RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  16 August 1999

HUNGARIAN CHURCHES CONDEMN PUBLICATION OF ANTI-SEMITIC
FORGERY. The Hungarian Calvinist Church expressed
"solidarity" with members of the Hungarian Jewish
Community who have protested the recent publication of
the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," Hungarian media
reported on 14 August. The same day, Hungarian Catholic
Bishops condemned the publication of the book, saying it
could foment hatred on racial or religious grounds. They
expressed concern over the "increasingly frequent
manifestations" of "a lack of respect and tolerance"
toward various religious communities. The Ministry of
National Cultural Heritage on 13 August said it condemns
"any defamation of religions" and expressed solidarity
with "those offended" in this way. The ministry added
that it supports a call by the Federation of Hungarian
Jewish Religious Communities to publish a scholarly work
dealing with the book's false claims. MS

HUNGARIAN FAR RIGHT LEADER INSISTS ON VOJVODINA
REFERENDUM. Hungarian Justice and Life Party chairman
Istvan Csurka told Hungarian Radio on 15 August that
Budapest must insist on a UN-supervised referendum on
northern Vojvodina's re-annexation to Hungary. Asked to
comment on the fact that the region's Hungarian minority
has made no such demand, Csurka said that, like most
Hungarians living outside Hungary's borders, Vojvodina's
Magyars "have a bayonet pointed at their back" and are
thus unable to express their true aspirations. Csurka
said that Hungary must act to save "the southern
region"--a term referring to the historical borders of
Greater Hungary--and that a "tiny border alteration"
would save 300,000-500,000 Hungarians. He added that the
"principle of the inviolability of borders" is a "lie"
and is "violated by the great powers all the time." MS

SERBIAN OPPOSITION LEADER OPPOSED TO HUNGARIAN AUTONOMY
IN VOJVODINA. Nenad Canak, who heads the League of
Social Democrats of Vojvodina, said in an interview with
Hungarian Radio on 15 August that he opposes granting
territorial autonomy to Vojvodina's ethnic Hungarians.
He charged that providing autonomy "would only
facilitate the spread of Serbian nationalism in
Vojvodina and lead to new disputes." Canak added that he
opposes the concept of "personal autonomy" because it
would involve a "redistribution of budget funds" based
on the numerical strength of ethnic communities, meaning
that "the small Ruthenian and Ukrainian minorities would
get practically nothing." In an interview with the
Belgrade weekly "NIN" on 15 August, Alliance of
Vojvodina Hungarians chairman Joszef Kasza said that as
long as the Yugoslav authorities "struggle for their own
survival," they will have "neither the strength nor the
means to deal with minority issues." MS

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