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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 76, Part I, 23 April 2004

POLICE SHOW NO INTEREST IN ETHNIC TOLERANCE. The Moscow city government
and the nongovernmental group Ethnosphera organized a course of lectures
on ethnic tolerance for police officers, but not a single one showed up
for the voluntary course, "Izvestiya" reported on 23 April. The 72-hour
course was specially designed "for employees of the public-security
police and other city Interior Ministry workers," according to an
Ethnosphera statement, but only employees of local prosecutors' offices
and passport offices attended, the website reported. RC


RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 77, Part I, 26 April 2004

PUTIN SAYS RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE BROADCASTING IN UKRAINE NOT AN ISSUE.
President Vladimir Putin, speaking to journalists after meeting with
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma in Crimea on 23 April, said he does
not think that the issue of Russian-language broadcasting in Ukraine
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 April 2004) is an issue for confrontation,
ITAR-TASS and RTR reported on 23 April. "We should not panic. I do
not want to talk [about the issue] too much as it is an internal
matter for Ukraine," Putin said. He also said the Single Economic
Space treaty, which was ratified by Russia's Federation Council on 22
April, will pave the way for both countries' entry into European and
world markets. "We should take a decent place there. We do not want
to sell only oil and gas, just as Ukraine should not sell just beets,
especially if nobody needs them," Putin said. VY


RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 77, Part II, 26 April 2004

CENTRAL EUROPEANS TO DOCUMENT WWII-ERA EXPULSIONS. One week before
the planned EU enlargement, six Central European countries agreed in
Berlin on 23 April to put behind them lingering disputes over people
displaced before, during, and after World War II, Reuters reported.
Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia
agreed to create a network of documentation centers on displaced
people. "Together with our eastern neighbors, we have today set in
motion a process of understanding," said German Culture Minister
Christina Weiss. "For the first time since 1945, we have been able to
put the debate at a political level over expulsion and forced refuge
in the 20th century into a European framework." Plans announced last
year by the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft, which unites ethnic
German expellees and their families, to set up a center against
expulsions prompted outrage among Germany's neighbors, who said their
people also suffered as a result of the war. MS

SZEKLERS PUSH FOR REFERENDUM ON AUTONOMY... The ethnic Hungarian Szekler
National Council (SZNT in Hungarian, CNS in Romanian) agreed in
Targu-Mures on 24 April to demand that a referendum on autonomy for the
lands historically inhabited by this part of the Hungarian minority be
held after the June local elections, Mediafax reported. It also adopted
a resolution stipulating that it will ask the European Court of Human
Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg to elaborate an addenda to the European
Convention on Human Rights dealing with collective rights of ethnic
minorities. The council also said it intends to ask the European
Parliament to make granting autonomy to the Szeklers a condition for
Romania's joining the EU. Addressing the forum, Bishop Laszlo Tokes, the
former honorary chairman of the Hungarian Democratic Federation of
Romania (UDMR), said he remains a member of the UDMR "for the sake of
its large masses, and not for that of the [current] communist
nomenclature of some few hundred" that leads the organization. MS

....AND ROMANIAN ELECTION COMMISSION DENIES REGISTRATION TO HUNGARIAN
CIVIC UNION. The Central Election Commission refused on 24 April to
register the Hungarian Civic Union (UCM) -- a rival of the UDMR --
for the June local elections, Mediafax reported. The registration was
denied on the grounds that the UCM did not follow the procedure
stipulated for the verification of the signatures gathered in its
support. UCM Deputy Chairman Attila Tulit said his organization will
appeal the decision and if need be, complain to the Constitutional
Court and even to the ECHR. MS

