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PROJECT ON ETHNIC RELATIONS

"Dedicated to reducing interethnic conflict in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union"


Winter/Spring 1998 Bulletin


SLOVAK DELEGATION RECEIVED BY ROMANIANS

As part of its ongoing effort to encourage more inclusive styles of governance, PER sponsored a three-day visit to Romania, March 20-22, 1998, by senior political leaders from Slovakia to enable them to learn at firsthand about the current Romanian experience with coalition politics and with the inclusion of ethnic Hungarian representatives in the ruling coalition. The Slovak delegation included such notables as Jan Carnogursky, former prime minister and chairman of the Christian Democratic Union, Eduard Kukan, former foreign minister and chairman of the democratic Union, and leaders of the three ethnic Hungarian parties of Slovakia. The ruling party, movement for a democratic Slovakia, HZDS, was also invited, but chose not to attend. Their discussions with high-level Romanian political leaders focused on coalition politics and election campaign strategies.

On March 20, the Slovak delegation met with Ion Diaconescu, president of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies and president of the National Peasant Christian Democratic Party; Valeriu Stoica, minister of justice; Bela Marko, president of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, (UDMR) and other members of that party's leadership; Petre Roman, president of the Senate and president of the Democratic Party; Gyorgy Tokay, minister in the Department for the Protection of National Minorities; Laszlo Borbely, secretary of state at the Ministry of Public Works and Land Planning; and Zoe Petre, counselor to the president on domestic and foreign policy.

On March 21, PER hosted a roundtable discussion with high level Romanian politicians and the Slovak delegation. The meeting was organized by Dan Pavel and Elena Cruceru, PER's representatives in Bucharest, and Samuel Abraham and Peter Priadka, PER's representatives in Slovakia.


Regional Meetings


Political Leaders discuss interethnic Relations and Regional Security in Central Europe

The second annual PER Regional Meeting on Majority-Minority Relations and Regional Security in Central Europe was held in Baden, Austria, December 19-21, 1997. This forum brought together political leaders and authorities from Austria, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine, the United States, the European Union, and NATO, to review regional security strategies in the context of Euro-Atlantic integration trends, the effects of political behavior in each country on the interparty politics of other countries in the region, and the impact of interethnic issues on mutual relations.

The participants in this meeting were Herbert Boesch, chairman, Joint European-Slovak Parliamentary Committee, European Parliament; Peter Burian, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia; Jan Carnogursky, chairman, Christian Democratic Movement, and former prime minister of Slovakia; Pal Csaky, vice-chairman, Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement, Slovakia; Andrew Dolan, director of the Strategic Analysis and Policy Department, NATO; Cristian Dumitrescu, vice-president of the Romanian Senate; Matyas Eorsi, state secretary for policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hungary; Heinz Fischer, president, National Council (Parliament) of Austria; Constantin Dudu Ionescu, secretary of state and chief of defense policy and international relations at the Ministry of Defense and member of the Cabinet, Romania; Ralph Johnson, U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia; Ferenc Kontra, head of the secretariat, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hungary; Eduard Kukan, chairman of the Democratic Union, Slovak Republic; Yevhen Marchuk, member of the Parliament and former prime minister of Ukraine; Vesna Pesic, president, Civic Alliance of Serbia; Jonathan Rickert, director of North Central European Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Vladimir Solonari, chairman, Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and National Minorities, Moldova; Csaba Tabajdi, state secretary, Office of the Prime Minister, Hungary; and Gyorgy Tokay, minister, Department for National Minorities, and member of the Cabinet, Romania. The meeting was chaired by Allen Kassof, president of PER, and Livia Plaks, PER executive director. Warren Haffar, PER program officer, Samuel Abraham and Peter Priadka (both from PER's Slovakia office), and Ferenc Melykuti, PER representative in Budapest, also attended.

The discussions focussed on the aftermath of the first-round decisions on NATO enlargement, the political impact on domestic, bilateral, and regional of these actions, prospects for EU membership, and the probable consequences of upcoming elections in several of the countries represented at the meeting.


