MINELRES: Romania: Divers Bulletin no. 27 (110) / July 26, 2004

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Divers Bulletin no. 27 (110) / July 26, 2004
News

UDMR ADOPTS THE BASIC TOPICS FOR THIS YEAR PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
CAMPAIGN

SCHOLARSHIPS TO PREVENT EARLY MARRIAGES IN ROMA COMUNITIES

ROMANIA SENDS SUSPECTED NEO-NAZI TO COURT FOR SECOND TIME

ROMANIA'S SZEKLERS WANT RECOGNITION AS MINORITY

MOLDOVA MAY USE SANCTIONS OVER DNESTR SCHOOL MOVE


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News

UDMR ADOPTS THE BASIC TOPICS FOR THIS YEAR PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
CAMPAIGN

TIRGU MURES � Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) Operative
Council on July 16 adopted a declaration on the basic topics of the
electoral program, which the Union would present at the year-end
parliamentary elections, the most important target of the Union being
the Hungarian community remains on their natal land.
The declaration encloses 17 basic principles of UDMR�s program for the
parliamentary elections, including the widening of the minorities�
collective and individual rights, the continuation of the administrative
decentralization, the transformation of the local administrations in
real self-governing forms, the reorganization of economic development
regions and the ensuring of the presence of Magyar community in all the
important institutions at the central, regional and local levels. The
leader of the Union, Marko Bela stated that as regards the establishment
of institutional conditions for different forms of autonomy, after the
parliamentary elections, the Union will have a project on the statute of
the ethnic minorities, which will also enclose the principles of
autonomy.
Author: DIVERS
summary


SCHOLARSHIPS TO PREVENT EARLY MARRIAGES IN ROMA COMUNITIES

BUZAU � Starting school year 2004-2005, tens Roma pupils in Buzau county
will receive scholarships to avoid early marriages and to stimulate them
regularly attend classes, informs Rompres news agency.
On July 18, Calin Iosif, councilor on Roma problems within Buzau
Prefecture stated that a pilot-project is enforced in the county as well
as in Calarasi and Ialomita counties, supported by UNICEF and by
Education 2000+ NGO, meant for the ethnic Roma persons up to 18 years
old. The program called "Let�s build together the image of our
daughters", aims at changing the mentality of Roma families. At School
14 in Buzau county seat, 7-8 adolescent Roma girls are annually
abandoning classes to get married. This kind of situation is also met in
other localities in the county. According to Calin Iosif, after the
marriage, the girls are forced to abandon school under the pretense of
lack of money.
Author: DIVERS
summary


ROMANIA SENDS SUSPECTED NEO-NAZI TO COURT FOR SECOND TIME

BUCHAREST - Andrei Molnar, who holds dual French and Romanian
citizenship, has been charged with disseminating nationalist-chauvinist
propaganda and infringing on legislation prohibiting the dissemination
of fascist and xenophobic symbols, RFE/RL reported. Molnar, whose name
suggests Hungarian ethnicity, was sentenced by a Sibiu tribunal in
December to six months in prison on similar charges. Three ethnic
Romanians are also being charged for similar offenses. The indictment
says Molnar succeeded in "transforming them into instruments for
achieving his criminal plans."
Prosecutors allege that Molnar purchased, in Romania or abroad,
materials that incite to racial and national hatred and spread the ideas
of the Romanian Legionary movement or the Nazi party in Germany. He also
edited a publication called "W.O.T.A.N," five issues of which were
published, which allegedly argued the need to safeguard the white race
and denied the Holocaust. The prosecution also claims Molnar and his
accomplices set up a paramilitary organization called Gebeleizis, which
they described as "the only force capable of opposing Judeo-Christianity
in Romania."
Author: DIVERS
summary


ROMANIA'S SZEKLERS WANT RECOGNITION AS MINORITY

SFINTU-GHEORGHE - Stefan Molnar, chairman of the recently-formed Union
of Szeklers in Romania (USC), told journalists on 21 July that his
organization wants the authorities to recognize the Szeklers as an
ethnic minority separate from the Hungarian minority, RFER/RL reported.
Molnar said the demand is based on a long historic tradition according
to which the Szeklers in Transylvania are an ethnic group in their own
right. The USC was set up after Romanian authorities refused to register
the Hungarian Liberal Union to compete in the June local elections.
Observers point out that the communist regime made several attempts to
separate the Szeklers from the Hungarians in official censuses, but
those attempts always failed. They say it is ironic that the growing
rift in the ranks of the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania
(UDMR) should lead to a separation that Romanian nationalists have
sought but always failed to bring about.
Author: DIVERS
summary


MOLDOVA MAY USE SANCTIONS OVER DNESTR SCHOOL MOVE

CHISINAU - Moldova may use economic sanctions against its rebel Dnestr
region to reverse a decision to close a school teaching Romanian in
Latin script, President Vladimir Voronin said last week.
Voronin, who has long tried to bring Dnestr back into the Moldovan fold,
said Moldova would stop issuing foreign trade permits for companies in
Dnestr from August 1 if it failed to ensure the right for schools to
teach Romanian in Latin script.
"We will stop issuing export goods certificates to all companies in the
Dnestr region and will also stop registering customs procedures,"
Voronin said.
The mostly Russian-speaking Dnestr region broke away from Moldova, which
has a Romanian-speaking majority, in 1990 and the two fought a short war
in 1992.
Dnestr is home to most of mainly agricultural Moldova's industrial
wealth and controls the country's biggest steel plant which exports the
bulk of its output to Western and Central Europe.
The withdrawal of Moldovan permits -- necessary for Dnestr because it is
not recognised as a state by any government and therefore cannot trade
-- would mean it could not export.
"The administration in Tiraspol (the capital of Dnestr) has torpedoed
all initiatives from Chisinau and from the mediators on Dnestr
settlement," Voronin told a meeting of Moldova's security council in the
country's capital Chisinau when he outlined his measures.
"But in recent times it moved to violence and open clashes," he said,
referring to police being sent in to close the school.
The language issue in Moldova has become a source of many rows.
Authorities in Dnestr energetically promote the Russian language and the
closure of the school was part of a campaign to stop use of a
"non-approved script".
Dnestr's authorities say Romanian is only an official language when
written in Cyrillic script, as it was under the Soviet Union and not in
the Latin script as in Romania.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticised the
move last week as "linguistic cleansing", adding about 40 percent of
Dnestr's population speak Romanian as their first language.
Author: DIVERS
summary


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