MINELRES: Romania: Ethnic Minority News Bulletin no. 10 (93) / March 22, 2004

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Divers Bulletin no. 10 (93) / March 22, 2004
News

ETHNIC HUNGARIANS COMMEMORATE 1848-49 REVOLUTION

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL REJECTS DRAFT ON TRANSYLVANIAN AUTONOMY

HUNGARY TO FINANCE MINORITY TV IN ROMANIA

COLLECTING SIGNATURES FOR DOUBLE CITIZENSHIP ASSIGNED TO ETHNIC
HUNGARIANS

ELECTORAL PROTOCOL BETWEEN PSD CONSTANTA AND TURKISH DEMOCRAT UNION

�CZECH CITIZENS FROM ROMANIA" � PHOTO EXHIBITION

Opinions

ROMANIAN NATIONALIST GETS ISRAELI ELECTION ADVISER


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News

ETHNIC HUNGARIANS COMMEMORATE 1848-49 REVOLUTION

SFINTU GHERGHE/CLUJ � Thousands of Romania's ethnic Hungarians on 15
March assembled throughout Transylvania to commemorate the 1848-49
Hungarian revolution and war of independence, RFE/RL reported. In Cluj,
Nationalist Mayor Funar's annual counterdemonstration to honor the
Romanian victims of the revolution went off without incident. 
Author: DIVERS
summary


LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL REJECTS DRAFT ON TRANSYLVANIAN AUTONOMY

BUCHAREST - The Romanian Legislative Council on 15 March rejected a
proposed bill on granting autonomy to the lands occupied by Szeklers,
Transylvania's Hungarian minority, RFE/RL reported. The Legislative
Council argued that the proposed bill is unconstitutional and
contravenes EU and international law. The proposal was recently
submitted by six Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR)
deputies, although the UDMR has distanced itself from the initiative. In
related news, the chairman of the National Council of Transylvanian
Hungarians (CNMT in Romanian, EMNT in Hungarian), Bishop Laszlo Toekes,
said in Targu-Mures on 11 March that the CNMT will soon submit its own
plan for granting autonomy to Transylvania's Hungarian minority.
A plan drafted by the Hungarian Szekler National Council (SZNT in
Hungarian, CNS in Romanian) outlining possible autonomy for lands
inhabited by the Szeklers has already been submitted to parliament by
several deputies representing the Hungarian Democratic Federation of
Romania (UDMR), although the UDMR has distanced itself from the
initiative. Toekes said that if parliament rejects the CNMT's draft it
will appeal to European institutions. He alleged that the Romanian and
the Hungarian governments have secretly agreed to reject autonomy plans,
and charged that the UDMR can no longer fight for Magyar autonomy
because "it has made a 180-degree turn" from the organization's program.
Meanwhile, the Hungarian Civic Union (UCM) announced on 11 March that it
is starting a drive to collect signatures supporting dual citizenship
for Romania's ethnic Hungarians. 
Author: DIVERS
summary


HUNGARY TO FINANCE MINORITY TV IN ROMANIA

BUDAPEST - Hungary's Information Technology Ministry and the Prime
Minister's Office have set aside some Euro 1.2m to launch a new
Hungarian-language television channel in Transylvania to be called
"Karpatia Television", MTI reported. Funding should reach Euro 1.9m in
total. Programming will reportedly be produced and edited exclusively in
Romania by ethnic Hungarians. Politicians in both Hungary and Romania
have suggested that the new station will espouse the views of the
Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania. The current
Hungarian-language satellite channel Duna Television is generally
regarded as sympathetic to the views of right-wing Hungarian political
parties and groupings in both Hungary and Transylvania.
Author: DIVERS
summary


COLLECTING SIGNATURES FOR DOUBLE CITIZENSHIP ASSIGNED TO ETHNIC
HUNGARIANS

SFINTU GHEORGHE � Hungarian Civic Union (UCM) will soon start action of
collecting signatures in order to achieve double citizenship for the
ethnic Hungarians from Romania. UCM vice-chairman, Tulit Attila, stated
on March 11 that the actions will be deployed at the same time with
collecting signatures procedure aiming at the possibility to participate
in the local elections. The list enclosing the supporters of this step
will be sent to Hungarian Government, with the request to grant
Hungarian citizenship to the ethnic Hungarians living in Romania and
willing to stay here. "The World Hungarians Union, in its turn,
initiated such an action and plans to organize referendum in this
respect ", added Tulit. 
Author: DIVERS
summary