Kosovo Effort Continues

During the crisis in Kosovo, the Project on Ethnic Relations has kept in touch with the principals on both sides of the conflict. Between October 15 and 25, 1997, PER President Allen Kassof, Executive Director Livia Plaks, and Program Officer Aleksey Grigor'ev traveled to Belgrade and Pristina in a follow-up to the roundtable between Serb and Kosovar Albanian political leaders held in New York in April 1997. Grigor'ev returned in February 1998 for further consultations.

All of the principal Serb and Kosovar Albanian parties except the Socialist Party of Serbia (which at the last minute declared that it would not attend) were represented at the New York roundtable by their presidents or vice-presidents. Officials from the U.S. State Department and American academic experts also attended. The roundtable produced a joint Serb-Kosovar Albanian statement setting forth terms of possible future negotiations, including respect for the Helsinki principles concerning borders and participation in continued dialogue with no preconditions or prejudgments of possible outcomes. (See the PER report, The New York Roundtable: Toward Peaceful accommodation in Kosovo.)

During the October visit, the PER team met in Belgrade with Ratomir Vico, minister in the government of Serbia responsible for the 3+3 talks on education between Belgrade and Pristina; Ivica Dacic and other senior officials of the executive board of the Socialist Party of Serbia; Dusan Mihajlovic and Tahir Hasanovic, respectively president and secretary general of the New Democracy Party; and Vladimir Stambuk, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Yugoslav United Left. Kassof, Plaks, and Grigor'ev also met with leaders of the Serbian opposition: Zoran Djindjic, president of the Democratic Party; Vuk Draskovic, president of the Serbian Renewal Movement; Vesna Pesic, president of the Civic Alliance of Serbia; Dragoljub Micunovic, president of the Party of the Democratic Center; and Dusan Janjic, vice-president of the Social Democracy Party. Richard Miles, U.S. charge d' affaires, hosted a dinner in honor of the visit.

In Pristina, the team consulted with Ibrahim Rugova, president of the Democratic League of Kosova, and his vice-presidents, Fehmi Agani and Hydajet Hyseni; Adem Demaci, president of the Parliamentary Party of Kosova; and Mahmut Bakalli, former senior political leader of Kosovo, and Veton Surroi, editor-in-chief, Koha Ditore. They also met Serbian officials in Kosovo, leaders of the Serbian Resistance Movement, and officials of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and they visited the United States information Agency office in Pristina.

The PER team then traveled to Skopje, Macedonia, to confer with President Kiro Gligorov concerning the impact of the situation in Kosovo on interethnic relations in that country, especially the problem of Albanian-Macedonian tensions. separate meetings were held with the presidents of the two principal ethnic Albanian parties, Abdurahman Haliti of the Party for Democratic prosperity, a partner in the coalition government of Macedonia, and Arben Xhaferi of the Democratic Party of Albanians. Afterward, Kassof traveled to The Hague at the request of Max van der Stoel, OSCE High commissioner on National minorities, to discuss cooperation on Kosovo related issues.

During his follow-up visit in February, Grigor'ev met again with the principals on both sides, who reaffirmed their desire to reconvene the roundtable. PER is reviewing its programs in Kosovo in light of the latest developments.


Euro-Atlantic Discussion Group on Interethnic Conflicts

In January 1998, PER convened a meeting of officials from NATO, the United States, the Western European Union, the European Parliament, and the European Commission to launch a project on the capacity and preparedness of the Euro-Atlantic community to deal with current and potential interethnic conflicts. The meeting was hosted at NATO headquarters in Brussels by the NATO secretary general's special advisor for Central and East European affairs, Christopher Donnelly, and chaired by PER's executive director, Livia Plaks, and Andrew Dolan, director of NATO's Strategic Analysis and Policy department. Disagreements and misunderstandings among European states and organizations, and between Europe and the United States, have sometimes impeded effective responses and threatened to undermine the larger Euro-Atlantic consensus. PER hopes that unofficial consultations among senior policy-makers and advisors will help to identify and clarify difficulties and point the way to practical solutions. The group will work during this year to produce a report and recommendations.


