RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  7 April 1999

YUGOSLAV PLANES VIOLATE HUNGARIAN AIR SPACE. Two
Yugoslav MiG-29 fighters entered Hungarian air space on
4 April, Defense Minister Janos Szabo confirmed to
reporters on 6 April. He said the two planes spent only
about 30 seconds over Hungary and immediately left when
two NATO planes flew over them. The incident "did not
represent any danger to Hungary," and "the option of
shooting down the Yugoslav fighters" was never
considered, Szabo added. He described as "absurd" an
ITAR-TASS report claiming that the planes had also
entered Czech air space. MSZ

U.S. AWARE OF THREAT TO VOJVODINA HUNGARIANS. U.S.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on 6 April in
Washington that the U.S. is fully aware of the dangers
to which ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina are exposed,
Hungarian media reported. She said that "it must be made
clear again and again to Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic that escalating the conflict would entail very
dangerous consequences." Meanwhile, Zsolt Nemeth,
political state secretary at the Hungarian Foreign
Ministry, said that he "does not fear that ethnic
Hungarians would be taken hostage by the Yugoslav army,"
since Hungary is not taking part in the NATO operations.
MSZ

ROMANIAN CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS THREATEN THE CDR. The civic
organizations that are members of the Democratic
Convention of Romania (CDR) warned the political parties
in the CDR on 7 April that they will "search for an
electoral alternative" in the next parliamentary
elections if their role in the CDR will not be equalized
to that of the parties. The CDR council also decided to
renew regular meetings among its leaders, but CDR
chairman Ion Diaconescu said that in line with the
electoral law, the new protocol now being worked out
must distinguish between political parties and civic
organizations. In other news, the Hungarian honorary
consulate was officially opened in Constanta on 7 April.
MS


ROMANIA'S HUNGARIAN PARTY TORN BY INNER CONFLICT

By Michael Shafir

        The Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania
(UDMR) is scheduled to hold its sixth congress in May
1999 and the event is likely to be tumultuous. The
UDMR's "radical" and "moderate" wings, which have long
been at odds, now appear to be headed for an open
confrontation that may impact not only UDMR's future,
but also that of the Romanian coalition in which the
UDMR is a member, indeed may even have a regional and
international influence.
        The "radical" wing of the alliance, headed by
Reformed Bishop Laszlo Toekes, has in the last months
scored heavily against its adversaries, whose leader is
the UDMR chairman, Bela Marko. Internal UDMR elections
under way in preparation for the congress displaced
"moderates" at the head of several important UDMR local
branches, replacing them with partisans of the bishop.
This was the case in Targu Mures, Cluj, and Timisoara,
three of the most important and powerful UDMR local
organizations. Moreover, the new leader of the Mures
county UDMR local organization, lawyer Eloed Kincses,
has been elected by the Cluj and Timisoara "radicals" to
run against Marko for the UDMR chairmanship in May.
        There are several explanations for the UDMR's rank
and file radicalization. First, the minority Hungarian
electorate, just like that formed by the ethnic
majority, is dissatisfied with the economic performance
of the ruling coalition. Marko has become associated
with the promotion of the coalition partnership, and
with the promise to deliver the "general goods" of
reform and improved living standards as a means to solve
the problems of the Hungarian minority.
        Second, and perhaps more important, is the
perceived responsibility of the "moderates" for the
failure to deliver the "specific goods" pursued by the
UDMR when it joined the coalition in 1996. The former
cabinet headed by Victor Ciorbea, initially seemed
inclined to meet those demands. In an unwritten
"gentlemen's agreement," the UDMR leadership shelved its
demands for autonomy in exchange for some concrete steps
aimed at meeting more modest demands. Two government
regulations issued by that cabinet allowed for the use
of the minority mother tongue in administration in
localities with a significant proportion of minority
inhabitants, and amended the education law to make
possible university instruction in the minority mother
tongue. Government regulations, however, have to be
eventually approved by the parliament, and some of the
UDMR's partners in the coalition joined forces with the
nationalist opposition to stall both pieces of
legislation. UDMR threats to leave the coalition
eventually brought about the compromise solution of
setting up a so-called "multicultural university," but
even that solution is, for the time being, stalled, as a
court of justice (acting on appeals launched by three
opposition parties) ruled that it was "unconstitutional"
and contradicted the education law still in force.
        The resignation of Gyorgy Tokay in January as
minister in charge of minorities affairs, though
submitted on "personal grounds" that were never
elucidated, was another blow suffered by the
"moderates," since its most likely reason was the
untenable position of an avowed partisan of "dialogue"
with the ethnic majority when that dialogue had produced
little after more than three years of coalition
partnership. His replacement, Cluj Senator Peter
Eckstein Kovacs, is not easily identifiable as either a
"moderate" or a "radical," but, if the current trend in
the UDMR continues, is unlikely to pursue his
predecessor's line.
        Recently, several UDMR members of the so-called
"Platform for Change of the UDMR" were summoned before
the Prosecutor General's office in connection with a
resolution adopted in September 1998 at a "forum" held
by these Toekes supporters, which resurrected the call
for territorial autonomy and demanded the granting of
"double citizenship" for members of the Hungarian
minority by Budapest. Marko was forced to publicly
defend his rivals, though not their ideas. He could have
hardly done otherwise, bearing in mind that the
investigation was opened at the request of nationalist
Cluj Mayor Gheorghe Funar.
        Budapest has distanced itself from the "double
citizenship" demand. The cabinet headed by Viktor Orban
is wisely taking a cautious position vis-a-vis the
internal UDMR struggle. Against the background of
Kosova, the radicalization of the UDMR might indeed turn
into too dangerous a card to play, the more so as
Romanian nationalists are warning against a "Kosova
precedent." Emblematically, Marko has spoken about the
need to pre-empt Kosova-like situations by having the
international community act before they become "hot and
close to explosion." While pledging that Hungarian
Transylvanians will only use "political means" to
achieve their goals, Marko also warned that the Yugoslav
lesson shows that "he who believes that borders are
frozen...is wrong." The statement was probably
intentionally ambiguous, bearing in mind the growing
strength of his opponents in the UDMR. Less driven by
subtleties, some pro-Toekes Transylvanian pundits on
several occasions spoke of changing Western perceptions
on solving interethnic conflicts triggered by the
persecution of minorities.
        The Toekes-posed challenge has already met with
what is hardly a "moderate response of the moderates,"
and one of the most interesting proposals is to have the
honorary UDMR chairman (that is, Toekes himself) allowed
to speak in an official position only after the UDMR
chairman (now, Marko) has "clarified" the bishop's
statement. In other words, to silence Toekes. This, in
itself, is a sure indication that the sixth UDMR
congress will be anything but a "silent event."

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