- from Vojvodina, Serbia in the Former Yugoslavia
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The good and bad of Yugoslavia, by Tibor Purger. "Jeffrey Kuhner himself is mistaken — not the Macedonian Prime Minister he quotes — about the Yugoslav idea and on several other counts (Yugoslavia, rest in peace, Commentary, Friday). First, Yugoslavia was dead not when Montenegro declared independence this month, but when Slovenia and Croatia did so 15 years ago after Slobodan Milosevic had started to recreate Serb domination by force. [download the article] or [read more about Vojvodina]
Unknown persons hurled a hand grenade at the Subotica home of Jozef Kasza, who heads the League of Vojvodina Hungarians, in the early hours of 30 August, the private Beta news agency reported. There was slight damage to Kasza's house and the one next door, but nobody was injured. Police said that the device was a "hand grenade" and are investigating. Kasza was not immediately willing to make any comment to the media. He is an outspoken critic of nationalist tendencies in Serbian politics who told the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in February that Serbia is "sinking in nationalist euphoria" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15 September 2004 and 17 February 2005, and "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 18 February 2005). In Belgrade, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica condemned the incident, calling it "a crime directed against the Serbian state." He promised to catch those responsible and to ensure the security of all Serbia's citizens, including members of national minorities. VOJVODINA HUNGARIANS
CALL FOR LOCAL AUTONOMY.
The League of Vojvodina Hungarians announced in Szabadka (Subotica) on 13 July a proposed amendment to the Serbian Constitution that will allow local self-government and a high degree of autonomy in areas where ethnic minorities constitute the bulk of the population, RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service reported. The Belgrade leadership is a staunch defender of "decentralization" in Kosova to give the Serbian minority there a high degree of self-rule, but has been reluctant to extend similar rights to its own minorities. During the late 17th and into the 18th centuries, the Habsburgs encouraged Ottoman Serbs and people from throughout Central Europe to settle in what is now Vojvodina, which Habsburg forces had recently retaken from the Turks. The region became an ethnic mosaic and remained so through 1945, but its large German minority was expelled at the end of World War II, and many of the region's Hungarians fled or were deported at the same time. Vojvodina's Serbian population
grew with Belgrade's support in the interwar years and under the communists.
During the rule of former Serbian and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
from the late 1980s to 2000, many Croats, Hungarians, and other people
of central European origin left Vojvodina, but the area was generally
spared the forced ethnic-cleansing campaigns Belgrade employed elsewhere
in the former Yugoslavia. PM
Jeno Urban is a young man from Horgos and is the leader of the Bela Bartok Public Education Society's break group. However, this young man of great motion skill and who also teaches children, will not spin on his head for a while. [read more] [< back to all AHF news]
The chairman of the Vojvodina Assembly, Bojan Kostres, described Vojvodina as having been at the same economic level as Slovenia when it had controlled its own income. “Slovenia is now a member of the European Union while Vojvodina is where it is. With the return of autonomy to Vojvodina we would have a chance to develop both Vojvodina and Serbia,” he said. [read more] [< back to all AHF news]
Excerpts from the full report: "After the December 2003 parliamentary elections--in which the SRS took a plurality of seats--there was an upsurge in vandalism and violence against minority ethnic and religious groups in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina.... The targets were mainly ethnic Hungarians and ethnic Croats--the two largest minorities in Vojvodina." The report continues, "Among the incidents that targeted religious sites or adherents were: The January 19 desecration of a Hungarian Catholic cemetery in Novi Sad; the January 19 desecration of a Reformist church in Sombor; the January 24 desecration of a Croatian Catholic cemetery in Subotica; the desecration of another Subotica graveyard, where Croats and Bunjevci (both Catholic groups) are buried, on the night of March 