Meeting of Young Political Leaders from Southeastern Europe

PER convened a precedent-setting meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, for young political leaders from Southeastern Europe to discuss their concerns over the impact of interethnic tensions on regional political and economic development. It was the first time that leading politicians from the under-forty age group from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia-Montenegro, and Turkey had met together. The meeting was the first in what is planned as an annual series intended to stimulate the growth of regional cooperation and the development of new ways of avoiding ethnic conflicts. Observers attended from the U.S. Department of State, NATO, the European Union, and the Council of Europe, whose Confidence-Building Measures Programme provided partial funding for this initiative. U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria, Avis Bohlen, made informal remarks to the conferees concerning U.S. perceptions of and policies toward Southeastern Europe. The Bulgarian government assisted with arrangements for the meeting, and vice-president of Bulgaria Todor Kavaldzhiev received the group for an off-the-record discussion.

Young leaders in the Balkan countries have had few opportunities to become acquainted with one another and to explore their problems, hopes, and plans with their counterparts in other countries of the region. West European and American observers who attended the meeting commented on a welcome change in political vocabulary among the new generation of young leaders, which they believe may foreshadow a broader positive change for the region.

Nevertheless, the participants acknowledged that many serious and unresolved conflicts continue to disrupt relations among the states of the region and between the region and Euro-Atlantic structures. They agreed that meetings of this kind should be held on a regular basis, and they suggested that the agenda of the next meeting should focus on a limited number of specific issues. The meeting was arranged by PER's representative in Bulgaria, Ivan Ilchev, and with the assistance of the Bulgarian government.


HUNGARY


Party Leaders Debate Hungarian Foreign Policy

The future orientation of Hungarian foreign policy was the subject of a roundtable organized by PER and the Central European Institute of the Teleki Foundation in Budapest, Hungary, on February 19, 1998. Leaders of the six parliamentary parties, as well as experts on foreign policy, discussed the so-called "three pillars" of Hungarian foreign policy: Euro-Atlantic integration, bilateral relations with neighboring countries, and the situation of Hungarian minorities in neighboring countries. Interparty differences over the first two of these seemed more symbolic than real, but differences between the views of the present governing coalition and opposition parties regarding policies toward Hungarian minority communities living in neighboring countries were substantial. Participants also discussed the risks and consequences of differentiated NATO and EU enlargement in the region.

The participants from Hungary were Gyorgy Csoti, MP, Hungarian democratic Forum; Zoltan Horvath, MP, Hungarian Socialist Party; Geza Jeszenszky, MP, Hungarian Democratic People's Party and former foreign minister; Zsolt Lanyi, MP, vice-president of the Hungarian smallholders' Party; Zsolt Nemeth, MP, vice-president of the Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Party; and Erika Torzsok, Union of Free Democrats and president of the government Office for Hungarians Abroad. The roundtable was organized by Ferenc Melykuti,PER's representative in Budapest.


ROMANIA


Local Administration and Legislation in Romania

PER organized a roundtable discussion entitled Ethnic minorities: Asset or Burden? Local Authorities Facing minority Representatives, in Tirgu Mures, Romania, on March 17, 1998. The forum brought together leaders of local civic organizations, national and local politicians, legal experts, and members of the press to examine legislation concerning minority rights and its impact on local communities in Romania. The meeting provided an opportunity for participants to discuss the forces and challenges that shape minority legislation in Romania.

The discussion began with an overview of the key issues facing ethnic communities and of jurisdiction in cases of minority-rights legislation. Case studies of such legislation in Romania were provided by Gyorgy Frunda, member of the Romanian Senate, and in Finland by Mikko Heikinheimo, the Finnish ambassador to Romania. Minority-rights legislation in Finland is considered by many to be highly innovative in its approach. Presentations were also given by local authorities, among them Arpad Burkhard, subprefect of Tirgu Mures county, and Imre Fodor, mayor of Tirgu Mures, and by representatives of minority groups and of the mass media. Also discussed were the dynamics of public opinion and how they influence attitudes toward minority-rights legislation in Romania. The meeting was organized by Maria Koreck, PER's representative in Tirgu Mures.


