What Kasa Wants from Milosevic?

Immediately after his return from Cetinje, we held the interview with Jozef Kasa, president of the Alliance of Hungarians of Vojvodina (SVM), in the old City Hall (A varoshaza) in Subotica, a beautiful edifice of Hungarian Secession: Mr. Kasa has also been Subotica's mayor for many years.

We started our conversation by asking about his visit to Cetinje.

"When I received the invitation from Mr. Djukanovic, I had no dilemma whether I should go or not. It was an honor both for me and my party, and Hungarians from Vojvodina as well, even more so because of Djukanovic's support for new policies and democratization of Montenegro and Yugoslavia. My dilemma was only how to get to Cetinje, and not whether to attend the inauguration. I arrived there immediately after the "peaceful demonstrations" and I must say that the scene was disastrous: I thought that the Montenegrin people would find a non-vandalistic solution, solve problems without hotheadedness and hatred and tensions created after the elections in Montenegro and Yugoslavia.

The inauguration itself, with an impressive number of foreign diplomats present, was dignified and without undue pomp. I would like to stress that Djukanovic's speech was wise, concise, and nothing should have been added or subtracted from it; the accents were on Montenegro and himself, as its president, wishing for a Yugoslavia as a whole. I was present at the inauguration of Mr. Milosevic too: his oath didn't consist of a single word about Yugoslavia, but only about Serbia. Also, in Cetinje I talked with numerous ambassadors and representatives of diplomatic missions: all of them greeted the initiated dialog between the SVM and Mr. Milosevic and estimated that negotiations are the best way to begin resolving problems which exist between the Hungarians from Vojvodina and the existing government.

There was also opinion that you shouldn't have gone to Cetinje, considering the political tension and your upcoming talks with Slobodan Milosevic, and that in fact the president of Yugoslavia is not the real address...

Our political opponents may say what they wish: that doesn't worry us in SVM. We are aware of our responsibility: we are the only representatives of Vojvidina's Hungarians in the bodies of the Yugoslav Parliament - ranging from the local self-management bodies to the Federal Parliament. We are responsible enough to lead a policy which is in the interest of not only the Hungarian residents of Vojvodina, but also of everyone living in this area, and we need no political prompters of the Pal and Agoston kind. They had their chance to demonstrate their knowledge, we saw the results of their policies. The Alliance of the Hungarians of Vojvodina has been operating responsibly since the beginning of the war, and the election results show that.

Equal use of the languages is obviously becoming a serious problem...

I already told Slobodan Milosevic during my first meeting with him that SVM supports education in the mother tongue, obligatory official usage of the Hungarian language, and constitutionally granted equality. One just has to walk through the streets and everything becomes clear: there are more labels in the Cyrillic alphabet than in Belgrade! And we have 27 nations living here, most of them Hungarians (47%), than Croats and Bunjevacs (27%), Serbs (15%), and so on. The previous mayor forced inspectors to go from store to store and issue penalties for those who did not have their labels in Cyrillic. That gentlemen forgot that the law requires equal use of the languages and alphabets, he insisted only on Cyrillic. We are a big, border city, and yet the timetable at the railway station is only in Serbian, the loudspeaker announcements of arrivals and departures are also only in Serbian, although there are many passengers from nearby towns, with mostly Hungarian populations, not to mention passengers from the neighboring country... These are seemingly little things, but they spoil the mood. These are the problems that can be solved easily, they don't require big finances, but they require - good will. Some 100 or 200 years ago, entire official documentation was in two languages and two alphabets, and that can easily be checked; there are all those documents in the State Archive... Just as an illustration, the certificates of ownership of animals (and pedigrees) were issued in multiple languages...

In the documentation which you have sent to Slobodan Milosevic, one very sensitive issue is also the state of affairs in the judiciary...

The situation in that area has changed drastically for the worse: from 91-93 big purges were conducted on the basis of nationality throughout all managerial structures, in the army, the police, finance, customs and, of course, the judiciary. Today, judges either don't know or they don't wish to know, or they are not stimulated to know Hungarian... "Political suitability", according to the value system of the current government, is obvious: Milosevic himself has talked about it. In particular, the judge from Beli Manastir was appointed president to the District Court, as if here in Subotica, in Vojvodina, there aren't enough judges. Mr. Korhec was the judge of the Supreme Court of Serbia, but he was expelled from the judiciary because he is Hungarian. Mr. Dasic, judge from Beli Manastir, was appointed to this office because he is a "patriot": he has sentenced to death a Hungarian who didn't want to go to war. Mr. Dasic has cashed in well on his "patriotism": he bought two apartments. We will examine what happened with the boy who was sentenced to death by Mr. Dasic.

