MINELRES: Romania: Ethnic Minority Briefs No. 59

[MINELRES moderator]

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


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No. 59 / June 16, 2003

DIVERS
- reporting ethnic diversity -

SUMMARY

1. GOVERNMENT SAYS THERE WAS NO HOLOCAUST 'ON ROMANIAN TERRITORY'
2. RULING PARTY, UDMR SIGN LOCAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT
3. AWARD FOR FORMER HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN
4. RUTHENIAN UNION IN ROMANIA INTERNATIONALLY AFFILIATED

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GOVERNMENT SAYS THERE WAS NO HOLOCAUST 'ON ROMANIAN TERRITORY'
BUCHAREST  � Romanian government  on June 12  approved a cooperation
agreement between Romania's National Archives and the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Washington, RFE/RL reported. According to a press
release, Romania's  government  "encourages research  concerning the
Holocaust in Europe -- including documents referring to it and found
in Romanian archives -- but strongly emphasizes that between 1940-45
no Holocaust took place within Romania's boundaries." Observers note
that while  this statement  is technically accurate  -- the Romanian
Holocaust  was mostly,  although   not uniquely  perpetrated  on the
territory of Transnistria, which was occupied by Romanian troops but
was not a part of Romanian  territory -- the statement represents an
attempt to  whitewash Romania's participation in  the Holocaust. The
Center for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism in Romania said in
reaction  that it  is  "deeply  concerned" and  disagrees  with  the
government's statement, and  urged the government to "reconsider its
openly  expressed  denial  of  the  Holocaust  in Romania." (DIVERS)

RULING PARTY, UDMR SIGN LOCAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT
TIRGU MURES �  Local cooperation protocol between Mures subsidiaries
of  ruling Social  Democratic  party  PSD and  Hungarian  Democratic
Federation of Romania (UDMR), negotiated for three months times, was
signed on Monday June 9. The  only matter remained unsolved lying in
distribution of schooling digits of Medicine and Pharmacy University
(UMF) from Tirgu Mures.
Leader of  PSD Mures, Ovidiu  Natea, appreciated that  signing this
rotocol is  a continuity of  what existed in  the past  years and it
represents  "normalization   of  the  two  parties�  relations".  "I
believe this key-point in the protocol signed locally will be solved
soon by the University�s Senate ",  stated, in his turn, UDMR deputy
Borbely Laszlo.
As for  the  audiovisual sector,  the signing  parties agreed  with
e-establishment of  the local television channel  from Tirgu Mures,
hich   broadcasts   programmes   in  Romanian and  Magyar languages,
cheduled to be finalized by June 30. In addition, the parties agreed
with extending  aerial times for the  Magyar-language programmes, at
the  local  radio  station. At  the same  time, the  signers of  the
rotocol got focused on the local economic issues: the development of
Tirgu Mures  International Airport,  the rehabilitation  program for
county roads,  the paving program  for communal roads,  water supply
program for villages etc. (DIVERS)

AWARD FOR FORMER HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN
MIERCUREA CIUC  � On June  6, former Hungarian Prime Minister Orban
iktor  received  in  Miercurea  Ciuc  the  Julianus  award  for  his
contribution in keeping  the identity of ethnic Hungarians living in
Carphatian Basine, by initiating and implementing the Status Law, as
well as  in setting  up  and giving  financial support  to Sapientia
University.   Orban   has   been   enthusiastically    welcomed   at
Romano-Catholic Church  Sf. Augustin, which  is on  construction, by
approximately 1,000  persons who  continuously applauded  him. Orban
Viktor also said that Hungary  gets ready to join the European Union
and wants for Magyar communities abroade to follow him, "so that the
nation  could get united  again ". Orban told  the audience that the
unification   of  Europe  will  enable  the  "reunification  of  the
[Hungarian] nation,"  adding that Magyars are constantly striving to
regain "our  home, Hungaria  Magna [Latin for  Greater Hungary], our
lost  paradise."  "This  is  why  Magyar  ID,  the  Status  Law, and
Universities in  Hungarian language are  needed�, he stated.�, added
Orban. Julianus was a Dominican  monk who early in 13th century left
for  Asia  to make  research  for  the  Magyars�  origins.  (DIVERS)

RUTHENIAN UNION IN ROMANIA INTERNATIONALLY AFFILIATED
BUCHAREST  �  The  Cultural  Union of  the Ruthenian  Minorities  in
Romania was  elected  as a  member in  the Council  of International
Forum of Ruthenian Minorities worldwide. The event took place within
the World Congress  of Ruthenian Organizations, deployed on June 4-8
in  Slovakia.    Deputy  Gheorghe  Firczak,  the  president  of  the
organization, was elected  as Romania�s representative in this world
council. Romania  is the  only country in  the world where Ruthenian
minority is parliamentary represented. (DIVERS)

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