Calls for Szekler autonomous zone spark fear of extremism
On Hungary’s national holiday March
15, Odorheiu Secuiesc in Harghita
County saw 15,000 to 20,000 Szeklers
and Hungarians gather to present
a manifesto asking for autonomy
for their region, in a move that has
sparked extremist fears of Romania’s
fragmentation.
On the anniversary of the beginning
of the 1848 Hungarian revolution
against the Habsburgs, leaders of the
Hungarian-speaking Szekler National
Council (CNS) read out a manifesto
asking for Autonomy for Szeklerland.
This autonomous region would
comprise the counties of Harghita,
Covasna and part of Mures.
However, though there is a majority
of Hungarians in the first two of these
counties, only 300 people declare
themselves as Szekler.
“Without autonomy, it is difficult for
the Szekler minority to maintain their
ethnic identity, a Hungarian identity,
because they do not feel at home,” said
Csaba Ferenc, vice-president of the
CNS.
“This is an act of extremism,” said
deputy prefect of the Mures County
Zamfira Pora. “It is the radicalism
of some members of the Hungarian
minority and the action has no chance
of success.”
Mayor of Odorheiu Secuiesc Jeno
Szasz believes the Hungarian authorities
should support the initiative of the
Szeklers, in the same way the Austrian
government engaged in a dialogue with
Italy to negotiate the autonomous status
of the majority German-speaking region
South Tyrol.
Extreme right-wing Greater Romania
Party (PRM) senator and former
mayor of Cluj-Napoca Gheorghe Funar
claimed: “The source of the problem is
that Hungary and [Hungarian party of
Romania] UDMR work continuously for
the dismemberment of Romania.”
He told The Diplomat the purpose is
the reconstruction of a Greater Hungary,
as it existed under the Austro-Hungarian
Empire.
Related to the Hungarians, Szeklers
have lived in the three counties since the
13th century.
“Szeklerland is a natural and historical
region, as God allowed,” said Szasz.
He added that 85 per cent of the people
in Harghita are Hungarian-speaking,
compared to 80 per cent in Covasna and
50 per cent in Mures.
In a 2002 census only 266 Romanians
declared themselves as ‘Szekler’.
Anca Pol
Constanta tipped as route for raw materials from Latin America
A greater European market for raw
materials and the port of Constanta are
of interest to Peru, Oscar Maurtua de
Romana, the country’s minister of foreign
affairs told The Diplomat.
However the minister said there are
still stumbling blocks in law and tax before
solid bilateral relations can pick up.
“When Romania joins the EU, it
will need more raw materials,” argued
Maurtua de Romana, on a recent visit to
Bucharest. Peru is rich in copper, silver,
lead, zinc and gold.
The nation is looking for export opportunities
to the EU and could see
Romania, due to the port of Constanta
and its industrialised economy, as an anchor
for further trade with new Europe.
But the minister said that he needs
treaties in judicial guarantees for the
goods and an end to double taxation – taxing in both countries for the same
merchandise.
Total trade between Peru and Romania
is around 17 million Euro, one half is
steel from Romania and the other is fish
products and coffee from Peru.
Prosecutors under attack for arresting journalist in possession of military secrets
The recent arrest of a journalist for
handling secret documents has blown
open the issue of what information
the press can receive without fear of
reprisal.
In February authorities investigating
the leak of secret documents on the
movement of coalition troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan arrested a journalist working
for Romania Libera for potentially
endangering national security.
He had come into possession of a CD
detailing troop movements in 2003, but
did not publish the information.
The General Prosecutor’s Office also
called another journalist working for
Ziua newspaper to hearings.
The investigation is still ongoing.
“I don’t know why they are investigated,”
said Ioana Avadani, president of
the Centre for Independent Journalism.
“They didn’t try hard to get this
information.”
Mircea Toma, president of Media
Monitoring Agency, said that the journalists
are not responsible, but the
institution that leaked the document
- in this case the Ministry of Defence
(MAPN).
MAPN has made its own investigation
into the leak and penalised 79 people,
including three generals.
“Secret files are marked,” said Daniel
Anghel from the press bureau of
MAPN. “When a citizen possesses such
a document, the citizen has to return the
document to the origin.”
But there is a grey area here. “No one has enough expertise to distinguish
top secret information, except
the authorised people,” argued Toma.
“Even if the document has a mark, it
doesn’t mean that it is secret. It could
have been a document which was secret
in the past but no longer is.”
In 2002 the Government passed a law
on classified information which overlaps
with and nullifies other laws.
“The classified information law from
2002 is imperfect,” said Toma. “It allows
each institution to make issues
secret which should not be secret. It’s
hilarious. For example one local council
declared its own meetings secret, but
these should be in the public interest.”
