Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume X, Eastern Europe

152. Telegram From the Embassy in Hungary to the Department of State¹

4262.

Budapest, May 8, 1987, 1001Z

SUBJECT

• An Account of Restrictions on Ethnic Hungarians In Transylvania, and the GOH Stand.

REF

• (A) Budapest 2508;²
• (B) Budapest 2625.³

1. Confidential—Entire text.

Begin Summary

2. Far fewer passports are being issued this year for Romanians to travel to Hungary, Hungarian-language volumes sent officially to Romania were not getting through at all at the beginning of the year, and the GOR has demanded an apology from the Hungarian Party’s Central Committee for “public slanders,” according to the well-connected International Exchanges librarian at the National Library, who regularly receives Romanian Magyars requesting Hungarian publications.

End Summary

Limits on Travel

3. Last summer approximately 100 Romanians per month stopped by the International Exchanges Office of the National Library here. This winter 2–3 per week came in. The latest numbers of winter and spring visitors are significantly lower than the corresponding figures for the previous year. This is because Romanians are being denied passports, according to International Exchanges librarian Jozsef Vekerdi of the National Szechenyi Library (protect). Currently Romanians can only get passports to visit relatives, not for business travel.

A retired professor of ethnography at Cluj/Kolozsvar University, Jozsef Farago (protect), for example, still does research but cannot obtain a passport for the West. He has to inform to the Securitate on his friend and colleague at the Hungarian Library in order to obtain even a passport for Hungary.

Most Magyar nationals in Romania do not feel they can complain to the Hungarian Consulate in Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvar because it is widely known that everyone entering is photographed from across the street. However, we understand there is a library in the Consulate which is used nonetheless.

According to a well-connected Hungarian source, Bucharest is still trying to force Hungary to close its Consulate in Cluj/Kolozsvar, on the grounds that Romania has closed its corresponding mission in Debrecen.

Limits on Hungarian Language Materials

4. The Szechenyi National Library Exchange Office regularly sends 10,000 books per year to Romania. From January to mid-March of this year, no packages were received. But starting in mid-March, after GOH officials began to speak out on the minority issue, books began to arrive again in Romania. No journals or periodicals (however innocuous) are getting through, though, even as part of this official government-to-government exchange. As we reported earlier (Budapest 2508), in February the GOR banned all Hungarian publication subscriptions.

Source Comment:

5. The GOR seemed to be acting like a barking puppy in this respect. Since this is the first occasion when the GOH has stood up publicly and said something, it took Bucharest by surprise, and they acted like a puppy making a lot of noise but backing away out of fear.

End Comment

Note on GOH Attitude:

6. The exchange librarian a year ago asked the party here for authorization to continue his program of sending Hungarian publications abroad. He was told not only to continue, but to increase it.

End Note

Private GOR Reprimand and Demand for Apology

7. We had an earlier report (Budapest 2625) of a letter Ceausescu sent to Kadar in March about the minority issue. Now we have heard that a party-to-party letter sent at the same time (and perhaps in fact the document that prompted the earlier report) accused the HSWP of slandering Romania, and demanded an apology. We hear that the GOH Central Committee was aghast, and then sent a reply rejecting the charges.

Palmer

1. Source: Reagan Library, Rudolf Perina Files, Subject File, Hungary—Substance 1987 (1). Confidential. Sent for information to Eastern European posts, Vienna, and the mission to NATO.
2. Telegram 2508 from Budapest, March 19, provided a synopsis of incidents of discrimination against ethnic Hungarians living in Romania that had been covered in the Hungarian press of Transylvania. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D870217–0284)
3. Telegram 2625 from Budapest, March 23, reported that Ceausescu had allegedly sent a letter to Kadar about the ethnic Hungarian minority in Romania. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D870224–0717)