MINELRES: Romania: Ethnic diversity briefs, No. 21 / September 2, 2002

Fri Sep 6 13:43:01 2002

Original sender: Mediafax <[email protected]>

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No. 21 / September 2, 2002

DIVERS
- reporting ethnic diversity -

SUMMARY
 1. TENSION BETWEEN PSD AND UDMR REGARDING CONSTITUTION AMENDMENTS...
 2. ROMANIA, FRANCE SIGN ACCORD ON ENDING CRIME EXPORT TO EU...
 3. ... WHILE ROMA PEOPLE PROTEST AGAINST "COLLECTIVE INCRIMINATION"
 4. PSD, UDMR ENGAGE IN A DISPUTE OVER AMENDING CONSTITUTION
 5. FIRST TEXTBOOK OF ARITHMETIC FOR ROMA CHILDREN
 6. ROMA-RELATED FASHION HOUSE

 INTERVIEW
 7. "THERE IS NO ETHNICAL DISCRIMINATION IN ROMANIA"

TENSION BETWEEN PSD AND UDMR REGARDING CONSTITUTION AMENDMENTS...
Premier Adrian Nastase has recently warned that early elections might be
considered unless the members of the Hungarian Democrat Union (UDMR)
drop their claims for removal of "the national status" wording provided
in the fundamental law. In turn, UDMR came back with a harsh reply, but
did not entirely close the doors on dialogue prospects. According to
UDMR leader Marko Bela's public statement, the prime minister's warnings
could be easily taken as blackmail. "We do not respond to blackmail, but
we are open to negotiations", said Marko. 

Mainly, the reason of the conflict between the two is the article 1 of
the Constitution regulating Romania as a national state. The issue is
old and UDMR has been asking ever since the communist regime fell in
Romania to be treated as equal nation and not as ethnic minority. By
virtue of the historical tradition of Hungary and former
Austrian-Hungarian empire, the Hungarians living in Transylvania felt
the 1918 events as the moment when they were stripped from certain
rights. Moreover, UDMR has been frequently using the Alba Iulia
declaration, back in 1918, as presented by the National Party's whose
leader Iuliu Maniu promised the Hungarian community in the area full
rights as nation as soon as Transylvania joined the other Romanian
provinces. But this has only come to fruition partially. The communism
froze the debates and, after 1989, the matter was brought into the
authorities' attention even more than before.

Lately, UDMR has been taking advantage of an extremely favorable context
created by Romania's racing efforts to be invited this November, in
Prague, for the NATO summit. And among other requirements for the
candidate states to prove their new democracies and negotiate their way
into the North-Atlantic Alliance, the ethnic relations were claimed as
very important. Thus, one more time, UDMR is using the foreign relations
as leverage to put pressure on the Romanian Executives, one strategy
that seems to have worked in the past.

The Social Democrat Party (PSD) did take into consideration the outside
influence of the Hungarian leaders when asking them for political
support to meet Parliament majority. For the last few days, though, both
PSD and UDMR politicians have made edgy statements and they are all
aware of the downfalls on both sides. Hungarian deputy Szekely Ervin
explained the foreign influence could only be used up to a point and
UDMR should act cautiously in this direction. It is also least likely
that Romania's candidature would be thrown out during NATO's upcoming
summit, while "those within PSD who are open to working with UDMR might
soon not be the ones to pull the strings and, in this case, the
political agreement with UDMR would be sacrificed to maintain the
party's unity". Under such circumstances, UDMR has no intention to
stretch the conflict with PSD or any other party's nationalists to such
an extent that would damage Romania's foreign policy.

Finally, the Social-Democrat politicians are not in a position to
completely ignore UDMR's requests because despite the current favorable
positions outside the country's borders they might expose the party to
paying a very high price later on. The current scenario imposes prudence
on both sides, which might turn into the foundation for another
compromise in the near future. (Translation by www.romania.com)

ROMANIA, FRANCE SIGN ACCORD ON ENDING CRIME EXPORT TO EU...
BUCHAREST - France and Romania signed last week an agreement on tackling
illegal immigration and organized crime. At least 3,000 impoverished
Roma gypsies have moved to Paris since France eased visa requirements
for Romanians starting this year. Many of them are poor or disabled
children being forced to steal or beg by criminal networks. The accord
not only provides for tougher security controls at borders but also
forces Romania to take back the deportees from France, train them and
help them re-enter society. Most of the wave of Romanian immigrants are
Roma fleeing poverty and complaining of racial discrimination at home.
The migrants often use France as a point from which to gain access to
other Western European countries. The EU has expelled 3,500 Romanians
over the past six months, most of them illegal immigrants. More than 300
were deported from France alone. (DIVERS)

