January 1999
Head of the Regional Cultural Center in Velky Krtís/Nagykürtös Jana Strasková was removed from office and replaced by Elena Pasiarová, director of the district library. The former intendant was a member of the Vladimír Meciar-led Movement for Democratic Slovakia who, for example, on one occasion had voiced her fury to the Hungarian daily Új Szó over too many Hungarian words being heard in southern Slovakia and promised to take steps against it. These intendant offices were established by the previous Ministry of Culture under Ivan Hudec to exert strict supervision over, and interfere in, the activities of local cultural institutions. [See report of Jan. 19.] The current government of Mikulas Dzurinda has announced their liquidation. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Feb. 1, 1999]
Following a two-year disruption, bilingual report cards were once again issued at half-term in schools where the language of instruction is either Hungarian, Ukrainian or Ruthenian. [Fórum Institute (Galanta/Galánta), Jan. 29, 1999]
Deputy Prime Minister in Charge of Minorities and Regional Development Pál Csáky, along with other Hungarian Coalition Party leaders, honored 25 teachers who had been dismissed or otherwise harassed for supporting bilingual education under the prior government. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 29, 1999]
Deputy Director of the Nové Zamky/Érsekújvár District Office Imre Nagy is considering forming a permanent committee to address Roma concerns. The body would include civil servants from the district and local social welfare departments, police force, hopefully mayors, as well as private citizens. A survey of existing Roma organizations and the community’s living conditions would be priority tasks of the committee. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 28, 1999]
Political scientist Eva Salnerová and historian Peter Salner examined elementary and high school level history, literature, geography and civic studies textbooks on behalf of the American Jewish Committee for their content on Jewish history, religion, the Holocaust and Israel. The Committee has been systematically surveying textbooks in the region regarding their approach on these matters. The results of their studies have shown the greatest shortcoming to be the near absence of these subjects in Slovak textbooks. The multi-cultural character and ethnic plurality of the country are not sufficiently emphasized in the educational curriculum, concluded the study. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 28, 1999]
The Constitutional Court found for Hungarian Coalition Party Vice President and Chairman of the parliamentary Human and Minority Rights Committee László Á. Nagy who had asserted that his constitutional right to freedom of opinion was denied by the Ministry of the Interior when it obstructed a referendum on direct presidential elections in May 1997. Nagy told the press that the decision is a sign that Slovakia has returned to the rule of law. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 28, 1999]
Representatives of the country's national minorities were invited by the parliamentary Human and Minority Rights Committee chairman, László Á. Nagy, for a discussion of the Bill on Minority Languages. The bill sets the minority population threshold at 10 percent to accommodate less populous ethnic groups and grants official status to eight minority languages: Hungarian, Ruthenian, Polish, Czech, German, Roma and Croatian. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 27, 1999]
Current President of the Council of Ministers of the Council of Europe Hungarian Foreign Minister János Martonyi said at the meeting of the organization's Parliamentary Assembly that he would like the body to take major steps in minority protection during his tenure. The Council will provide the necessary financial support for bodies monitoring implementation of the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities as well as the European Charter on Regional or Minority Languages, both going into effect in February. In addition, discussions are underway to establish the office of a Council of Europe Commissioner on Human Rights, noted Martonyi. [Népújság (Tirgu Mures/Marosvásárhely), Jan. 29, 1999]
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán invited his Slovak and Austrian colleagues, Mikulas Dzurinda and Viktor Klima for a one-day summit in Sopron, Hungary to discuss regional cooperation, including the creation of a development zone in the Bratislava-Vienna-Gyôr triangle. [OMRI Daily Digest (Prague), Jan. 27, 1999]