Roundtable on Educational Reform and Language Instruction

In cooperation with the department for National minorities of the Romanian government, PER's office in Tirgu Mures organized a seminar entitled European integration: Educational Reform in Romania and Language Instruction in the Mother Tongue in Cluj, November 21-22, 1997. In Romania, there is a continuing national dispute over the question of the restoration of a separate Hungarian university and over the language in which members of ethnic minorities are to receive instruction in primary and secondary schools. The meeting was attended by leading political figures and academics specializing in educational policy. Romanian Minister for National Minorities, Gyorgy Tokay, participated in the seminar, which helped to clarify areas of common interest where consensus among parties might be possible. The seminar was chaired by, among others, Gabriel Andreescu, president of the Romanian Helsinki Committee.

Earlier, in October 1997, PER's executive director, Livia Plaks, consulted in Bucharest with members of the Romanian Cabinet and of the Office of the Presidency about these issues, which have created strains in the governing coalition.


Romani News


Roma and the Elections: Experience and Prospects

As the first in a series of regional meetings, PER convened an international roundtable in Budapest, Hungary, March 24-25, 1998, to examine why the Roma are underrepresented in political and administrative systems of Central and Eastern European countries on the national and local levels. Participants analyzed representation in the Hungarian parliament and in local and minority self-governments. Romani experts and representatives of Hungarian parliamentary parties discussed ways to improve the representation of the Romani community in Hungary.

The meeting was particularly significant in that it brought together disparate groups that rarely confer with one another: the Hungarian National Gypsy Self-Government, Hungarian Romani civic organizations, and several political parties. Participants included Florian Farkas, president, National Gypsy Self-Government; Gabriella Farkas, Hungarian Democratic Peoples Party; Gabor Gellert Kiss, MP, Hungarian Socialist Party; Nicolae Gheorghe, PER Romani Advisory Council and the Roma NGO, Rromani Criss, Romania; Otto Heinek, vice-president, Office of National and Ethnic Minorities of the Government of Hungary; Aladar Horvath, president, Foundation for Romani Civic Rights; Andras Klein, MP, Fidesz Hungarian Civic Party; Nikolai Kirilov, PERRAC and The Roma Foundation, Bulgaria; Janos Kozak, vice-president, National Gypsy Self-Government; Istvan Meszaros, MP, Alliance of Free Democrats; Andrzej Mirga, chairman, PERRAC, Poland; Klara Orgovanova, PERRAC and Open Society Fund?Slovakia; Bela Osztojkan, Phralipe; and Jeno Zsigo, president, Roma Parliament. The meeting was organized by Ferenc Melykuti, PER's representative in Budapest.


OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting

At the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation meeting in Warsaw, November 12-28, 1997, PER was represented by executive director Livia Plaks and by Andrzej Mirga, Nicolae Gheorghe, and Ian Hancock, members of PERRAC. The policy paper by Mirga and Gheorghe, The Roma in the Twenty-First Century: A Policy Paper, published by PER in May 1997, was the basis for a discussion on implementing minority rights of Roma and Sinti. Mirga and Gheorghe spoke about the process of constructing a Romani identity, the concept of the Romani nation, Romani representation and leadership, different approaches to Romani-related issues within the Romani community, and the current structures within which Romani groups interact with other institutions. Discussion about how to deal with the plurality of Romani representation, how to combat anti-Romani racism and xenophobia, and the problem of dealing with the increasing number of Romani refugees, migrants, and asylum-seekers, dominated this session. Another session took up the negative image of the Roma in the mass media, the need for human rights education and affirmative action, and social welfare policies.


Council of Europe's Specialist Group on Roma/Gypsies

The policy paper by Mirga and Gheorghe was also the focus of an extensive discussion at a meeting of the Council of Europe's Specialist Group on Roma/Gypsies in Strasbourg, March 5-6, 1998. Participants at the meeting agreed that the paper represented a major event in the Romani movement and that it pointed the way toward the development of more pluralistic societies. A decision was taken to extend the group's work for three more years, until the end of the year 2000.