The 2002 law also overrides the national
security law from 1991 and criminal
law, says Toma. This means authorities
who want to prosecute a journalist for
endangering national security for receiving
or even publishing a document
may not even be able to do so.
EU concerned over corruption delay
Following President Basescu’s stand
on the anti-corruption issue, the Senate
last month passed a law which empowers
the National Anti-corruption Department
(DNA) to probe senior politicians and
judges.
This legislation was initially rejected
by the Senate, mainly due to the absence
of a large number of ruling coalition
senators from the chamber. This turned
the voting decision in favour of the
opposition.
President Basescu called all
Parliamentary parties for consultation
and sent the bill back for a second reading.
This passed with only one senator
registering opposition.
Although the EU sees this law as necessary
in the war against corruption, some
political figures are concerned the initial
rejection shows that a significant number
of parliamentarians are not serious about
introducing new anti-graft measures.
In a recent speech, British Ambassador
Quinton Quayle said that though he sees
an “active fight” by Basescu and Minister
of Justice Monica Macovei against corrupt
tendencies in Romania, there is now
an “active resistance” to these changes.
There are still no cases of top level
businesspeople or politicians convicted
in Romania of corruption.
News briefs
Former Prime Minister exits
main political stage
Adrian Nastase has resigned from
his position as leader of the Social
Democratic Party (PSD) and from his
post as president of the Chamber of
Deputies. PSD leaders voted against
him in an extraordinary meeting of the
party’s county organisations, through a
secret ballot of 37 votes for his resignation
and 16 against. Nastase is under
investigation by the National Anti-corruption
Department, for alleged bribery
and money laundering.
Cigarette businessman
hangs himself
Florin Anghelescu, owner of a tobacco
company and husband of President
Basescu’s former counsellor Stana
Anghelescu, was found hanged in his
residence in Baneasa. The police said
Angelescu committed suicide. The
businessman was under investigation
in several tax evasion cases after the
authorities found a huge quantity of cigarettes
with fake stamps at the property
of his company.
Bucharest sector mayor
resigns from party
Mayor of Bucharest’s sector 2 Nicolae
Ontanu has resigned from the Social
Democratic Party (PSD). He was a vice
president of the party and on his second
mandate as a PSD mayor. Ontanu
said he made the decision because he
prefers to deal with the administrative
problems of sector 2, rather than participate
in party in-fighting. Rumours
say that Ontanu will join the coalition’s
Democratic Party (PD), but these were
not confirmed as we went to press.
State official stabbed in office
Barna Tanczos, the head of the Government
agency that administers state
land, was last month stabbed in his office,
by Alecu Chitaru, a Cotnari-based
businessman. This is the first case of
a high-ranking official undergoing such
an ordeal. Reports said that Chitaru
was a regular at the headquarters of
the agency with different complaints
each day, so the security service did
not bother to search the man. Tanczos
was alone in the office when Chitaru
went in to get an answer for a previous
query, but stabbed the official in the
back when he was not offered a reply.
Prosecutor’s office seizes
Petromidia shares
Romania’s General Prosecutor’s
Office last month seized Rompetrol
Rafinare shares owned by Rompetrol
Group, its CEO Dinu Patriciu and its
American partners Phil Stephenson
and Colin Hart. The Prosecutor’s
Office also proposed, without success,
the arrest of the three men. Patriciu,
Stephenson and Hart are investigated
in the Rompetrol case for fraud, capital
market manipulation and money
laundering. The Bucharest Tribunal
has rejected the prosecutors’ request
for detention of the three. Rompetrol
Rafinare has appealed against the
seizure of 5.46 million shares held by
majority shareholder Rompetrol Group.
President declares day of Rroma
President Traian Basescu agreed
to pass a new law which establishes 8
April as the ‘Celebration of the Rroma
in Romania’. This globally-recognised
date commemorates 8 April 1971, when
the first congress of the International
Rroma Union took place, in London.
However Rroma groups are still frustrated
with the Government because it
seems to have no budget for its ‘Rroma
strategy’ to combat prejudice and improve
rights for the minority.
Hungary-Romania gas pipeline
in advanced stages
In meeting Hungarian counterpart
Ferenc Gyurcsany, Prime Minister
Tariceanu said a proposed gas pipeline
to connect Romania and Hungary
is now 60 per cent complete on the
Romanian side. The two prime ministers
also discussed establishing a bilateral
Romanian-Hungarian Chamber of
Commerce.
Secret service files may reveal
surprises about top politicians
President Basescu last month said
the 1.3 million previously secret files
handed over to the National Council
for the Study of Securitate Archives
(CNSAS) may reveal “huge surprises”
about several high-level politicians, according
to Mediafax. “I have been told
there would be many surprises in those
1.3 million files, and the truth is that it’s
almost impossible not to find any surprises
there,” said Basescu on a trip to
Cluj-Napoca.