ELECTORAL PROTOCOL BETWEEN PSD CONSTANTA AND TURKISH DEMOCRAT UNION

CONSTANTA � Romanian ruling Social Democracy Party (PSD) subsidiary of
Constanta and the Democrat Turkish Union from Romania (UDTR) on March 11
signed protocol of mutual support in the local and general elections.
Chairman of PSD Constanta, Radu Mazare, and UDTR chairman, professor
Ibram Nuredin, stated in a press conference that the Turkish electorate
of Romanian citizenship will back the PSD candidate to Romania�s
Presidency in general elections and the PSD candidates to Senate.
According to the protocol, the candidates of Turkish ethnicity will be
submitted in eligible seats at local and municipal Boards and at the
County Board Constanta. As for the mayor positions, UDTR will uphold PSD
candidates. In case of winning the elections, PSD pledges to solve and
social and economic issues of the Turkish ethnics, to ensure them jobs
in small trade and to ensure dwellings for special cases. 
Author: DIVERS
summary


�CZECH CITIZENS FROM ROMANIA" � PHOTO EXHIBITION

BUCHAREST� "Czech citizens from Romania", a collection of photographs
taken by artist Pavel Hroch, was officially inaugurated on March 16 at
the Romania�s National Arts Museum, in the presence of Czech premier
Vladimir Spidla.
The photo collection is part in the unique project called �Czech and
Slovak exile in 20th century�, which targets at mapping history and the
current condition of the enclaves of Czech and Slovak emigrants
worldwide. The Czech artist Pavel Hroch dealt with photographing Czech
minority in Romanian Banat during 1990 - 2000. The exhibition, which
encloses 36 black-white pictures, freezes images of the ordinary life,
of the religious life and of the holidays, all captured in Czech
villages. The Czech minority arrived in Romanian Banat starting with the
'20s of the 20th century.
Currently, in Banat there are only six villages of genuine Czech
ethnics, enclosing approx. 2,500 inhabitants of Czech nationality living
in Romania. They have their own representative in the Romanian
Parliament and a party, namely the Democrat Union of the Slovaks and
Czechs from Romania. 
Author: DIVERS
summary


