MINELRES: Romania: Ethnic Minority Briefs No. 51

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Original sender: Mediafax <divers_buletin-admin@mediafax.ro> 


No. 51 / April 14, 2003 
  
DIVERS
- reporting ethnic diversity - 
 
SUMMARY 

 
1. ROMANIA�S ROMA MARK THEIR HOLIDAY, ASK FOR BETTER INTEGRATION
2. ETHNIC HUNGARIANS CLAIM A SPECIAL �ECONOMIC ZONE�...
3. ...AND THEY FIND SUPPORT INSIDE UDMR
4. UDMR LEADER DEMANDS REPEAL OF THE SENTENCE AS REGARDS ALLEGEDLY WAR
CRIMINAL
5. SLOVAK COMMUNITY ASKS FOR BRATISLAVA�S SUPPORT

FEATURE 
6. MOLDOVAN JEWS COMMEMORATE 100 YEARS SINCE POGROM

 

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ROMANIA�S ROMA MARK THEIR HOLIDAY, ASK FOR BETTER INTEGRATION
SIBIU � On the occasion of the International Day of the Roma on 8 April,
Romany minority along the country celebrated the event by organizing
commemoration marches and demanding better integration into society.
About 150 Roma people in Sibiu county, led by the self-proclaimed king
Florin Cioaba, attended a peace march. The Roma people shouted slogans
for ceasing the war in Iraq, while when crossing Cibin River they threw
willow-flowered coronets, in the memory of Holocaust�s victims during
the World War II, but also in the memory of the forerunners. An
estimated 25,000 Roma perished in the Holocaust after being deported to
Transnistria. Florin Cioaba stated that on 8 April in all the countries
of Europe it is celebrated the Roma�s Day. "It is an important day for
us, as today we succeeded to be together, to debate the matters
tormenting us and most of all to send a message to the authorities that
we exist ", underlined Cioaba. Romany minority people present in Sibiu
demanded the authorities to be granted social compensations, while by
means of a special request they informed the German State "to keep the
promise relating to the compensations for the persons who suffered as a
result of the Holocaust". Ceremonies were also held in Petrosani,
Constanta, Tulcea, Sibiu, and Alba-Iulia. The Day of the Roma marks the
anniversary of the first World Roma Congress in London and the founding
of the International Roma Union (IRU) in 1971. (DIVERS)  

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ETHNIC HUNGARIANS CLAIM A SPECIAL �ECONOMIC ZONE�...
SFINTU GHEORGHE - Over 60 Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania
(UDMR) mayors in Covasna, Harghita and Mures counties met on Friday,
April 4, in Sfintu Gheorghe, where they had talks about the opportunity
of a new �economic zone�, including the so-called "Szekler lands�. The
UDMR mayors out of the three counties claims for Euro �region of special
development, as, they say, the current Region Center is "an artificial
entity which is not in compliance with some criteria of economic
efficiency and so far it has not proved its functionality". "The Region
Center is made up of counties with extremely different demographic
peculiarities. The differences of economic structure are so significant
that it is impossible to accomplish a tangible strategy for the entire
region ", as it was indicated into a document provided to the
participants at the conference from Sfintu Gheorghe. The UDMR mayors out
of the three counties signed a final statement. The UDMR�s local
councilors and mayors in Covasna, Harghita and Mures counties demanded
the UDMR leadership to discuss, as soon as possible, with the Government
about the activity of the current economic growth regions and to
initiate change over these regions. (DIVERS) 

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...AND THEY FIND SUPPORT INSIDE UDMR
BUCHAREST � UDMR Chairman Bela Marko said on 10 April that the agreement
between the UDMR and the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) stipulates
that the two formations will discuss the redrawing of the country's
"economic zones," RFE/RL reported. "The unanimous opinion of the
attendants to this reunion was these regions are not in compliance with
the real economy necessities ", said Marko Bela. He emphasized that
these zones are not identical to the administrative division of the
country and that there is no intention to replace the current
county-based system. Ethnic Romanians are suspicious that the move is
aimed at reestablishing the Hungarian Autonomous Region, which existed
in the 1950s. Romanian Radio said on 11 September that ethnic Romanians
and Orthodox Church representatives from the three counties consider the
mayors' call to be "an act of defiance" toward non-Hungarians who live
in those counties. The daily "Adevarul" on 11 April cited Marko as
saying that the PSD proposed including Brasov in the new administrative
region to avoid the impression that the intention is to create an ethnic
Hungarian enclave. (DIVERS)

