Gheorghe Funar, ultra-nationalist mayor of Cluj/Kolozsvár, was taken by force to Cluj Police headquarters after repeatedly failing to heed court orders to appear for questioning in criminal proceedings against him. Police chief Colonel Teodor Pop Puscas headed the operation consisting of a squad of special forces who removed the mayor from his office. A member of Funar’s staff, along with three members of the extremist Greater Rumania Party of which Funar is the Secretary-General, have also been charged with offenses against the authorities, incitement to offenses against the authorities, and acts of indecency. Previously, city council members brought suit against Funar for obstructing their work on May 31 when he barred them from their meeting chamber. At a press conference after his questioning, Mayor Funar blamed the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Rumania and the Democratic Party for the events and threatened Colonel Puscas and his colleagues. [Szabadság (Cluj/Kolozsvár), June 23 and 26, 2001]

A total of 250 freshmen are expected to be enrolled in the Hungarian University of Transylvania that will open doors in this academic year. Instruction will be launched in three subjects— food industry (50 places available), accounting (50 places) and regional development (25 places)—at the Miercurea Ciuc/Csíkszereda campus of the university. The National Council for Academic Evaluation and Accreditation (CNEAA) recently issued temporary permits to these divisions [see report of May 7]. Half of the places will be tuition exempt while the other half of the students will pay $300 per year. Sándor Tonk, Interim Rector of the university, disclosed that most likely the CNEAA will give permission by September to a further three divisions, namely Information Sciences, Mechatronics and Social Pedagogy in the Targu Mures/Marosvásárhely campus of the institution. [Népszabadság (Budapest), March 21, 2001]

Senator Corneliu Vadim Tudor, leader of the ultra-nationalist Greater Rumania Party (GRP) slandered Senator György Frunda of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Rumania (DAHR) during the parliamentary session, calling him a “shameless murderer,” “a hooligan who ridicules the Rumanian Senate” and threatening to “teach him a lesson that would put him under his chair.” The Speaker of the Senate (representing the ruling Social Democratic Party), Nicolae Vacaroiu, failed to put an end to the torrent of abuse. Tudor had been reading aloud a letter from the widow of Aurel Agache—a police officer lynched by a mob during the 1989 Revolution [Frunda was the trial attorney of the ethnic Hungarian who had been singled out for the death]. György Frunda announced that he would lodge a complaint with the parliament’s disciplinary committee and inform the Council of Europe about the incident. Aurel Agache had been a particularly brutal police major in the 91 percent Hungarian-inhabited town of Targu Secuiesc/Kézdivásárhely up until December 22, 1989 when he fell victim to public outrage. Even though a January 1990 general amnesty issued by then Interim President Ion Iliescu granted amnesty to participants of lynchings during the revolution, five ethnic Hungarians from Targu Secuiesc were sentenced to 3-7 years imprisonment. Two of them—Antal Reiner and the seriously ill Dezső Héjja—are under arrest in Miercurea Ciuc/Csíkszereda, while the other three previously fled the country for fear of an unfair trial. [Bihari Napló (Oradea/Nagyvárad), June 21, 2001]

The Chamber of Deputies’ Committee for Defense, Public Order and National Security rejected most of the changes proposed by the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Rumania (DAHR) to bills concerning police regulation. DAHR submitted more than 30 amendments to the two bills regarding the organization, activity and legal status of the Rumanian police force. The focus of DAHR’s proposals was to strengthen local community control over the police and harmonize the bills with the Law on Public Administration [see report of January 18] namely, to require police officers who serve in localities with over 20 percent minority populations, and work in direct contact with the community, to speak the given minority language. The proposals would have also ensured separate places for minority individuals in police academies and the opportunity for them to take native-language entrance examinations. Ethnic Hungarian member of the Committee, Tibor T. Toró, told the Hungarian-language daily, Szabadság that DAHR is likely to vote against the bills if these modifications are missing. [Szabadság (Cluj/Kolozsvár), June 13, 2001]

