Genocide in Transylvania

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A RESOLUTION
Urging the United States not to renew the Most Favored Nation trading status of the Socialist Republic of Rumania.
Whereas, five leading Rumanian Baptist pastors of Bucharest, Josef Sarac, Vasile Talos, Vasile Brinzei, Pascu Geabau and Buni Cocar, have been falsely accused by the Rumanian authorities of embezzling $57,285.00. These funds were spent without the knowledge of the Rumanian Ministry of Cults, but with the full knowledge and approval of the various congregations involved;
and
Whereas, Klaus Wagner of Sighisoara, Rumania, who is a member of the Brethren Church and Maria and Fibia Delapeta of Carpinis, Rumania, who are members of the Army of the Lord/Rumanian Orthodox Church, were arrested on October 1,1981 and tried in the Rumanian courts. They were sentenced to six years, five years and five years imprisonment, respectively, as well as levied unspecified monetary fines;
and
Whereas, Silviu Cioata and Costel Georgescu of Ploesti, Rumania, were arrested on November 11, 1981, and Nicu Rotaru of Bacau, Rumania was arrested on December 11, 1981 for distributing Bibles in the Socialist Republic of Rumania and are now awaiting trial;
and
Whereas, John Teodosiu of Cluj, Rumania was arrested and charged on December 16, 1981 for espionage due to his information­gathering activities for western human rights organizations relating to the arrest and persecutions of religious believers in the Socialist Republic of Rumania. These information­gathering activities were religious, not political, in nature and have resulted in John Teodosiu being held incommunicado by the Rumanian Secret Police;
and
Whereas, 13 other Christian believers in the town of Bucharest, Ploesti, Bacau and Alba are currently being subjected to daily interrogations by the Rumanian Secret Police because of their involvement in distributing Bibles;
and
Whereas, numerous reports are reaching the United States which indicate that those individuals arrested are being held and tortured with electric shock treatments and severe beatings;
and
Whereas, in August of 1975 the Rumanian government signed the Final Act of the Helsinki Accords, pledging to "Recognize and Respect the Freedom of the individual to profess and practice, alone or in community with others, religion or beliefacting in accordance with the dictates ofhis own conscience';­
and
Whereas, in accordance with Section 402 (Jackson­Vanik Amendment) of the 1974 Trade Act, Rumania's emigration and HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD is to be studied annually by the administration, as well as both houses of Congress to determine whether that country is eligible to receive Most Favored Nation trading status for an additional year.
Now, therefore BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the United States, that this body.
1. Urges President Reagan not to renew the Most Favored Nation trading status which the Socialist Republic of Rumania now enjoys with the United States.
2. Encourages the members of the Georgia Congressional Delegation to testify before the House Subcommittee on Trade and the Senate Subcommittee on International Trade against the renewal of Rumania's Most Favored Nation trading status in protest of the REPRESSION OF CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS BY THE RUMANIAN GOVERNMENT.
3. Urges the United States Helsinki Commission to block the selection of Bucharest, Rumania as the next location for the review of the Final Acts of the Helsinki Agreement by the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Be it further resolved that the Clerk of the House of Representatives is authorized and directed to transmit an appropriate copy of this resolution to President Reagan, the members of the Georgia Congressional Delegation, the United States State Department, the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Rumania, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Voice of America.

In the House: Read and Adopted, March 26, 1982.
Glenn W. Ellard, Clerk


Genocide and Ethnocide in Rumania!