MOLDOVAN JEWS PROTEST VANDALIZATION OF TIRASPOL CEMETERY. The
Association of Moldova's Jews and Moldova's Jewish Congress on 23
April called on the government to take appropriate measures in view
of the vandalization of the Jewish cemetery in Tiraspol last week,
Infotag and Flux reported. Vandals painted over 70 tombstones with
Nazi symbols and anti-Semitic inscriptions and destroyed 30
tombstones beyond repair. The groups said that other Jewish
cemeteries in Moldova have also been desecrated recently, leading to
the conclusion that these acts were premeditated and well-organized.
"This outrage...should be viewed as an open form of anti-Semitism and
as a direct challenge to the Jewish community not only in Moldova,
but on a worldwide scale," the statement said. MS


RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 78, Part II, 27 April 2004

LATVIAN PRINCIPALS REPORTEDLY THREATENED OVER MINORITY-EDUCATION
REFORM. President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said after a meeting with some
20 principals of minority schools from across Latvia on 26 April that
some of them said they were threatened with physical violence for
supporting the planned minority-education reform, BNS reported. She
promised the principals that the matter would be discussed with
Interior Minister Eriks Jekabsons. Vike-Freiberga expressed regret
that a number of Russian-language media in Latvia are playing a
destructive role by reporting about the reforms in a negative manner
and "refusing to acknowledge any positive achievements." This is a
serious problem, she said, since 70 percent of the parents of
minority-school students receive their information primarily from the
Russian-language media. She called for setting up working groups of
teachers to gather and promote successful models and classes for the
bilingual studies program. SG


RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 79, Part I, 28 April 2004

RUSSIAN-TURKMEN CITIZENSHIP COMMISSION TO RENEW WORK. Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov said on 27 April that a Russian-Turkmen
commission on citizenship will soon begin working again, Interfax
reported. The commission was formed in 2003. The news agency quoted him
as saying, "The Turkmen side has provided assurances that this
commission will begin working and that concrete problems with schools
and theaters will be resolved." International organizations and the
Russian government have expressed concern over the plight of
Turkmenistan's Russian minority. DK 


RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 79, Part II, 28 April 2004

LATVIA TO URGE NONCITIZENS TO APPLY FOR CITIZENSHIP FOR THEIR
ELIGIBLE CHILDREN. Children and Family Affairs Minister Ainars
Bastiks and Integration Minister Nils Muiznieks on 27 April announced
a government campaign to urge noncitizens to apply for Latvian
citizenship on behalf of their children born in Latvia after the
restoration of independence in 1991, BNS reported. Latvian
Naturalization Administration head Eizenija Aldermane said many
parents incorrectly believe that their children automatically receive
citizenship and thus have not filled out the requisite applications.
According to the Citizenship and Migration Administration,
applications for citizenship had been received for just 1,601 of the
17,036 children born to noncitizens in Latvia after 21 August 1991.
As part of the campaign, which is supported by a grant from the U.S.
Embassy in Riga, letters will be sent to parents without citizenship
soliciting such applications. SG

PACE TO DEBATE RESOLUTION CRITICIZING ROMANIA'S NON-REGISTRATION OF
UCM. Fifteen deputies from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) submitted a draft resolution on 27 April criticizing
the refusal of Romania's election commission to register the ethnic
Hungarian Civic Union (UCM) as a political party eligible to compete
in June's local elections, Mediafax reported, quoting UCM member
Zsolt Szilagy. The draft should be debated in the coming days (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," 26 April 2004). It was signed by PACE deputies
from Albania, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Hungary,
Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Switzerland,
and the United Kingdom. MS


RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 80, Part II, 29 April 2004

CZECH CABINET DISCUSSES LEGISLATION TO CURB FEARED FLOOD OF SLOVAK
ROMA. The cabinet on 28 April began discussing legislation proposed
by Interior Minister Stanislav Gross (Social Democratic Party) aiming
at coping with the alleged threat of mass migration by Slovak Roma to
the Czech Republic, CTK and dpa reported. The legislation would allow
police to search the homes of foreigners in order to find whether
more people than those officially registered as living there are to
be found in those dwellings. Last week, Deputy Foreign Minister Petr
Mares (Freedom Union-Democratic Union) visited eastern Slovakia to
gauge the possibility of mass Roma migration to the Czech Republic.
MS