Depiction of the Roma in The Mass Media

PER has been engaged in a continuing effort to identify practical ways to overcome the negative portrayal of Roma in the mass media. This was the aim of a workshop held in Sinaia, Romania, June 27-28, 1997. Organized under the direction of Dan Pavel and Elena Cruceru ofPER's Bucharest office, with partial funding from the Confidence Building Measures programme of the Council of Europe, and in cooperation with the Department for the Protection of National and Ethnic Minorities of the Romanian government and Romani Criss, the workshop brought media professionals together with Romanian journalists and Rromani activists to consider the problems of covering ethnic issues. The meeting assessed the role of the mass media in violence and discrimination against the Roma and the need for professional standards.

The Sinaia workshop led to the formation of a Contact Point between the Romani community and the media, to provide the media with information from and about the community and to organize monthly dialogues between the two parties. PER's Bucharest office has followed up with monthly workshops for journalists who are developing standards to avoid ethnic stereotyping in the media.


SLOVAKIA


Draft Legislation on the Use of Minority Languages

PER staff met in September 1997 with leaders of the governing coalition and opposition parties of Slovakia, including the three ethnic Hungarian parties, concerning legislation on the use of minority languages in official settings. An interparty committee of members of the Slovak parliament has been working, with the assistance of Samuel Abraham and Peter Priadka of PER's Bratislava office, to prepare a draft bill. The committee completed its work in February 1998, and the draft was circulated among political leaders, who added their comments. The EU and the OSCE have called upon the Slovak government to enact such legislation, and the government pledged support for it when its representatives signed an interparty agreement at a meeting sponsored by PER in Le Mont Pelerin, Switzerland, in September 1996. Since then, however, the government has taken the position that no new legislation is needed, while opposition parties and international organizations have continued to support the idea. The PER project aims at providing a model for such legislation if and when it is enacted.


FORUM FOR ETHNIC RELATIONS MEETS, REORGANIZES

PER sponsored the first meeting of the former Yugoslav Forum for Ethnic Relations since the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. The meeting was held February 20-22, 1998, in Pecs, Hungary, and was organized by the forum's coordinator, Dusan Janjic.

The Forum for Ethnic Relations was originally a group of some 300 distinguished scholars on ethnic relations and minorities from all republics of the former Yugoslavia who are concerned with the development of democracy and human rights, protection of minorities, improvement of interethnic dialogue, international cooperation, and Euro-Atlantic integration of the Balkans. Since 1991, a number of forum members have become government or party leaders in their respective new countries.

At the meeting, it was decided to replace the Forum for Ethnic Relations with an International Network for Ethnic Relations in Southeastern Europe. The network will include scholars and practitioners from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Russia, the United States, and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Mirce Tomovski, a leading Macedonian journalist specializing in interethnic relations, was elected coordinator of the network, and its headquarters will be in Skopje. Meanwhile, a Center for Ethnic Relations and Minority Protection was established; it will be located in Belgrade, and Dusan Janjic was named its director.

Participants at this meeting emphasized that the five new states in the territory of the former Yugoslavia have different problems and differing foreign-policy objectives. This situation requires new forms of cooperation and organization.

The collapse of the Yugoslav state has also produced a number of new issues for the region, including the status of minority languages and the problems of new minorities, such as Croats in Serbia and Slovenia, Serbs in Macedonia, etc. Forum participants said that special attention needs to be paid to the process of regional integration and the creation of a common European identity among the peoples of the Balkans. The most urgent problems, however, are those of traditional minorities, such as Albanians in Serbia and Macedonia, Serbs in Croatia, and Hungarians in the republics of the former Yugoslavia. PER Program Officer Aleksey Grigor'ev participated in the discussions.


Alexei Salmin Joins PER Council for Ethnic Accord

PER is pleased to announce that Alexei M. Salmin has joined PER's Council for Ethnic Accord. Dr. Salmin is president of the Russian Public Policy Center in Moscow and a member of the Presidential Advisory Council of the Russian Federation.