Apri4 1982
The Transylvanian Quarterty

Under the above title a 124 page report was introduced by Mr. Istvan Zolcsak, chairman of the Committee of International Relations, at the International Conference on Genocide in Tel Aviv, Israel. The letter of invitation to the conference was signed by Israel W. Charny, Ph.D., Executive Director, and contained the following statements:
"This Conference to be held in Israel in June 1982 will be the first assembly of community leaders and professionals from many disciplines to cooperate in applying established methods of inquiry to the critkal issue of genocide TO ALL PEOPLES.
The goal of the conference throughout is to project GENOCIDE as a universal problem in the history and future of all peoples; to honor the national and historic concerns of each people who has been fated to suffer a tragedy of mass destruction; and at the same time to correlate these concerns with one another so that every event of GENOCIDE also reflects and articulates a concern for the destruction of all peoples.
The Conference will not be merely a historical view of the past, but an effort to broaden understanding of early warning signs that procede instances of genocide, that still happen year after year, so that greater efforts can be made at prevention.
The Conference is planned to make a real contribution towards the prevention of future calamities through understanding what each of the professions can contribute towards prediction, prevention and intervention.
Please join us in our effort to bring together what has been learned about the past in order that more people can have a future!"
The well documented report introduced by Mr. Zolcsak to the Conference contains several maps and statistics, pages of certified testimonies as well as detailed proof of genocide the Hungarian population of Transylvania and Moldavia have been exposed to for the last twenty years by the Rumanian government.
Under the sub­title "General Characteristics of Ethnocide in Rumania" we read:
"Rumania leads a well planned and systematically executed campaign to eliminate the national minorities through forceful assimilation into the Rumanian nationality. Guaranties of minority rights are not observed. The absolute refusal to allow the minorities self­determination, autonomy or even independent decision making in local issues, is prevailing. Hungarian schools of many centuries have been eliminated. All Hungarian universities were merged into the new, Rumanian institutions. This is an outrageous measure, considering that the Hungarian minority in Rumania forms an immense population. One­third of the countries in the world today have fewer inhabitants than the number of Hungarians in Transylvania.
The Rumanian Government breaks up homogeneous Hungarian ethnic communities, by controlling labor and housing markets. Rumanians in great numbers are being settled in purely Hungarian areas to work in the newly constructed ractories, while the native Hungarians are forced to move to Rumanian areas.
Bilingualism does not exist. All Hungarian street names and road signs are eliminated. The use of the Hungarian language, even in private conversation, is strictly forbidden. A Swiss newspaperman reported that while in Transylvania he saw only one sign in Hungarian: it hung on the wall of the village tavern in the purely Hungarian village of Szek, declaring "IT IS FORBIDDEN TO SING IN HUNGARIAN. ­Chief of police."
All the church archives and libraries were confiscated and destroyed, rendering scientific research of the past impossible. The Rumanian government has openly embarked on a campaign against the Roman Catholic, the Hungarian Reformed (Presbyterian) and German Lutheran Churches. The Rumanian government exercises a policy of total interference in ecclesiastical matters, regardless of their nature. For instance, any social or religious gathering must be approved by the State. Those who complain, clergymen or members of a congregation, are beaten, tortured and even killed. Between 1955 and 1980, 87 clergymen were beaten to death by the dreaded SECURITATE (State Police) for complaining to visitors. It is indeed ironic that all this happens today in the very same TRANSYLVANIA, WHERE FREEDOM OF RELIGION WAS WRITTEN INTO LAW FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY in 1568 A.D.
Decree/Law 225­1976 prohibits the accommodation of non­Rumanian citizens in private homes. The punishment for disobeying this law is a draconic fine of 15,000 lei, about $1,200.00 which is imposed on the host. This law was ostensibly created for the protection of the State­owned hotel industry, and its discriminatory character is obvious. The three million Hungarians of Transylvania have the greatest number of relatives and potential visitors entering the country, from Hungary as well as from other free countries in the West, where to several hundred thousand Hungarians escaped since World War I, due to Rumania's blatant in­tolerance of the non­Rumanian inhabitants.
The Rumanian government, through its academic mercenaries has utilized an unproven theory based largely on pseudoscientific speculation. According to this politically motivated theory the Rumanians are supposed to be the descendants of the ancient Dacians, a people whose last proven presence in the area predates the appearance of Rumanians by nine centuries. Although this Theory has little credence in the eyes of any serious, non­Rumanian scholar, according to a world­wide research done on the subject by the renown Neue Zaricher Zeitung, it has been elevated to the level of STATE IDEOLOGY.
Rumania's historians today stigmatize minority groups as 'intruders" who upset the social and cultural order of the "original inhabitants," namely the Rumanians. While history, culture and geography clearly prove that the Hungarians as well as the other "minorities" were the original inhabitants who built the country, created the culture, long before the first Rumanian migrant workers ­ called Vlachs ­entered the country from the Balkan.
In Rumania today minority children are taught that the cultural richness of the area is solely the result of "Rumanian creativity," thereby making those children ashamed of their ethnic identity. Those few remaining schools which are still allowed to educate children in Hungarian, must use official textbooks which teach them that their nationality has no past in the area. Without past, by implication this nationality can have no future ­ unless, of course, it assimilates into the resplendent "HERRENRASSE": the Rumanian people.

