against a Reformed bishop’s political group as it demands territorial autonomy for the country’s nearly 2 million ethnic Hungarians, officials said Tuesday, April 29.
Renewed demands for territorial autonomy came at the weekend at a founding meeting of the National Council of Hungarians (CNM) in the Transylvanian town of Odorheiul Secuiesc, media reported.
Hungary lost Transylvania to Romania in the aftermath of World War One, a tragedy that overshadowed relations between the two countries till 1996 when they recognized current borders.
In a statement the government said that "while fully observing the right to free association," Nastase had asked the General Prosecutor to investigate the group whose declared objectives included "cultural and territorial autonomy."
Politicians suggested these demands may violate the Romanian Constitution which proclaims the Balkan country of 22 million people to be an "indivisible nation state."
TOKES
The CNM was founded by Reformed Bishop Laszlo Tokes, an ethnic Hungarian key figure in the 1989 revolution that saw the overthrow of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
The bishop said recently that the UDMR had abandoned "its ideals" by cooperating to much with the current Romanian and Hungarian Governments. There is concern among ethnic Hungarians supporting Tokes that they will be left behind when neighbouring Hungary will join the European Union in 2004.
Tokes, who was elected honorary president, said he launched the CNM because Hungarians were disillusioned with the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), which was set up in 1990 as a party for ethnic Hungarians following decades of persecution.
"DIVISION"
However UDMR chairman Bela Marko criticized the new group saying the "Hungarian community of Romania needs greater solidarity and not division", Hungarian Duna Television reported.
Marko has been credited by helping to defuse tensions and ensure political stability in post-Communist Romania as an ally of the ruling Socialist Party.
His supporters claim the policy also helped to avoid a further escalation of ethnic tensions after three people were killed and many others injured during clashes in the Transylvanian town of Tirgu Mures, in 1991.
Yet, Tokes has complained about death treats and the activities of former Communists in several interviews with BosNewsLife reporter in the last decade.
