From: FEKETE@bcvms.bc.edu (Zoli Fekete)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.magyar
Subject: AGORA-SCMPOST RFE/RL report (excerpts)
Date: 3 Sep 1992 07:55:17 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: fekete@bcvms.bc.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

HUNGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN SLOVAKIA. Geza Jeszenszky met with
Slovak officials in Bratislava on 2 September, Czechoslovak and
Hungarian media report.  Slovak Premier Vladimir Meciar said that
Hungary would like to conclude an agreement with Slovakia on the
treatment of ethnic minorities, but Slovakia "has reservations" and
looks to Hungary first to provide an example by good treatment of
its Slovak minority.  Slovak Foreign Minister Milan Knazko said
that Hungary could be one of the first countries to recognize an
independent Slovakia.  Knazko also said that one meeting with
Jeszenszky will not be enough to solve the Slovak-Hungarian dispute
over the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric project.  Jeszenszky
told Radio Budapest the same day that his government "understands"
Slovakia's efforts toward attaining independence and will accept
any decision taken by the Slovak and Czech peoples regarding their
future. He said Slovakia's independence provides "great
opportunities" for deepening bilateral relations in all fields,
notably the economic, and for solving contentious issues such as
the Danube dam. Jeszenszky said Hungary would welcome a mutual
agreement about ways to coexist reached among Slovakia's citizens
of Slovak, Magyar, and other national origin.  (Jiri Pehe & Alfred
Reisch, RFE/RL Inc.)
 
ETHNIC HUNGARIAN DEPUTIES EXPLAIN WALKOUT. According to the Magyar
deputies in Slovakia's parliament, the new Slovak constitution
adopted on 1 September does not guarantee the protection of
Slovakia's national minorities, Radio Budapest reported on 2
September.  Miklos Duray, chairman of the Coexistence Political
Movement, said the constitution should not have been adopted. Bela
Bugar, chairman of the Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement,
said the Magyar deputies walked out of parliament to protest the
narrowing of minority rights after none of the amendments submitted
by the Magyar deputies was accepted.  (Alfred Reisch, RFE/RL Inc.)
 
TOKES STARTS PROTEST FAST IN ROMANIA.  Laszlo Tokes, the Magyar
bishop in Oradea of the Reformed Church in Romania whose defiant
refusal to leave his parish in Timisoara sparked the December 1989
uprising against the communist regime, began a fast in Timisoara on
2 September. In a message to Radio Bucharest Tokes demanded justice
for the victims of the uprising and punishment for those guilty of
"genocide." He called for investigations of the violent incidents
in Tirgu Mures and Bucharest in 1990 and for the freeing of Magyars
sentenced in connection with ethnic clashes in Tirgu Mures and
elsewhere. Tokes demanded that those guilty of persecuting the
leadership of his church in 1989 be brought to account and insisted
upon a clarification of the circumstances of the death of two
prominent community leaders under Ceausescu.  (Michael Shafir,
RFE/RL Inc.).
 
The RFE/RL Daily Report is produced by the RFE/RL Research
Institute (a division of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc.)
with the assistance of the RFE/RL News and Current Affairs
Division (NCA). The report is available by electronic mail
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Sovset' computer bulletin board, by fax, and by postal mail.