26-27; the desecration of 21 gravestones in the Catholic and Orthodox graveyard in Novi Becej between May 1 and 2; and an attack in Novi Sad on two Christian Adventist ministers. The number of antiminority incidents in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina increased markedly after the SRS won a plurality of votes in Serbian parliamentary elections in December 2003. While the incidents consisted mainly of vandalism targeting cemeteries, homes, churches, and cultural sites, there were also death threats and assaults (see Section 2.c.). For example, on April 9, Bela Csorba, Vice President of the Hungarian Democratic Party of Vojvodina, found a 12-inch kitchen knife wrapped in paper slipped under his door. Attached to the weapon was a note in Serbian, "we will slaughter you." On September 28, an ethnic Hungarian high school student was beaten by a Serb student at whom he smiled on the bus. According to an eyewitness and the victim, the Serb boy said, "no Hungarian has ever smiled at me and none will ever do so!" Other boys joined in the beating, and when friends of the victim tried to help him, they were beaten as well." AHF is pleased that the US State Department is paying attention and hopes to work with officials to help bring an end to these barbaric events. See the full, official State
Department Report 2/4/2005 - With President Bush's inaugural speech embracing "self-government" and "protection of minorities," AHF plans to advance policies that embrace autonomy and national self-determination for ethnic Hungarian communities struggling for survival. In a related story, NGO CALLS FOR ACTION ON KOSOVA'S INDEPENDENCE... The International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a 40-page report released in Prishtina, Belgrade, and Brussels on 24 January that "either 2005 will see the start of a final status solution that consolidates peace and development, or Kosovo may return to conflict and generate regional instability." AHF is calling for international attention on the Vojvodina province in Serbia-Montenegro where anti-Hungarian violence continues as see below. [Read the ICG Report] [< back to all AHF news]
(AP) Six members of a Hungarian family were brutally killed in adjoining homes in a northern Serbian town on the border with Hungary, radio B-92 reported Wednesday. The bodies were found Tuesday in the family's adjoining homes in the town of Horgos, after neighbors noticed the houses were unusually quiet. A local court judge, Snjezana Lekovic, confirmed the killing, but police gave no official statement on the case. Horgos lies in Serbia's northern Vojvodina province that has recently seen a rise in attacks against the region's minority ethnic Hungarians.
Fifteen organizations, including AHF Member CHACR, from Europe, North America, and Latin America met January 5-6, 2005 in Szabadka/Subotica (Vajdaság/Vojvodina, Serbia-Montenegro) to join forces to...[more]
In the last six months, non-Serbs, including members of Vojvodina’s 300,000-strong Hungarian minority, have been harassed and assaulted and their cemeteries and churches have been desecrated in a wave of physical violence, vandalism and anti-Semitism. [download full article] 5/13/2004 - Vojvodina Leader Accuses Belgade Elite of Oppression...The speaker of Vojvodina's parliament, Nenad Canak, has accused political elites in Belgrade of harassing pro-European and democratic parties in that province, Deutsche Welle's "Monitor" reported on 12 May. Canak said the alleged oppression is the result of a slide toward increasing nationalism in Belgrade. In early March, members of Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's coalition slammed an initiative for greater autonomy for Vojvodina as a "direct attack on the integrity of the Serbian state and the interests of the [ethnic Serbian] majority population." The so-called Subotica Initiative as led by Canak, who heads the League of Social Democrats in Vojvodina, and Jozef Kasza of the League of Vojvodina Hungarians. (see "RFE/RL Newsline," March 3, 4 April 30)
During the recent bloodshed in Kosovo, violence also broke out in the northern Serb province of Vojvodina. According to Tanjug News Agency in Belgrade, there were several dozen protests throughout the province. The region’s large ethnic Hungarian minority was the target of the attacks especially in the provincial capital of Novi Sad.
According to Radio B92 in Belgrade, nationalist graffiti was found on a cathedral saying “Death to Hungarians” in the northern city of Novi Sad (Ujvidek). There have been many cases of anti-Hungarian graffiti in the city.