The meeting in Galanta/Galánta of 19 ethnic Hungarian teachers and school principals, who had been dismissed and abused by authorities for protesting attempts to obstruct native-language instruction in minority schools during the Vladimir Meciar-led government, resulted in a letter to Pál Csáky, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of minorities and regional development. The letter was prompted by Csáky’s drive to apologize for the mistreatment of teachers, who, however, concluded that while the past government responsible for the abuse was not willing to do so, the new one has no reason to. Instead, teachers appealed to the Deputy Premier to demonstrate "with concrete acts" the current cabinet’s "new professional and moral approach" The letter also pointed out that the government is now "in a position to rectify all the injustice that the previous regime inflicted on Hungarian-language education through its destructive policy." Gyula Popély, a dismissed principal from Bratislava, will hand over the teachers’ letter to Pál Csáky on January 25. [Magyar Nemzet (Budapest), Jan. 25, 1999]
Secretary General József Berényi of CSEMADOK — the cultural umbrella organization of Hungarians in Slovakia — recounted the results of a meeting between the organization's leadership and the Ministry of Culture. While the precise amount of forthcoming emergency funding is not known, the organization will no longer receive state subsidies. Support for CSEMADOK has declined from 11 million Slovak Crowns in 1994 to 4 million in 1995, nothing in 1996 and 1998, and 120,000 in 1997. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 25, 1999]
Unknown perpetrators vandalized a cemetery in Banská Bistrica/Besztercebánya with predominately Roma graves. Crosses, flowers and wreaths were destroyed. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 25, 1999]
Slovak Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan — the first Slovak politician to officially visit the United States since the country's formation — returned from meeting with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. While Albright said that no new states will be invited to join NATO at the March 1999 summit, Slovakia can count on U.S. support if the country continues in the same direction. Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski emphasized the need for Slovakia to demonstrate that it’s on an irreversible course. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 25, 1999]
Agricultural State Secretary from the Hungarian Coalition Party Gyôzô Mészáros presided over the annual meeting in Diakovce/Deáki of the 800-member local branch of CSEMADOK — the cultural umbrella organization of ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia. Its last year’s activities included, among others, participation in a demonstration in Galanta/Galánta on behalf of bilingual report cards, the organization of a boy scout troop with new 40 members and the opening of a local youth club. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 25, 1999]
After talks with Education Minister Milan Ftácnik, a teacher at the Hungarian-language primary school in Trstice/Nádszeg, Béla Agócs, ended his four-day sit-down strike when the minister promised an independent investigation on the person who had humiliated and discriminated against him during the previous regime. Agócs was well-known for consistently issuing bilingual report cards despite the official ban imposed by the previous government of Vladimír Meciar. The ethnic Hungarian teacher insists that the officials who mistreated him be removed from office. [Fórum Institute (Galanta/Galánta), Jan. 22, 1999]
Anna Hecht, acting president of the Alliance of Hungarian Pedagogues in Slovakia met with Education Minister Milan Ftácnik. Ftácnik emphasized the need for the Alliance to participate in the Ministry's advisory council as well amendment of the 1990 (No. 542) Law on Education. The situation of Hungarian teacher training, including the State Pedagogical Institute and the possibility of establishing a network of independent Hungarian school superintendents, were discussed. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 22, 1999]
Hungarian Coalition Party deputy and education expert Erzsébet Dolník recommended that the Bill on Minority Languages define and guarantee bilingual school documents since currently only the education minister has decision-making power in this matter. Dolník said that otherwise no guarantee exists that Education Minister Milan Ftácnik’s successors will also continue this practice. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 21, 1999]
"We have tried to keep the doors of the European Union open to countries aspiring to membership. The September general elections proved that democracy works in Slovakia. However, the president’s case has remained a question mark, which you will have to resolve soon" — began his speech — Vice-President of the Joint Parliamentary Committee of the European Union and Slovakia Roy Terry at the body's 7th meeting. The EU official recalled that as a delegate to the Joint Parliamentary Committee of the EU and Hungary, he also pays considerable attention to the situation of ethnic Slovaks in Hungary and to the committee supervising compliance with the Hungarian-Slovak Bilateral Agreement, as well as Roma issues. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 22, 1999]
