Yugoslavia/Hungary: The number of Hungarians, the evolution of this number and the reason(s) for this evolution; reports of harassment of Hungarians speaking Hungarian in public by non-Hungarian Yugoslavs; legislation to protect minorities from racial hatred and harassment, its date of implementation and its effectiveness; existence of Hungarian language newspapers; existence of Hungarian social/cultural groups and if so, their number, their membership and their mandate (2001-April 2002)

According to Agence France Presse, there are approximately 350,000 ethnic Hungarians in Serbia (AFP 17 Aug. 2001), one of the two republics constituting Yugoslavia (CIA 2001). For statistics on ethnic Hungarians in Yugoslavia, please see Section 2, Statistical Information of the 2001 report on The Situation of Hungarians in Voivodina published by the Budapest-based Government Office for Hungarian Minorities Abroad (GOHMA) and available at . For information on the history of ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina (northern Yugoslavia), a province within the Republic of Serbia (RFE/RL 24 Jan. 2002), please see Section 1, History of the GOHMA report. The Office is described as "a public administrative body with nation-wide competence under [Hungary's] Government direction and supervised by the [Hungarian] Minister for Foreign Affairs through the Political State Secretary" (GOHMA 11 Mar. 2002). Its mandate includes the co-ordination of governmental activities related to Hungarian minorities, the maintenance of ties with Hungarian organizations in both Hungary and abroad, the development and/or maintenance of bilateral relations with the governmental bodies competent for minority affairs in countries with Hungarian minorities, and the monitoring of problems encountered by Hungarian minorities (ibid.).

No reports of harassment of Hungarians speaking Hungarian in public by non-Hungarian Yugoslavs could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

For information on the Yugoslavian Law on the Protection and Freedoms of National Minorities, which came into force on 7 March 2002 (OSCE 12 Mar. 2002), please see the Background Report of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe listed in the references.

Speaking at a summer 2001 conference on national and ethnic communities in south-eastern, Europe Joszef Wolf, the chair of the Council of Europe Ministerial Committee, commended the progress made by the Yugoslav authorities on minority issues and acknowledged Yugoslavia's attachment to modern European values (BETA 6 July 2001).

Speaking at the same conference, Goran Svilanovic, the Yugoslav Foreign Minister, stated that his government would meet European standards on minority rights (ibid.). The minister added that the Yugoslav authorities were in the process of eradicating ethnic discrimination and xenophobia (ibid.).

During a ceremony marking the opening of a Hungarian consulate in Subotica (northern Serbia) in August 2001, Zoran Djindjic, the Serbian Prime Minister, pledged to guarantee the rights of Serbia's Hungarian minority (AFP 17 Aug. 2001). Following a meeting with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica in January 2001, Jozsef Kasza, the chair of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians and Deputy Prime Minister-Designate of Serbia, indicated that Kostunica had promised the guarantee and the protection of the rights of every ethnic group by all state institutions (Hungarian Radio 22 Jan. 2001).

On 14 February 2002, the offices of Concordia Minoritatis Hungaricae (CMH) in Sombor and Becej, an organization mandated to deliver "status cards" to ethnic Hungarians residing in Vojvodina pursuant to Hungary's status law adopted on 19 June 2001, received threats of a bomb attack (HLC 25 Feb. 2002). The letter received in Becej demanded that the office stopped issuing "status cards" (ibid.). The police reportedly arrived on the premises "immediately," and in the case of the Sombor office, took a statement and stayed until the closing time (ibid.). According to the Humanitarian Law Center, a non-governmental organization known to have investigated crimes committed by the Yugoslav army and police in Kosovo (The New York Times 25 Apr. 2001), "extreme rightist groups are taking advantage of the confusion [caused by the ambiguous stance of the Yugoslav authorities on the status law] to incite hate and hostility against the Hungarian national minority in Vojvodina" (HLC 25 Feb. 2002).

For more information on minority rights in Yugoslavia, please see a June 2001 working paper by Matthias Koenig with the Institute of Sociology of Philipps-University in Marburg, Germany, entitled The Situation of Minorities in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Towards an Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities available on the Website of the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) at

For information on Hungarian language newspapers available in the region of Vojvodina, please see Section 10, Mass Communication of the GOHMA report.

For information on Hungarian social/cultural groups existing in Vojvodina, please see Section 6, Civic Society and Section 8, Culture and Science in the GOHMA report.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Agence France Presse (AFP). 17 August 2001. "Ouverture d'un consulat hongrois dans le nord de la Serbie." ([email protected])

BETA. 6 July 2001. "Yugoslavia Will Respect Minority Rights Says Yugoslav Official." [Accessed 26 Apr. 2002]

CIA World Factbook. 24 January 2002. "Yugoslavia" [Accessed 29 Apr. 2002]

Hungary. Government Office for Hungarian Minorities Abroad (GOHMA) [Budapest]. 11 March 2002. "About the Office." [Accessed 26 Apr. 2002]

Humanitarian Law Center (HLC). 25 February 2002. "HLC-Press- Hungarian Offices in Vojvodina Receive Bomb Threats."

[Accessed 26 Apr. 2002]

Hungarian Radio [Budapest, in Hungarian]. 22 January 2001. "Federal President Promises Minority Rights' Protection to Vojvodina Hungarians." (BBC Summary 24 Jan. 2001/NEXIS)

The New York Times. 25 April 2001. Carlotta Gall. "Yugoslav Army Charges 183 in Crimes in Kosovo." (NEXIS)

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) [Vienna]. 12 March 2002. Background Report on Recently Adopted Federal Law on the Protection and Freedoms of National Minorities. [Accessed 26 Apr. 2002]

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) [Prague]. 24 January 2002. Alexandra Poolos. "Yugoslavia: Serbian Parliament Grants Vojvodina Partial Return of Regional Powers." [Accessed 29 Apr. 2002]

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB Databases

LEXIS/NEXIS

Internet sites including:

The Balkan Human Rights Web Pages

The European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) [Flensburg]

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)

Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia

Hungarian Human Rights Foundation [New York]

The International Crisis Group (ICG) [Brussels]

Minority Electronic Resources (MINELRES) [Riga]

Minority Rights Group International

World News Connection (WNC)