MINELRES: Romania: Ethnic Minority Briefs No. 71

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Divers Bulletin <edivers_buletin-admin@mediafax.ro>


No. 71 / September 22, 2003 
  
DIVERS
- reporting ethnic diversity - 
 
SUMMARY
 
1. ROMANIA, HUNGARY OPEN TO COMPROMISE REGARDING MONUMENT... 
2. ... WHILE UDMR AIMS AT SETTLING DATE TO ACCOMPLISH RECONCILIATION
PARK
3. FIRST CSANGO PERMANENT EXHIBITION IN ROMANIA
4. PROGRAM TO EDUCATE YOUTH ABOUT HOLOCAUST. 

FEATURE
5. TOP NAZI HUNTER STARTS ROMANIAN WAR CRIMES SEARCH 
 

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ROMANIA, HUNGARY OPEN TO COMPROMISE REGARDING MONUMENT... 
BUCHAREST - President Ion Iliescu said on 16 September upon his return
from an official visit to Hungary that politicians there proved
"receptive" to a compromise solution suggested by Bucharest regarding
the re-erecting of the Liberty Monument in the Romanian city of Arad,
RFE/RL reported. According to "Nepszabadsag," the two presidents "agreed
in more than two hours of talks that they wish to shape bilateral
relations in the spirit of pan-European values," but a "dialogue between
deaf people" took place regarding the monument commemorating the 1848
Hungarian revolution. Iliescu has come up with a compromise proposal for
a statue park symbolizing reconciliation between the two nations where
the Liberty Monument could be placed. Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo
Kovacs said after meeting his counterpart, Mircea Geoana, that Budapest
is not rejecting the Hungarian-Romanian reconciliation park proposal. He
told Hungarian radio, however, that Budapest still wants to see the
Liberty Monument erected in Arad. (DIVERS) 
 
summary 

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... WHILE UDMR AIMS AT SETTLING DATE TO ACCOMPLISH RECONCILIATION PARK
BUCHAREST - Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR) leader
Bela Marko considers "acceptable" erecting Liberty Monument and other
monuments as symbols for common history of Romanians and Hungarians, in
a reconciliation park in Arad, yet asks for its project to be finalized
by the end of September. "We consider the idea of establishing
Reconciliation Park as acceptable, as long as it induces erecting, near
the Liberty Statue, of other statues and monuments symbolizing our
common history. At the same time, we cooperate in accomplishing this
plan only if it is in accordance with artistic standards and if assures
re-erecting the Liberty Statue at precise deadline ", points out UDMR.
The Union will nominate three artists part in the commission tasked with
choosing the monuments that will be displayed in the future park.
(DIVERS) 
 
summary 

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FIRST CSANGO PERMANENT EXHIBITION IN ROMANIA
SFINTU GHEORGHE - The first Csango permanent exhibition was inaugurated
on Sunday September 14 in Zabala, Covasna County, with finance from the
Ministry of Magyar Culture Patrimony in Hungary and from City hall in
the locality. At the exhibition, hosted in a shed, various objects and
cloths in Csango tradition are presented. Ministry of Magyar Culture
Patrimony in Hungary supplies 100 m forint in order to back the Magyar
Csango, aid granted to set up the museum from Zabala, part of the
programme. On the other hand, the representative of the Romanian
Ministry of Culture, Magdalena Andreescu, promised that the Ministry in
charge will take measures to shortly receive accreditation and to be
part of museums system in Romania. "Nowadays it is an important element
to keep cultural identity of people culture", said Andreescu. (DIVERS) 
 
summary 

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PROGRAM TO EDUCATE YOUTH ABOUT HOLOCAUST
BUCHAREST - At a ceremony on 17 September introducing a manual for
teaching high-school students about the Holocaust, Culture and Religious
Affairs Minister Razvan Theodorescu said that "Romania participated in
the Holocaust and we have to face history," RFE/RL reported. Theodorescu
also said that "the barbarism of the Holocaust was unique in history and
should not be repeated." His statement contradicts a subsequently
retracted statement made on 25 July by Romanian President Ion Iliescu
and Theodorescu's own previous attempt to present the Holocaust as "not
having been perpetrated on Romanian territory".
Observers expressed dismay that at the ceremony, which was organized by
the Wilhelm Filderman Foundation, Premier Nastase, Theodorescu, and
Patriarch Teoctist - an allegedly member of the Iron Guard in his youth
- were honored with distinctions by the Jewish foundation for supporting
"the integration of Romanian Jews in Romania's history and in its
present." 

 
summary 

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FEATURE 
  
TOP NAZI HUNTER STARTS ROMANIAN WAR CRIMES SEARCH
By Dina Kyriakidou (Reuters)
BUCHAREST - A leading Nazi hunter last week launched a search for
Holocaust criminals in Romania, hoping to bring the culprits to justice
and force the ex-communist country to face dark chapters of its past.
Although hundreds of thousands of Jews were exterminated during World
War Two in Nazi-ally Romania, as late as this summer Romanian officials
have denied the Holocaust ever took place in the Balkan country,
angering Israel. The comments also brought the Simon Wiesenthal Center's
top Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, to Romania to launch "Operation Last
Chance", which has exposed several war criminals in the Baltics. "Does
Romanian society, Romanian leadership have the courage to bring these
people to justice?" Zuroff told a news conference. "This is what we hope
will happen." He said the operation -- which has uncovered 241 suspected
war criminals and sent 55 to prosecutors in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia
and Ukraine -- hinged on people coming forward to identify suspects and
on local justice systems. He acknowledged that Romania was reluctant to
deal with its history -- admitting the war crimes, asking for
forgiveness, prosecuting those responsible and educating the new
generations. "In facing the past, there are serious problems in
Romania," he said. "There has been no investigation and no
prosecutions." War time leader Marshal Ion Antonescu, the Romanian army,
the rabidly anti-Semitic Iron Guard and the Nazis killed over half of
the country's pre-war Jewish community of 750,000 in pogroms, death
trains and camps. Although Antonescu, still seen by many Romanians as a
hero for fighting off the Soviet army, was tried and executed as a war
criminal shortly after the war, no other Romanian was ever brought to
justice over the Holocaust.
Post-communist Romania, eager to join NATO and the European Union, has
banned fascist symbols like statues of Antonescu but has done little to
uncover the truth.
Zuroff, and his colleague Aryeh Rubin from the Targum Shlishi
foundation, are advertising in the Romanian press a $10,000 reward for
any information leading to the prosecution of Romanian war criminals.
"There is very little time left," Rubin said. "How you will be judged as
a society in the future will depend on what happens here in the next
four to five years." Romania's Jewish community, which now numbers about
13,000, said the project was crucial for Romania as a whole. "We are not
looking for revenge. We are only looking for the truth," Alex Sivan, the
director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania, told
Reuters. 
 
summary 

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