Activists of a State of Emergency

A climate of tension has been created on the eve of the DZVM (Democratic Union of Hungarians from Vojvodina) conference, scheduled for April 26. There are rumors that Serbs from Vojvodina are being armed, that every day the number of Hungarians that enter Yugoslavia exceeds the number of those that leave by 5000, and that they are coming in order to take over 10 municipalities in northern Vojvodina with the help of local Hungarians.

News is spreading that on the closed session, the DZVM will declare the notorious "personal autonomy" of Hungarians living in Vojvodina and thus "take advantage" of the American ultimatum to the Serbian Government. The Patriotic Royalist Club of Serbian Youth, a virtually unknown organization, reacted to this "news" by demanding the immediate imposition of a state of emergency in order to "protect the unarmed Serbian population" and prevent the realization of "threats made in public by many Hungarian fascists, that Serbs will have a bloody Easter".

This organization of nationalist (and as it also appears fascist) youth presented its political program, simple as it is : "All for Serbianhood, Serbianhood for nothing!" It is quite obvious that not only "Hungarian secessionists" will bear the brunt, but all of those who "are making blunt the blade of national unity, creating anarchy in society and seducing youth, addicting it to Western democracy, internationalism, American instant-culture and alienating it from traditional values".

The ruling Serbian party has reacted in a moderate way. Rushing to Kanjiza, where the DZVM conference is to take place, Dr. Skundric and Mr. Sipovac of the SPS (Serbian Socialist Party) have condemned certain party leaders for trying to create small autonomous regions in Vojvodina at any price. Scared by the appearance of armed men with the well known Chetnik insignia in Subotica, Senta and other major towns in Vojvodina, the organizers of the DZVM conference sent a letter to Mr. Sokolovic, the Serbian Minister of Interior, demanding for a public reply to two questions: whether he considers their conference illegal, and whether he can guarantee that it will be held in peace.

Aside from the atmosphere of a lynch of Hungarians which has been stirred up, and a call for a "general mobilization of national potentials", supported by the digging of trenches along Vojvodina's northern border, an important question still remains unanswered: what do the Hungarians really want? In a letter from April 14th which was addressed to Slobodan Milosevic, the DZVM leader, Mr. Agoston, asked for "talks between the authorities and the DZVM on the still unresolved problem and undefined position of the Hungarian ethnic group in Serbia," and informed Milosevic that all the influential political factors in more than 50 countries have been acquainted with his views.

The Hungarians have based their demands on the draft version of the future Yugoslav constitution, and in his letter, Mr. Agoston said that "there are some very dangerous weak points" which make it "incomplete and inadequate in regard to inter national relations, hindering a modern and democratic approach to the problem of ethnic groups in a multi-ethnic state". The DZVM stressed that the Draft "does not recognize the collective rights of ethnic groups, their legal and political subjectivity" and thus "openly disrespects one of the main postulates of the Hague Document, which the Brussels Peace Conference is based upon".

The insistence of the DZVM on the "collective rights" of Hungarians only (other ethnic minorities have not been mentioned), which can be understood as an euphemism for "personal autonomy", has been taken with caution by most parties and political groups in Vojvodina. Nationalist parties have once again been reminded that ethnic minorities can demand only what they are entitled to according to the (not well codified) European standards.

Extremist Serbian political groups and the ever more nervous ruling party have "pushed" the Hungarians towards secessionism. We are dealing here with a policy that has already shown "brilliant results" in other parts of the former Yugoslavia. Will civilized Vojvodina be able to resist?