The Congress of the United States
and the Persecuted Hungarians of Transylvania

October, 1983
The Transylvanian Quarterly

Year after year the government of the United States, with the blessing of the Congress, has rewarded the nationai­communist government of the Socialist Republic of Rumania with the "Most Preferred Nation" status, a substantial aid to the economy of that country, in spite of the fact that the Ceausescu­regime, ruling Rumania with an iron fist, was far from deserving American aid. It has been proven again and again in books, articles, memorandums, reports, and complaints registered with the proper Congressional Committees that the government of Rumania is constantly in violation of Human Rights, Minority Rights and all international agreements and treaties in regard to the protection of the freedom of Churches and the freedom of ethnic minorities. It has been proven again and again that the Ceausescu regime is embarked on ethnic genocide, on the cultural and physical destruction of the almost three­million strong native Hungarian population of Transylvania, t~ day a province occupied by Rumania.
Besides the above collective crimes and abuses, it has been proven that the Rumanian government, through its extremely brutal political organization, the SECURITATE, has killed, maimed, tortured thousands and thousands of innocent Hungarians for no other reason, but their Hungarian nationality, of which they were and are justifiably proud.
In spite of all these well proven facts, due to an effective lobby of certain industrial enterprises previously published in this Quarterly, our Government has renewed the "Most Preferred Nation" status of Rumania year after year, thereby abandoning the just cause of close to three­million native Hungarians under Rumanian rule, who are fighting for their survival against the most brutal dictatorship on earth. However, with the less and less enthusiastic approval of the Congress.
This year it seemed that finally the time had come when American aid and American friendship to the government of Dictator Ceausescu would be made dependent upon the fulfillment of the very modest and highly justified demands of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Organization published in their underground paper, the "ELLENPONTOK". These demands are nothing more than the very basic requirements to the survival of the native Hungarian population in their homeland.
Nevertheless, our hopes did not materialize. We are listing here events in chronological order as they occurred in the course of this past summer. It began on June 3, 1988 with President Reagan's shocking and unexpected message to Congress proposing the restoration of the previously suspended Preferred Nation Status to the government of Rumania, based on the promise of that government to revoke the socalled emigration tax.

On June 30,1983, Resolution No.256 was submitted by the Honorable Congressman Philip M. Crane (R. Illinois), presented to Congress to be referred to the Ways and Means Committee. The Resolution was supported by Congressmen Schultze (R.. PA.) Ritter (R. PA.), Stump (R. Arizona), Siljander (R. Michigan), Rudd (ft. Arizona), Kemp, (R, New York), Carney (ft. New York), Solomon (R. New York), Kasich (ft. Ohio), Hartnett (R. South Carolina), Spence (ft. South Carolina), Rogers (R. Kentucky), Daniel Crane (R. Illinois), Sundquist (R. Tennessee), Sensenbrenner (ft. Wisconsin) and McDonald (D. Georgia).
Text of the above resolution No.256: "Be resolved
that the House of Representatives does not approve the extension of the authority costained in Section 402­: of the Trade Act 1974 recommended by the President to the Congress on June 3,1983, with respect to the Socialist Republic of Romania."
On July 6, 1983, proposed by Congressman Don Ritter (R. PA.) the following letter was signed by 219 Congressmen (a majority of Congress) and sent to George Schultz, Secretary of State:
"We the undersigned members of the United States Congress would like to call your attention to the continued deprivation of human and self determinations rights of the national minorities in Romania, particularly the 2.5 million Hungarians assigned to Romania in the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty.
We congratulate you on your firm stand against the emigration tax imposed by the Romanian government on emigrants, and we urge you to include into your negotiating agenda the human and self­determination right of the Hungarians in Romania
For more than two decades, Romanian pressure against the Hungarians in Transylvania assumed characteristics of ethnocide, including complete suppression of the social and youth activities and the internal independence of the Hungarian churches; destruction of the Hungarian­language schools in existence in 1958 and their replacement with a steadily declining number of Hungarian­language "sections" in the Romanian schools; the systematic destruction of the Hungarian past of the province, and finally a conscious dispersal of the Hungarian intelligentsia and the settlement of large number of Romanians amidst the Hungarian regions of Transylvania. Last fall Hungarian intellectuals were arrested and badly beaten and released only because of international pressure, including letters from Members of Conress to President Ceausescu.
We appeal to you to raise the issue of human and cultural rights violations with the Romanian authorities based on their obligations under the International Covenant on Civic and Political Rights and the Helsinki Declaration of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe of which they are signatories.
With best regards, we are sincerely,

Michael Barnes (D.MD.) Don Ritter (ft. PA.)
and 219 signatures."