The Board of Trustees of the Sapientia Foundation, the organization in charge of the establishment of the private Hungarian University of Transylvania, elected the interim Senate of the university. Sándor Tonk, head of the foundation was elected as interim Rector, while Vilmos Tánczos and József Marton will serve as interim Pro-Rector and interim Research Secretary, respectively. The final Senate will be elected as soon as the university has a permanent staff, disclosed Sándor Tonk to the Hungarian-language daily Krónika. The Board of Trustees recently adopted the Charter of the University, prepared by Pál Szilágyi, member of the body. [Krónika (Cluj/Kolozsvár), June 7, 2001]

General Mircea Chelaru announced his retirement from active duty after being summoned to appear before the Supreme Council of the Defense Ministry following his attendance at the unveiling of a bust of fascist dictator Ion Antonescu [see report of June 1]. Leader of the ultra-nationalist Greater Rumania Party Corneliu Vadim Tudor—also present at the ceremony—subsequently demanded that Minister of Defense Ioan Mircea Pascu resign for calling Chelaru to account. Gen. Chelaru was General Chief of Staff in 2000 but was forced to resign after having spearheading the creation of the National Association of the Rumanian Military, an organization bent on increasing military control over Rumanian political life. [Szabadság (Cluj/Kolozsvár), June 8, 2001; Ziua (Bucharest), Nov. 1, 2000 and MTI – Hungarian Telegraph Agency (Budapest), June 5, 2001]

Cluj/Kolozsvár Registrar Vasile Petru Gherman declined to marry an ethnic Hungarian couple after the groom uttered the word “yes” in Hungarian as well, reported the Hungarian-language daily Szabadság. Even though the Law on Public Administration, adopted in January, provides for the use of the native language in contact with authorities in localities where the proportion of the given minority exceeds 20 percent of the population [see reports of January 18 and May 23], the registrar left the room abruptly without explanation. Gherman refused to continue the ceremony even after the couple had finally agreed to respond only in Rumanian. In September 1998 Gherman also refused to marry then parliamentarian of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Rumania, Jenő Mátis for the same reason. [Szabadság (Cluj/Kolozsvár), June 2, 2001]

A crowd of about 200 rioted in front of the Hungarian Consulate in the center of Cluj/Kolozsvár after the Rumanian soccer team defeated Hungary during the evening game. The fans arrived in three truckloads and chanted anti-Hungarian slogans such as “Out with the Hungarians in Rumania!” as well as obscenities. Police prevented damage to the building—as had happened after a soccer game two years ago—detaining one rabble-rouser. [Krónika (Cluj/Kolozsvár), June 4, 2001]

A bust of the fascist dictator Ion Antonescu was unveiled in the churchyard of an Orthodox church in Bucharest. The unveiling ceremony took place on the 55^th anniversary of his execution and was attended by Senator Corneliu Vadim Tudor, leader of the ultra-nationalist Greater Rumania Party (GRP); Senator Ilie Ilascu of the GRP; and Army Corps General Mircea Chelaru, former Chief of General Staff. Marshal Antonescu assumed power in 1940 and promoted pogroms against Jews during World War II. He was executed for war crimes in 1946. [MTI – Hungarian Telegraph Agency (Budapest), June 1, 2001]

The Court of Appeals in Iasi rejected an appeal filed by Cluj/Kolozs County Prefect Vasile Soporan and Deputy Prefect Dan Canta against a 1999 decision by the Cluj/Kolozsvár city council to raise a statue of fascist dictator Ion Antonescu. Consequently, only a—highly unlikely—political decision could prevent the statue from being raised. On October 28, 1999, the city council voted to erect the statue at the initiative of the city’s ultra-nationalist mayor, Gheorghe Funar, but then Prefect Bogdan Cerghizan ordered that construction cease since it began before the resolution was scheduled to come into force [see report of October 29, 1999]. Marshal Ion Antonescu was responsible for persecution of Jews in Rumania during World War II. [Szabadság (Cluj/Kolozsvár), June 1, 2001]