...WHILE ROMA PEOPLE PROTEST AGAINST "COLLECTIVE INCRIMINATION"
BUCHAREST - Leaders of Romany organizations last week protested against
a "collective incrimination" of Romanian Roma and against measures
Bucharest taken in order to increase border control. They sent a letter
to French Interior Minister and his counterparts in the European Union
saying that the measures intended to curb illegal immigration must not
"collectively incriminate people described as Roma or Gypsies." The
associations said the problem posed to the EU by Romany immigrants is a
real one, but that Romania should not be singled out as the source of
the immigrants as the issue is common to all former communist countries.
On the other hand, they warned that the campaigns against Roma people in
some Western European countries, mainly France, might lead to a growth
of interethnic tension in Romania. In other news, some 200 people of
Roma origin last week staged a protest at the railway station of Arad
(western Romania),after being denied permission to leave the country.
The Roma said they had intended to travel to neighboring Hungary to
visit relatives or find work there, but the authorities denied them
exit, saying they did not satisfy travel requirements. (DIVERS)

PSD, UDMR ENGAGE IN A DISPUTE OVER AMENDING CONSTITUTION
BUCHAREST - Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, who is also the
leader of ruling party PSD, last week launched an attack against its
partner in the governmental coalition, UDMR, by saying that he will not
accept amending Article 1 of the constitution, which defines Romania as
a "national state." "We shall not agree to that, just to satisfy some
radical groups inside the ethnic Hungarian party - UDMR that insist on
the amendment," Nastase said. He added that if PSD lose the
parliamentary majority it is possible to be organized early elections.
In response to Nastase's critics, UDMR chairman Bela Marko said the
mentioning of early elections "has undertones of blackmail". Marko added
that UDMR cannot be blackmailed, but it is ready to discuss any problem.
"The Constitution cannot be amended to suit the purposes of any one
political party", Bela Marko also said. (DIVERS)

FIRST TEXTBOOK OF ARITHMETIC FOR ROMA CHILDREN
BUCHAREST - Lately last month was published the first bilingual Romanian
-Roma textbook "Aritmetica pentru clasa I-a" ("Arithmetic for the
first-grade pupils"), financed by the Resource Center for Roma
Communities (CRCR) foundation. Some 1000 items were published and they
are to be donated by the CRCR, based on a written request, to the
schools having a large number of Roma children enrolled. CRCR currently
supports a program for editing Roma-type publications. (DIVERS)

ROMA-RELATED FASHION HOUSE
BUCHAREST - A fashion house promoting clothing creations inspired by the
traditional Roma clothing, unique of its kind in Romania, will be soon
established in Bucharest, as part of the project belonging to Romani
CRISS organization. The project, financed by the Open Society Institute
Budapest, it is called "Roma Style" and will be launched in early
December, with the help of ten professional Roma models presenting the
first autumn-winter pret-a-porter collection. The collection will be
based on the particular character of Roma clothing (vivid colors, long
and sharp collars of coat etc.), according to Romani CRISS chairman.
"Roma Style" Fashion House is part of a program aiming at fighting
against stereotypes toward Roma people by changing the common image of
their culture and traditions. (DIVERS)

INTERVIEW
"THERE IS NO ETHNICAL DISCRIMINATION IN ROMANIA"
Cristian Jura, newly elected president of National Board for Fighting
Against Discrimination says 

DIVERS: Do you think it can be about ethnical discrimination in Romania?
Cristian Jura: As from my point of view, I do not think it can be about
something like that, considering the provisions stipulated by the
Constitution and the other laws in field existing nowadays. It might
exist certain discrimination, but inconsistent for the beliefs of the
ordinary citizens, yet at the legislative and governmental level such a
notion is out of question.

DIVERS: What does the Board for Fighting against Discrimination (CNCD)
aim at?
Cristian Jura: Though we are only at the beginning, still we have few
plans to follow. First of all, next year we will organize a national
campaign against discrimination, that will be mainly conducted in hard -
accessible areas (villages, regions inhabited by ethnic minorities etc).
Then we will develop a campaign for public information on topics related
to discrimination. I believe that most discrimination cases are due to
the lack of acknowledgement of the citizens towards their rights. We
also want to make a poll, a national study, in order to see which are
the main issues likened to discrimination, as well as the areas where
such situations are met. Not lastly, CNCD holds right to initiate a
draft law and this is why we aim at promoting and passing laws
eliminating gaps in fighting against discrimination. (DIVERS)

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
e-mail: [email protected]

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