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UDMR LEADER DEMANDS REPEAL OF THE SENTENCE AS REGARDS ALLEGEDLY WAR
CRIMINAL
TIRGU MURES � UDMR Senator Gyorgy Frunda headed to Romania�s general
attorney a demand to cancel the court sentence through which Hungarian
Count Vass Albert, was sentenced, in 1946, by Romanian People�s Court in
Cluj, under the charge of war crime on Romania�s territory. Frunda said
he headed the request at the demand of Vass Albert�s family. Senator
stated he is confident he will win. Senator Gyorgy Frunda said he headed
the Ministry of Culture a request through which he demanded, by trial�s
finalization, no statue of Vass Albert should not be removed from
pedestal. The two busts of Vass Albert were placed in the yards of
Roman-Catholic churches in Reghin and Lunca Muresului (Szekler lands)
and had to be taken down by February 4, by an order of prefect of Mures,
issued after the appearance of Government Emergency Ordinance which
stipulates for all the statues, the names of the streets or any person�s
glorification decreed as war criminals, should be removed. (DIVERS)  

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SLOVAK COMMUNITY ASKS FOR BRATISLAVA�S SUPPORT
NADLAC � Ethnic Slovaks from Nadlac (Arad county, western Romania) on
Friday, April 4, asked for Slovak Prime Minister, Mikulas Dzurinda, to
give support in deploying some local cultural and economic projects. The
Slovaks complained over, after December 1989, their harder and harder
life financially, while agriculture proves to be more and more expensive
business. Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda, presented at Nadlac, where it
is celebrated 200 years-time since the first ethnic Slovaks arrived in
Romania, promised that the government in Bratislava will assess their
priorities and will support the projects of the over 30.000 Slovak
ethnics in Romania. (DIVERS) 

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FEATURE
 
MOLDOVAN JEWS COMMEMORATE 100 YEARS SINCE POGROM
CHISINAU, Moldova - Dozens of Moldovan Jews, along with politicians and
foreign guests, gathered Monday to commemorate a pogrom 100 years ago
that killed 49 Jews and injured hundreds. Thousands of Jewish families
were left homeless after about 1,500 Jewish homes and businesses were
torched by angry mobs on April 7, 1903.
According to historians, false rumors claiming that Jews used children's
blood to make Passover bread incited local Russian and Romanian
inhabitants of Chisinau to attack Jews. The massacre started when the
body of a dead Christian child was found in the city. It was later
determined that he was killed by a relative. The pogrom shocked the
international community, which condemned tzarist Russian authorities -
who ran Moldova at the time - for condoning it and not ordering the
military to stop it. Waves of other brutal pogroms in western Russia led
to the massive emigration of Jews to the United States and Europe. 
About 100 local Jews, as well Moldova's President Vladimir Voronin and
Israel's Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a native of Moldova,
attended the unveiling ceremony of a monument for the victims of the
pogrom in a park in Chisinau.
In a speech, Voronin condemned the tzarist authorities for encouraging
the pogrom, and called on society to eliminate the roots of
anti-Semitism and all forms of ethnic intolerance. Some 30,000 Jews live
in Moldova, a country of 4.5 million which used to be part of the Soviet
Union. Also Monday, historians and other researchers from Moldova,
Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Israel, Belarus and Britain began a two-day
conference in Chisinau to examine the events. "The pogrom and the
history of the tragedy of the Jewish people must be studied to make sure
it does not repeat itself," Lieberman told the scientists. As part of
the commemoration ceremonies, the national theater in Chisinau is
showing Joshua Sobol's play "Ghetto," which depicts the suffering of
some Lithuanian Jews during the Nazi occupation. A century ago, there
were 200,000 Jews living in what is now Moldova. More than 50,000 Jews
left Moldova after 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. Most emigrated
to Israel. (By The Associated Press) 

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