Aiming at the protection of human and minority rights with a specific focus on the Roma population, the Legal Aid Office for the Protection of Ethnic Groups in Slovakia reported over 80 documented cases in 1998 of violation of the constitutional rights of ethnic Roma minority including physical abuse. "We received information on skinhead movements in several cities and investigated cases when representatives of authorities misused power," said Anna Koptová, head of the office. Funded by the European Union, the Legal Aid Office for the Protection of Ethnic Groups was established in Kosice/Kassa in 1996 and currently employs three human rights activists. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 20,1999]
Alarmed over the Dzurinda government's intention to liquidate the intendant offices that had been established by the Meciar regime's culture minister, Ivan Hudec, to exert strict supervision over, and interfere in, the activities of local cultural institutions, the Galanta/Galánta District intendant stated to Slovak Television that "from now we can only rely on Matica Slovenská buildings since with the closing of regional cultural centers, there will be no one to forge Slovak national culture in southern Slovakia." [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 19, 1999]
Parliament approved the appointment of new members, among others, ethnic Hungarian Béla Mozgay and János Varjú, to the National Labor Office's presidium, and Péter Ôry, to the 9-member national council of the Children and Youth Fund. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 19, 1999]
At a meeting in Nitra/Nyitra, the nationalistic organization, Matica Slovenská, prepared a campaign targeting increased enrollment in Slovak-language schools from ethnically mixed communities. Participants in the meeting have already compiled a list of families undecided as to whether to choose a minority or Slovak-language school for their children. Matica Slovenská's local director Darina Pechiciaková stated that "We have the right and the duty to advise Slovak citizens that Slovak-language schools provide their children with perfect knowledge of the state language, integration and the opportunity for further education." [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 19, 1999]
Unemployment in Velky Krtís/Nagykürtös, a district in southern Slovakia with a mixed ethnic Hungarian and Slovak population, was double the January national average at more than 30 percent last year. Analysts pointed out that the high rate of unemployment stemmed from the forceful industrialization of the region, which had traditionally been agriculturally-oriented. Several heavy industrial plants, for example, TESLA, LIAZ and Bueina, were established under Communism and maintained after its demise at a high cost. Since then, all factories have been liquidated. The remaining empty buildings have not attracted serious investors, except for a group recently from Taiwan who said would begin computer manufacturing if conditions prove favorable. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 18, 1999]
Talks between Pál Csáky, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of minorities and regional development, and 13 minority leaders concluded that the government's council on national minorities should be renewed with minority representatives constituting a majority in the 15-member advisory board. In addition to the participation of government and parliamentary officials, the council would be made up of three ethnic Hungarians, two Roma and one representative from each ethnic group. Participants of the meeting agreed on the by-laws of the council which, if approved by the government, will lead to the appointment of a government commissioner for minorities. Csáky also noted that the government intends to issue a decree providing state subsidies for minority cultures and press. [News Mirror—DAHR MTI Press Service (Bucharest), Jan. 18, 1999; Magyar Nemzet (Budapest), Jan. 16, 1999]
No decision has been reached yet over who will be appointed director of the Komarno/Komárom-based Museum Along the Danube, an institution also charged with preserving the region’s Hungarian folklore and history . Mihály Mácza, acting intendant in charge of liquidating the office of the intendant — a move initiated by the new Dzurinda government — told Új Szó that the Trnava/Nagyszombat District Office is undecided on whether to remove current director Helena Lehocká and advertise the position, or entrust an acting director. Mácza said he favors appointing the former director of the museum, József Csütörtöki, an ethnic Hungarian who was forcefully removed by the Meciar government. Helena Lehocká, who came after him, had ordered the removal of all Hungarian-language signs in the museum. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 15, 1999]
