- Title: ROMANIA:TENSIONS GROW IN ROMANIA AS ETHNIC HUNGARIANS DEMAND GREATER AUTONOMY.
- Date: 3rd August 1994
- Summary: COVASNA, ROMANIA (AUGUST 3 - 5, 1994) 1. GVS TOURISTS IN MARKETPLACE 0.08 2. GVS PEOPLE CUTTING AND CARVING WOOD 0.15 3. CU BOY'S HEAD 0.19 4. GV EXAMPLE OF LOCAL INLAID WOOD WORK 0.22 5. GV EXTERIOR OF POTTERY WORKS 0.24 6. GV POTTER AT WORK 0.28 7. SVS OLD WOMAN DECORATING POTTERY 0.37 8. GV/CU POTTER WORKING ON VASE 0.49 9. GV BAKING BREAD 0.52 10.GVS/CUS BAKERS BEATING BREAD WITH STICKS 1.09 11.GV STORKS NESTING ON TELEGRAPH POLE 1.13 12.GV BARN 1.18 13.SCU HUNGARIAN DEMOCRATIC UNION OF ROMANIA LEADER ARPAD MARTON SAYING TENSIONS IN TRANSYLVANIA ARE SIMILAR TO THOSE IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA, WITH THE ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT TAKING A DANGEROUS PATH OF NATIONALIST INTOLERANCE, SIMILAR TO THAT FOLOWED BY THE SERBIAN LEADERSHIP (HUNGARIAN) 1.47 14.CU BILINGUAL ROAD SIGN 1.51 15.GVS/SVS WOMEN AND CHILDREN WASHING CLOTHES IN RIVER 2.01 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 18th August 1994 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: COVASNA, ROMANIA
- City:
- Country: Romania
- Reuters ID: LVAE8TA26IJMILH97SFO1J8OTM4D
- Story Text: Ethnic Hungarians in a remote area of Transylvania in Romania have recently called for a greater degree of autonomy amid fears that their situation could mirror that of former Yugoslavia.
Local political leaders demanded a greater degree of autonomy for their community, which they say would nevertheless stop short of a radical break-away move.
Arpad Marton, local leader of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania, a party claiming to represent the country's ethnic Hungarians, said they wanted territorial self-rule, which did not mean secession from Romania.
Their main demands include the right to use their mother tongue in public life and education for all grades.
People in Covasna speak Hungarian. Villagers are the most conservative and they are usually reluctant to speak Romanian, the official language.
Marton said that tensions were similar to those in former Yugoslavia and that Romania's present-day rulers were taking a path of intolerance similar to that taken by Yugoslavia's nationalist Serbian leaders four years ago.
Four people were killed in inter-ethnic clashes which erupted in the Transylvanian town of Tirgu Mures in 1990. Romanian nationalists suspect Budapest of having designs on the region, which was once ruled by the Austro-Hungarian empire.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
