MINELRES: RFE/RL Newsline on minority issues

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 22, Part II, 4 February 2004

BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES PROGRAMS TO INTEGRATE ROMANY MINORITY.
Minister Without Portfolio Filiz Hyuzmenova on 3 February announced an
internationally sponsored program that will train 100 Bulgarian Roma to
work as assistant teachers in ethnically mixed schools and an additional
100 to work in the public administration, the government's official
website (http://www.government.bg <http://www.government.bg/> )
reported. UB

RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 24, Part II, 6 February 2004

THOUSANDS PROTEST AS LATVIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES EDUCATION-REFORM BILL.
Latvian lawmakers approved controversial amendments to the country's
education law requiring that 60 percent of subjects in minority
schools be taught in the Latvian language from 1 September, BNS
reported. The vote came as an estimated 5,000 opponents of the
reform, including many students of Russian schools, staged protests
in front of the parliament building and presidential residence
chanting slogans such as "No to reform!" and "Hands off Russian
schools!" Under the new legislation, minority schools will have the
right to choose the 40 percent of their curriculum that is taught in
minority languages. In the second reading of the amendments, the
parliament had backed even greater restrictions that allowed schools
to teach only subjects pertaining to minority identities, culture,
and language in minority languages (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 January
2004). The planned reforms have led to sharp public exchanges between
Russia and Estonia, roughly one-third of whose 2.3 million
inhabitants are ethnic Russians. SG

POLL SURVEYS HOLOCAUST AWARENESS IN HUNGARY. A public-opinion poll on
Holocaust awareness in Hungary suggested that just 2 percent of the
adult population in that country is well informed about the Holocaust
and 16 percent is totally uninformed, "Nepszabadsag" and "Magyar
Hirlap" reported on 6 February. The survey was commissioned by the
Holocaust Documentation Center and conducted by private polling
agency Szonda Ipsos. Some 26 percent of respondents were unable to
attribute any specific meaning to the notion of the Holocaust. While
90 percent had heard of Auschwitz, just 40 percent had heard of the
Dachau concentration camp. The best-informed respondents are in the
26-35 and 36-45 age groups, while those aged over 45 and those in the
18-25-year-old bracket know least about the Holocaust. The survey was
conducted on a representative sample of 1,000. MS