March 2004 brought more sadness and fear when 85 crosses were pulled out and broken in Subotica (Szabadka). Another 100 had been destroyed in a previous attack in a different cemetery in January. The police always come up with some useless "results" This time they say it was two 7-year-olds who did it.
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Why so many Hungarians across the border?
The American-Hungarian community is increasingly concerned by the recent outbreak of violence in Vojvodina. "Ethnic Cleansing" in action How did this region become part of Yugoslavia? Read "The Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia and Autonomous Region of Vojvodina, and the Need for a More Coherent U.S. Foreign Policy" on The Hungary Page and refer to the following demographic maps comparing Vojvodina in 1910 and 1991. Note the decline seen here in Hungarian population does NOT take into consideration the Balkan conflicts and the significant escalation of atrocities against Hungarians over the last decade:
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Seles (pronounced sell-esh and spelled Szeles Monika) won the European junior championship at the age of ten. Born to a Hungarian family in the former Hungarian province of Vojvodina, she moved to the United States in 1986, and in 1989 turned professional. In 1990 she won her first French Open, and in each of the following two years she won the Australian, United States, and French opens. Seles won the Australian Open in early 1993, but later that year, while resting between sets during a tournament in Hamburg, Germany, she was stabbed by a spectator. The incident caused Seles to withdraw from competition in 1993 and 1994. Seles returned to competition in 1995 and won the initial tournament of her comeback, the Canadian Open. In 1996 she again won the Australian Open. Monica is a fierce competitor and is still going strong into the new millennium including winning the Bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics! See: http://www.angelfire.com/tx/MONICASELES/index2.html or a small bio: http://www.bartleby.com/65/se/SelesMoni.html
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2/29/2008 - As Kosovo gains independence, AHF calls attention to the largest minority in the region: The Hungarians in the former Yugoslavia and within the Carpathian Basin. The recent independence of Kosovo and resulting violence deeply concerns the Federation who calls international attention to the Hungarians of Vojvodina, who lost autonomy by the Serbian totalitarian regime of Milosevic, and those elsewhere in Central Europe. In a Letter to the Editor published in the 
2/21/2008 - AHF monitoring developments in Kosovo and calls for autonomy for historic Hungarian minorities in Vojvodina and elsewhere in the Carpathian Basin. With independence of Kosovo and the potential for additional violence, the Federation is concerned over the lack of international attention to the Hungarian minority in the former Yugoslavia. "While Kosovars and other nations of Central and Eastern Europe have realized their aspirations for self-determination, the Hungarian minorities are still denied the right of autonomy within existing borders." [
HAND
GRENADE THROWN AT HOME OF SERBIA'S HUNGARIAN MINORITY LEADER. RFE/RFL
Newsline, 8/30/2005 
6/1/2005
- The Violence
against Hungarians continues:
3/3/2005
- The
President of the Assembly of European Regions, Riccardo Illy, called on
the Serbian government to guarantee the autonomy of Vojvodina.
Serbian media
reports that autonomy for Vojvodina was the hot topic during conference
on Regionalism in Novi Sad. Conference participants agreed that financing
and constitutional status were the most important issues for
all European regions, including Vojvodina. 
3/3/2005
- US
State Department's Bureau
of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Releases Country
Report on Human Rights Practices - 2004: Serbia and Montenegro
10/30/2004
- AHF
Releases Statement on Vojvodina Violence: VOJVODINA:
“Drop dead Hungarians”
On
Duna TV (March 19), the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM) condemned
the violence and called for the ethnic Hungarians to stay calm.
Peace and stability has returned after the few days of protests.
On Kossuth Radio (March 20), Jozsef Kasza, leader of SVM, “demanded that
the Serbian government prevent the settling of ethnic scores and that
it punish the perpetrators of the law and order offences that had taken
place at the Theater.” Tanjug News Agency stated that criminal charges
have been filed against numerous individuals who participated in the violent
acts in Vojvodina.
Monica
Seles - (b. in the Vajdaság (Vojvodina), the Hungarian region
that was given to Serbia/