Parliament approved amendments to the education law restoring bilingual report cards submitted on December 2 by the government for urgent consideration. As a result, minority-language schools will be allowed to issue bilingual report cards at the end of the current semester and, additionally, record all school documents in their language of instruction as well. The previous cabinet, led by Vladimir Meciar, banned bilingual report cards, abolishing a 76-year old tradition. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 15, 1999]
In a vote of 93 to 1, Parliament approved a Constitutional amendment allowing for presidential elections via popular vote. While 42 opposition deputies abstained from voting, the necessary three-fifths majority (90 votes) was safely secured in the 150-seat parliament. By changing the method of selecting the president, the government led by Mikulas Dzurinda lived up to its key pre-election promise. The presidential ballot will likely be scheduled for early May 1999. [Fórum Institute (Galanta/Galánta), Jan. 14, 1999; Napi Magyarország (Budapest), Jan. 15, 1999]
In an effort to further education reforms, Pál Csáky, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of minorities and regional development, continued talks with Education Minister Milan Ftácnik over the reimbursement of minority-school principals dismissed by the Vladimir Meciar-led government, restoration of autonomy for schools, training of Hungarian-language teachers and theologians in the Komarno/Komárom Protestant University, accreditation of private universities along with the mutual recognition of diplomas and certificates, and the establishment of a minority department in the education ministry. Csáky stated that beginning February 1 the minority department will begin to work with 12 colleagues from the education ministry under the supervision of its state secretary László Szigeti. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 14, 1999]
The American Congress continues to support Slovakia's Euro-Atlantic integration as long as the current government stays on the path of reforms, was the message from a meeting in Bratislava between a U.S. congressional delegation and top Slovak officials, among others, Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of minorities and regional development Pál Csáky and Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan. Head of the U.S. delegation, and International Relations Committee Chairman, Representative Ben Gilman noted the government's strict economic policy and recommended that Slovakia comply with EU and NATO membership criteria, mentioning the free market, respect for human rights, freedom of press, civilian control over armed units, the rule of law and protection of private property as key elements. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 14, 1999]
Due to the lack of evidence, legal proceedings against parents from Buc/Búcs and Vojnice/Bátorkeszi who had protested the removal of ethnic Hungarian school principals in front of the Komarno/Komárom District Office [see report of May 12 and March 31] were terminated. The office indicted the parents on charges of breach of order and obstructing the movement of authorities. [Fórum Institute (Galanta/Galánta), Jan. 12, 1999]
Foreign Ministry State Secretary Ján Figel stated that obstructing the passage of the minority language bill would send the sign abroad that the necessary political will was lacking in Slovakia to comply with EU integration criteria. The state secretary pointed out that endorsement of the bill is just as important as presidential elections and the stability of constitutional institutions. While the minority language law needs to be approved before the next EU summit, coalition parties should overcome their divergent positions on the issue, said Ján Figel. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 11, 1999]
The Slovak National Party voiced disapproval over amendments to the education law, scheduled for debate on January 13, which would allow for the reinstatement of bilingual report cards in minority-language schools. [Fórum Institute (Galanta/Galánta), Jan. 8, 1999]
In mid-December the Ministry of Education order the printing of 55 thousand bilingual report cards, among them 680 Ukrainian-Slovak language ones, in order to distribute them in minority-language primary and secondary schools by January 11, said Magdalena Sedlacková, Education Ministry official. For students to receive bilingual report cards at the end of the current semester, parliament must approve on January 13 amendments to the Education and Language Laws. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), Jan. 5, 1999]
Interior Minister Ladislav Pittner stated that several members of Vladimir Meciar’s former cabinet may be indicted on charges of plotting the 1995 kidnapping of former president Michal Kovac’s son and thwarting the May 1997 referendum on direct presidential elections and NATO. Findings of the independent commission led by Pittner now confirm that Ivan Alexa, former head of the Slovak Intelligence Agency (SIS) attempted to destroy and hide evidence in collaboration with the Interior Ministry and the General Prosecutor’s Office. [Omri Daily Digest (Prague) Jan. 5, 1999]