MINELRES: Romania: Ethnic Minority Briefs, No.6-7

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Mediafax <Divers@mediafax.ro>

--------------------------------------------------------------
No. 6-7/ may 12, 2002

DIVERS
- reporting ethnic diversity -


SUMMARY
1. BUCHAREST TO DEFEND ROMANIAN MINORITY RIGHTS IN NEIGHBORING
COUNTRIES
2. ROMANIA NOT INTERESTED IN RENEGOTIATING THE STATUS LAW
3. MAGYAR LANGUAGE CLASSES FOR CSANGO PEOPLE
4. UDMR CLAIMS PROPERTIES IN CLUJ
5. HUNGARIAN MONUMENT IN ROMANIA DESECRATED
6. ROMA ORGANISATION CLAIMS RACIST MANIFESTATION AGAINST ROMA PEOPLE
7. HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS SAY LEGISLATION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION
CANNOT BE IMPLEMENTED

OPINION
8. COUNCIL FOR COMBATING DISCRIMINATION IS YET TO BE SET UP�
------------------------------------------------------------

BUCHAREST TO DEFEND ROMANIAN MINORITY RIGHTS IN NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES
BUCHAREST - The government plans to ask authorities in Albania,
Bulgaria and Macedonia to ensure ethnic Romanians living in those
countries proper constitutional rights, Doru Vasile Ionescu, head of
the government's Department for Diaspora Romanians, said on May 8.
Bucharest will demand that Romanians living in those countries to be
officially recognized as national minorities. Romania also plans to
extend aid for education in their native language for members of the
Vlach or Aromanian minority, which is related to Romanian.
(DIVERS)

ROMANIA NOT INTERESTED IN RENEGOTIATING THE STATUS LAW
BUCHAREST - Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase last week renewed
his commitment on "not renegotiating or suspending" the memorandum of
understanding signed last December on the implementation of the
Hungarian Status Law. "Under no circumstance such thing should
happen", Nastase said. He warned that if the Hungarian Socialist
Party's demand to nullify or modify the memorandum is maintained,
Romania could pass legislation nullifying the law's "extraterritorial
and discriminatory aspects."
Bucharest officials previously said that the memorandum stipulates
that the Status Law be amended by 26 June 2002 to bring it into line
with the Venice Commission recommendations, and do away with any
discrimination based on ethnic criteria.
On the other hand, the future Hungarian premier Peter Medgyessy met on
May 8 the leaders of Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania
(UDMR). Medgyessy said his government will support the Status Law and
will introduce more transparent subsidies for ethnic Hungarians
abroad. He also called for a review of some aspects of the memorandum
and added the new government will initiate talks with Romania to that
end. The UDMR chairman Marko Bela welcomed the fact that Budapest
consults the legitimate leaders of ethnic Hungarians on every issue
affecting them. 
(DIVERS)

MAGYAR LANGUAGE CLASSES FOR CSANGO PEOPLE
BACAU - After many years of outspoken opposition, Romanian authorities
seem now to be willing to agree with classes of Magyar teaching in
some localities of Csango people from Bacau county (Eastern Romania).
This decision was made within a meeting taken place last week between
Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR) leaders and the
representatives of the governing party PSD. UDMR's chairman, Marko
Bela, stated that "there exist the necessary conditions so that some
groups of Magyar optional studying could be activated starting this
autumn" into two villages from Bacau and "therefore the education
program will be presented by the county inspectorate to the Ministry
of Education in order to get the necessary approvals". Marko added
"the leaders of the UDMR and of PSD agreed with the fact that the
protocol was also signed in order to improve the condition of Magyar
Csango community". 
(DIVERS)

UDMR CLAIMS PROPERTIES IN CLUJ
CLUJ - Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) has claimed some
of the old buildings in Cluj city (central Transylvania). The UDMR
signed last year a protocol with the ruling party (PSD) for getting
back buildings owned for hundreds of years by Hungarians. About 100
retrocession trials involving Hungarian churches and individuals are
now taking place in Cluj, and the UDMR wants the judicial process to
be speeded up.
In other news, representatives of Hungarian historic churches on April
22 paid a visit to the Council of European complaining about the
slowness in getting back their properties. 
(DIVERS)