On August 1, 1988, Congressman Bill Frenzel (R. Minnesota) presented to the Congress a "preferential motion" calling for an "indefinite postponement" of the motion to consider House Resolution 256, according to which the renewal of the Preferred Nation Status would have been denied to Rumania. (Perhaps the gentleman from Minnesota, who was one of the co­signers of the above letter, felt that Secretary Schultz should be given time to solve the problem of the Transylvanian Hungarians through the diplomatic channels. ­ Editor.)
The motion to postpone House Resolution 256 was voted upon, and passed with 279 votes. Thus the President's recommendation to renew aid to Rumania for another year, prevailed.
Here are the names of those Congressman who voted against the renewal:

Andrews, D. N. Carolina
Applegate, D. Ohio
Badham, R. California
Barnard, D. GeorgiaBartlett, H. Texas
Bethune, R. Arkansas
Biaggi, D. New York
Bilirakis, R. Florida
Bliley, R. Virginia
Boner, D. Tennessee
Britt, D. North Carolina
Brown, R. Colorado
Broyhill, R. North Carolina
Burton, D. California
Campbell R. South Carolina
Carney, R. New York
Clarke, D. North Carolina
Coats, R. Indiana
Corcoran, R. Illinois
Courter, R. New Jersey
Craig, R. Idaho
D.Crane, R. Illinois
Ph. Crane, R. rllinois
Daniel, D. Virginia
Dannemeyer, R. Calif.
Daub, R. Nebraska
DeWine, R. Ohio
Dickinson, R. Alabama
Dreier, R. California
Duncan, R. Tennessee
Early, D. Massachusetts
Edwards, R. Oklahoma
English, D. Oklahoma
Fields, R. Texas
Franklin, R. Mississippi
Gaydos, D. Pennsylvania
Gingrich, R. Georgia
Gramm, D. Texas
Green, R. New York
Gregg, R. New Hampshire
H. Hall, D. Texas
S. Hall, D. Texas
G. Hansen, R. Idaho
J. Hansen, R. Utah
Hartnett, R. South Carolina
Hefner, D. North Carolina
Hiler, R. Indiana
Holt, R. Maryland
Hopkins, R. Kentucky
Huckaby, D. Louisiana
Hunter,R. California
Jeffords, R. Vermont
Jones, D. Tennessee
Kasich, R. Ohio
Kemp, R. New York
Kindness, R. Ohio
Kramer, R. Colorado
Lagomarsino, R. California
Latta, R. Ohio
Leath, D. Texas
J. Lewis, R. California
T. Lewis, R. Florida
Livingston, R. Louisiana
Lloyd, D. Tennessee
Lott, R. Mississippi
Lujan, R. New Mexico
Lungren, R. California
McCollum, R. Florida
McCurdy, D. Oklahoma

McDonald, D. Georgia
McEwen, R. Ohio
McGrath, R. New York
C. Mack, R. Florida
Marriot, R. Utah
D. Martin, R. New York
Miller, R. Ohio
D. Mollohan, West Virginia
Montgomery, D. Mississippi
Moorhead, R. California
Morrison, R. Washington
Mrazek, D. New York
Murphy, D. Pennsylvania
Myers, R. Indiana
Nichols, D. Alabama
Nielson, R. Utah
Oxley, R. Ohio
Packard, R. California
Parris, R. Virginia
Pashayan R. California
Patman, Texas
Paul, R. Texas
Quillen, R. Tennessee
Rahall, D. West Virginia
Ritter, R. Pennsylvania
Robinson, R. Virginia
Roemer, D. Louisiana
Rogers, R. Kentucky
Roth, R. Wisconsin
Rudd, R. Arizona
Schaefer, R. Colorado
Schulze, R. Pennsylvania
Shelby, D. Alabama
Shumway, R. California
Shuster, R. Pennsylvania
Smith, R. Oregon
Snyder, R. Kentucky
Solomon, R. New York
D. Staggers, D. West Virginia
Stenholm, D. Texas
Stump, R. Arizona
Sundquist, R. Tennessee
Tallon, D. South Carolina
Thomas, R. California
Valentine, D. North Carolina
Vandergriff, D. Texas
Volkmer, D. Missouri
Vucanovich, R. Nevada
Walker, R. Pennsylvania
Watkins, D. Oklahoma
Whitehurst, R. Virginia
Whitley, D. North Carolina
Wise, D. West Virginia
Wolf, R. Virginia
Wortley, R. New York
Young, R. Alaska
The American Chapters of the Transylvanian World Federation as well as other Hungarian organizations expressed their heartfelt gratitude in several public meetings towards those Congressmen who, in true American spirit, took the side of the oppressed against the oppressor.

October, l983

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Genocide in Transylvania