ethnic-cultural minorities presence in Romania, the Resource Center
for Ethnic-Cultural Diversity (CRDE) announces the publication of a
new volume named "Magyars from Romania, 1945-1955". The volume sources
come from the most varied private and public archive units, both from
Romania and Hungary, and bring fairly coherent new view upon the
destiny of Magyar population that has been integrated into Romanian
State structure since the end of World War II. "The reader will have
the opportunity to meet the particular atmosphere in the first decade
after the end of last conflagration of the world, when a new world was
born, had other operational rules for society construction, where
democracy principles had been profoundly misinterpreted and attributed
as a prerogative only to the "working class", a press release from
CRDE reads. "It is about tribulation times and deep human suffering,
when "allogeneic" term was always associated with being a
"conspirator", chauvinist, irredentist or reactionary", it added.
(DIVERS)

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE SOCIAL INTEGRATION STRATEGY OF THE RROMA
POPULATION?...
Romania is the one European country with the largest Rroma community
(also known as gypsy), as official records indicate somewhere around
450,000 members and the Rroma leaders estimate 1.5-2 million.
One year ago, the Romanian Government adopted - with great fuss around
it - the national strategy for the social integration of the Rroma
community members, a program meant to "solve the Rroma population
issue". Bucharest authorities welcomed the 10-year strategy as a
solution to the EU pressure to observe minorities' rights, on one
hand, as well as a way to deal with the numerous problems caused by
the high poverty rate, the illiteracy and social exclusion among Rroma
population, on the other hand. The official statements around the
topic sound mostly positive. "I believe we should first appreciate the
Public Administration Ministry's efforts to create 42 additional job
positions inside the municipality offices, designed to help the
strategy implementation. In this way, the Rroma community benefits
from own representation (30 degree-holders and 12 others members of
the Rroma community). Most of the representatives are young and they
bring in new ideas, so we trust them to be able to successfully
enforce the strategy in each county", stated Gheorghe Ivan, the
President of the National Office for Rroma Population at the Public
Information Ministry, the main implementation authority.
"Also, we currently have PHARE financing for 40 ongoing projects
nationwide whose purpose is to test the strategy. In addition,
�927,000 are waiting to be invested in other 300 projects as soon as
the current 40 projects reveal real changes. We will replicate the
strategy wherever the testing project proved successful", added Ivan.
Now, no one expected miracles in one year since the strategy
enforcement, despite the official stance whose nature was rather
declarative. Moreover, the national strategy continues to be a set of
good intentions since, for instance, no budget was allocated this year
for its implementation.
Bucharest officials are not ready to give up the optimistic prospects
for the future, though. "In 2003, we hope to receive �9 million from
EU. These funds would most likely be divided in �2 million for health
projects and �7 million for local development", according to Gheorghe
Ivan.
"We will definitely be more prepared in 2003 and even hope for budget
funds next year that would help cover some of the strategy
implementation costs. In fact, the Ministry of European Integration
has already requested an expense report for the national strategy in
2003 that was included in Romania's action plan for EU accession. With
all these in place, we seek to show real changes before the current
Administration's term end and make the 4-year deadline provided for
the strategy implementation", concluded Ivan.
(Translation by: www.romania.com)


DIVERS is a weekly news bulletin edited by the Mediafax News Ngency
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
e-mail: divers@mediafax.ro

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