HUNGARIAN MONUMENT IN ROMANIA DESECRATED
ARAD - A memorial for the Hungarian martyrs in Arad (western Romania)
has been desecrated on May 7, for the second time in recent weeks.
Unkown perpetrators wrote obscenities and threw human feces on the
monument.
"The heartless act has deeply outraged every well-meaning Arad
residents", a local official said. The presidium of the Arad county
branch of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) demands
that the authorities should take the necessary measures to find the
perpetrators.
The monument was erected in the memory of 13 Hungarian generals
executed by the Austrians during the Revolution from 1848. It also
marks the place where 11 out of the 13 generals are buried.
(DIVERS)

ROMA ORGANISATION CLAIMS RACIST MANIFESTATION AGAINST ROMA PEOPLE
BUCHAREST - Bucharest-based Roma Resource Center for Social
Intervention and Studies - Romani Criss communicated that on May 8 a
group made up of almost 200 fans of local football team Steaua shouted
racist slogans and aggressed many members of Roma ethnicity in
down-town Bucharest. According to Romani Criss' programme coordinator,
Ciprian Necula, Steaua team's supporters addressed obscene messages
against Roma people, as well as slogans urging to racism hatred, such
as "Out with gypsies from Romania! Crows, crows!". Afterwards, they
hit many Roma people, "violating their houses, destroying doors and
breaking windows". "Moreover, on Wednesday, around 14:30 p.m., the
supporters hit an old woman, few children and a pregnant woman", added
Necula. 
(DIVERS)

HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS SAY LEGISLATION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION CANNOT
BE IMPLEMENTED
BUCHAREST - Leading human rights activists of over 20 non-governmental
organizations in Romania demanded on April 29 through an open letter
addressed to Prime Minister Adrian Nastase more transparency in
implementing the normative acts on fighting against discrimination.
Adrian Nastase has recently stated that by the end of April he is to
assign the Director College of the national structure against
discrimination, while the non-governmental organizations insist that
they should have more experience in terms of human rights and enjoy
good reputation, stated Florin Buhuceau, executive director of Accept
Association. In accordance with Buhuceanu, the members of the Director
College must be experienced with human right care and should have
never expressed discriminating attitudes or practices against the
underprivileged persons stipulated by law. "Their names must be said
in the open, thus if somebody has knowledge they showed discriminating
acts before, so they speak them aloud based on evidence", he said. 
(DIVERS)

OPINION

COUNCIL FOR COMBATING DISCRIMINATION IS YET TO BE SET UP��
By DIVERS staff
One of Romania's objectives included in the national action plan for
NATO membership is to protect the minorities' rights by removing any
type of discrimination and dealing with the society's situation as
inherited.
In this way, Bucharest authorities decided to assume responsibility
for the organization and supervision of the National Council for
Combating Discrimination (CNCD). Only that the Government is far
behind with its responsibility to appoint the Council members. CNCD's
Board of Directors was expected to be nominated by the end of the last
month. Right now, although the Executive is in possession of an
incomplete list of proposals for CNCD members, the final approval on
the Board does not appear to be any one of the Prime Minister's
priorities.
According to the law, the seven ministries facing most frequently
discrimination acts (Labor, Justice, Health and Family, Public
Administration, Education, Interior and Public Information) were to
propose the Premier three experts each (either independent or members
of the Administration) and then the head of the Executive would have
selected the seven most competent to become CNCD's Board of Directors.
But the list is incomplete, as the Justice Ministry has not yet
submitted any proposals.
"I have personally made a list of all the nominated persons' names and
drafted a memorandum that should have reached the Premier by now",
stated Marko Atilla, the Secretary of State Deputy at the Ministry of
Public Information. "I could not evaluate, though, the performances of
the experts proposed nor tell whether they are popular representatives
of their minorities or acknowledged experts in their field", also said
Marko Atilla who confirmed to have been included among the nominees.
On the other hand, several non-governmental organizations criticized
last week that lack of transparency in selecting the nominees to be
part of CNCD as well as the deficient way the Council will function.
(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