Born in 1951 in Kazan, Russia, Salmin graduated in 1973 from the Moscow Institute of International Relations. He worked at the Institute of Comparative Political Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and was a senior executive at the Gorbachev Foundation. Dr. Salmin is the author of several books and over 150 articles on political systems, political cultures, and interethnic relations. His latest monograph, Modern democracy, was published in Moscow last year.

In 1996, the Russian Public Policy Center, led by Salmin, was co-organizer with PER of a meeting in Moscow on the subject, Russia and Eastern and Central Europe: Old Divisions and New Bridges.


Staff News

Warren Haffar has joined the staff at PER's Princeton headquarters as a program officer. Haffar holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in conflict analysis and peace science. His research at the University of Pennsylvania concerned the evolution of international and regional security strategies and the dynamics of multinational alliance formation during periods of international conflict. He comes to PER from CDR Associates.


Council FOR Ethnic ACCORD and PER Staff meet

PER's U.S. and overseas staff met with members of the PER Council for Ethnic Accord in Antalya, Turkey, September 25-27, 1997, to review the status of interethnic relations in the new European democracies and to chart PER's course for 1998.


Grant renewed by Starr Foundation

The Starr Foundation has renewed and increased its support for the Project on Ethnic Relations in 1998-1999. The grant makes it possible for PER to continue its work with political and ethnic leaderships in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans to prevent interethnic conflicts.n


April 1997-April 1998 publications

Copies of PER publications are available on the Project on Ethnic Relations Internet Site

If you would like to receive a print copy, please contact our Princeton office. All PER reports are free of charge.

  • Prevention of Violence and Discrimination against the Roma in Central and Eastern Europe (1997)
  • The New York Roundtable: Toward Peaceful Accommodation in Kosovo (1997)
  • Enhancing Regional Security: Russian and Central European Perspectives (1997)
  • Images and Issues: Coverage of the Roma in the Mass Media in Romania (1997)
  • Self-Government in Hungary: The Gypsy/Romani Experience and Prospects for the Future (1998)
  • Political Leaders on Interethnic Relations and Regional Security in Central Europe: A Roundtable (1998)

The Project on Ethnic Relations (PER) was founded in 1991 in anticipation of the serious interethnic conflicts that were to erupt following the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. PER conducts programs of intervention and dialogue and has served as a neutral mediator in several major disputes in the region. PER also conducts programs of training, education, and research at international, national, and community levels.

PER is supported by the Carnegie corporation of New York, with additional funding from the Starr Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Philip D. Reed Foundation, and the Council of Europe.

Allen H. Kassof,  President

Livia B. Plaks,  Executive Director

Robert A Feldmesser,  Senior Editor

Warren R. Haffar,  Bulletin Editor

Council for Ethnic Accord

Harry Barnes,  The Carter Center of Emory University, USA

Martin Butora,  Institute for Public Affairs; Milan Simecka Foundation, Slovakia

Bronislaw Geremek,  (emeritus) Minister of Foreign Affairs, Poland

Nicolae Gheorghe,   Rromani CRISS and the Romanian Academy, Romania

Dinu Giurescu,  Bucharest University, Romania

Donald Horowitz,  Duke University School of Law, USA

Allen H. Kassof,  Project on Ethnic Relations, USA

Daniel Patrick Moynihan,  United States Senate, USA

William Pfaff,  author and journalist, USA

Livia B. Plaks,  Project on Ethnic Relations, USA

Attila Pok,  Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Europa Institute, Hungary

John J. Roberts,  American International Group, USA

Peter Sager,  former Vice-President, Parliamentary Assembly of Europe, and former member, Swiss Parliament, Switzerland

Alexei M. Salmin,  Presidential Advisory Council of the Russian Federation and Russian, Public Policy Center, Russia

John D. Scanlan,   former U.S. Ambassador to Yugoslavia, USA

Vojislav Stanovcic,  Belgrade University, Yugoslavia

Galina V. Starovoitova,  State Duma, Russia

Valery Tishkov,  Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

Cyrus Vance,  former U.S. Secretary of State, USA

Elie Wiesel,  Boston University, USA