Opinions

ROMANIAN NATIONALIST GETS ISRAELI ELECTION ADVISER

BUCHAREST - Far-right leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor, who had denied that
the Holocaust had taken place in Romania, on Friday hired the firm that
managed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's election to run his
presidential bid, Reuters reported.
The leader of the ultra-nationalist Greater Romania Party, ranking third
in opinion polls, has sought to change his image ahead of the November
28 elections but critics say he is only trying to lure moderate voters.
Eyal Arad, who runs a PR firm that helped Sharon win Israel's 2003
elections, signed a contract on Friday in Bucharest to manage Vadim
Tudor's presidential bid. "I'm very excited about being able to join
this campaign," Arad told reporters. "I have great belief that chairman
Vadim Tudor is the one person that can bring change to Romania."
The Israeli embassy in Romania expressed its "consternation" at the news
of the deal.
"Corneliu Vadim Tudor's decision to change his tune...just a few months
before the elections in Romania is more than strange," Israeli embassy
spokeswoman Sandra Simovici said.
"It raises the suspicion that these steps are taken only to help Vadim
Tudor ahead of the elections." Arad said he had discussed his decision
with officials in the Israeli Foreign Ministry. "Everybody understands
that I'm a private businessman, I'm not an organ of the state, and I
make my own decisions, based on my understanding," he said.
Vadim Tudor told the Romanian senate in 2002 that no death camps existed
in Romania during World War Two and no Jews were sent to camps elsewhere
in Europe. He later retracted the statement.
Some 400,000 Jews were killed during the war in Romania, which was an
ally of Nazi Germany, including about 100,000 from Transylvania, then
under Hungarian rule.
Arad said that Tudor, who sent a letter to Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial
in Jerusalem asking for forgiveness and pledged to lead a pilgrimage to
Poland's Auschwitz death camp express remorse for denying the Holocaust,
had really changed.
"Important statements were made in Romania, to the Romanian public and
to the members of the party," Arad said. "That's a binding obligation of
a leader to his people."
The size of the deal was not disclosed but Tudor said it was less than
the $4.5 million paid by a rival party to another foreign PR company.
Romania, which hopes to join the European Union in 2007, has had
difficulty facing this dark chapter of its history and post-communist
leaders denied as late as last year that a Holocaust took place in the
country.
Vadim Tudor, who has been compared with France's rightist leader Jean
Marie Le Pen, has come close to the presidency in the past. In the 2000
runoff he lost to President Ion Iliescu with about 33 percent of the
vote.
In related news, Yad Vashem has decided to cut off business relations
with the Arad Communications public relations firm following the signing
of an agreement between Eyal Arad and the ultranationalist Romanian
presidential candidate Corneliu Vadim Tudor.
Advead Vashem contracted Arad Communications as a consultant to help
market its new Holocaust History Museum, which is scheduled to be
completed by the end of the year. "Yad Vashem views cooperation between
Israeli organizations or individuals and anti-Semitic entities as
unethical and highly objectionable," a statement by the Holocaust museum
said.
Chairman of Yad Vashem, Avner Shalev told The Jerusalem Post that he
believes it is unethical and inappropriate for a prominent figure such
as Arad to lend a hand to the campaign of a known anti-Semite.
"This is a company [Arad Communications] which deals with important
matters such as public relations and they have chosen to assist an
anti-Semitic party and man," Shalev said. "It would be inappropriate for
Yad Vashem, which fights against anti-Semitism, to be involved with such
a company."
Arad has claimed that his work with Tudor is in the capacity of an
Israeli businessman and that he is in no way representing Israel.
'Everybody understands that I am a private businessman and... will act
as I see fit,' he has said. Shalev said that he had a discussion with
Arad several weeks ago during which the PR expert said that he would not
have accepted the job if he did not believe that Tudor had repented for
his sins of the past. "We [Yad Vashem] cannot say that Tudor has
repented," Shalev said. "There is no way to know at this stage whether
or not Tudor has changed and to us it appears as nothing more than a
pragmatic election stunt."
In a letter sent to Arad, the Romanian politician begged for forgiveness
from the Jewish people saying, "I have made my sins, I fully admit them.
We are not angels, we are only people. There will be no sins anymore."
Calling the letter "a confession", Tudor wrote that he was mistaken to
deny that the Holocaust ever took place in Romania, adding, "I am asking
God and the people that I have hurt for forgiveness."
"I am firmly decided to drastically act against any official figure of
my party that will make anti-Semitic statements, inside or outside the
party organization," Tudor wrote in the letter.
Diplomatic officials in Jerusalem have expressed their astonishment at
the signing of the agreement between Arad Communication and Tudor, "who
for years together with his party has made anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic
comments." Managing Director of Arad Communications Yuval Arad refused
to comment on Yad Vashem's decision to cut off business relations with
the firm.
Israel Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Dr. Efraim Zuroff,
joined Yad Vashem's criticism of Arad, telling The Post " there is no
proof that Tudor has really changed his anti-Semitic and extremist
nationalist views."
Zurrof said that less than two months ago the Romania Mare weekly,
edited by Tudor, published an article in which Professor Ion Coja, one
of Tudor's supporters, accused Jews of staging the infamous Bucharest
Pogrom of 1941 in which at 131 Jews were murdered by Romanian fascists.
"Rushing to sign a contract to assist Tudor in his election campaign at
this early date, while ignoring the advice and requests of practically
every single group connected to Romanian Jewry, looks like a terrible
combination of greed and stupidity," Zurrof said.
Tudor wrote to Arad that if he is elected President, he will formally
introduce Holocaust studies in Romanian schools. He also said that he
plans to organize and finance a trip to Auschwitz, which will include
party leaders and himself. 
Author: DIVERS
summary


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