Already during your first meeting with Milosevic you stressed the inequality of the Hungarians when it comes to entrepreneurship. Can you give us an illustration?

I will be very specific: of 250 directors in Subotica, only two or three are Hungarians. Not only aren't there any Hungarian directors, but Hungarians are also excluded from the second or third layer of managerial structure. We are present only where hard labor is needed. As if we were incapable and unreliable for any other task but the hard work. That's why we say that we have become second class citizens in this country. It is not necessary to stress particularly the meaning of this when it comes to privatization: Hungarians are absolutely, at the very outset, excluded from the process of privatization. The one's who have the information have much greater advantages over the ones who join in later. Chances in the private sector are not much better either: the entire economy functions on the basis of import and export quotas; Hungarians cannot come close to them unless they bribe some state officials. There's no way that they can participate in major jobs. Simply said, we are not offered equal opportunities. Although more than 90% of Hungarians are literate, percentages show that they are the most numerous in the employment bureaus... Hungarians had no chances for getting beneficiary credits for the development of villages.

You have proposed the forming of separate district with Subotica as its capital, where the political council of Hungarians from Vojvodina would appoint the chief of the district...

By the force of decree, in the time of the rule of Mr. Bozovic from 91-92, the area which includes Kanjiza, Senta, Ada, Becej... and forms a natural entity, was separated in two. And they were functioning wholes, connected with traffic infrastructures, educational and health care networks and economic ties...

You demand control over one part of the budget resources intended for culture and the public information service, and to choose yourself the leaders of these institutions... Most people from the culture and information services would probably like that, but the idea seems like a utopia...

You know, we had some bitter experiences in the past: Mr. Ljubisa Ristic left a ruined theater behind him: for years we had no funds for its reconstruction, it came from the Ministry of Culture, only just before the elections in order that the Socialists strengthen their position here... Yes, in the times of Shakespeare-Fest and Molier-Fest, we had a theater with a European scope, but after that Ristic was exhausted, he couldn't work. Now he has occupied again the building of Jadran Cinema, but nothing is happening and he is turning this building into ruins also.

You require education in the mother tongue - from kindergarten to university, import of books and textbooks... Are you afraid of being accused of irredentism?

We suffer because of the situation in Kosovo. Because of their separatist inclinations we are also being punished: the school curriculum has changed, all of the contents which may help maintain national identity have been omitted; no one of the major Hungarian writers is present in the curriculum. Our children, of course, have to know about the Serbian literature, history, culture, but they must be given the opportunity to study our culture and history. Possibilities to be educated in their mother tongue have considerably worsened: partly because of rationalization, but also because of the fact that suitablity is favored over capabilty. Just to illustrate the extent of this I will quote one example from Subotica: in 10 elementary schools and high schools, out of 10 principles, only 2 are Hungarian. One of them, the director from Cantavir, is an alcoholic. We made a big fuss over this, demanding his replacement, but he is a "suitable individual" for the Socialist Party and still holds his position. We propose to establish schools for teaching only in Hungarian, in places where it is reasonable to do so because of the demographics and the number of pupils, and that we choose competent managers, and not like in the past where all directors - from the economy, to theaters and schools - were appointed by the Socialist Party. Both in education and in science, there was "ethnic clensing" and re-establishing of the institution of political suitability: is it necessary to point out that a man of such reputation as Professor Tibor Varadi has been expelled from the University.

The Serbian minister of education, Jovo Todorovic, who last year signed the agreement with the Hungarian minister of culture on the exchange of books and textbooks, has recently returned half of the 27,000 titles to the sender?! Allegedly, Minister Todorovic himself is in charge of deciding which books are suitable, and which are not...

There's nothing new about it: in this country many unqualified and incompetent people are holding important offices. A few years ago 6,000 books, which we got as a gift from Hungary, were returned at the border. Those were not ideologically colored books, those were Hungarian language textbooks! We have prepared comprehensive documentation about it and have forwarded it to Milosevic.

Mr. Sandor Pal believes that the president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, is not the right person for negotiations between Vojvodina's Hungarians and the government. He says that it is the Republic of Serbia. Your first meeting with Milosevic was in Beli Dvor. Do you think that the next meeting will take place by the end of this month, as promised, or is there danger that you will not sit for the second time on president Milosevic's famous sofa?

Our problems, about which we informed Mr. Milosevic, cannot be solved by one or two talks: they require time, confrontation of attitudes, changes in the political climate. We told him that during our first meeting, which was absolutely of working character, we didn't go to greet Milosevic and bow to him, but to inform him about the current problems of the Hungarian population in Vojvodina. As for the remarks that Milosevic is not the right person, we talked to him as the leader of the Socialist Party - it is well known who holds the reigns. Speaking in everyday language or using the political jargon, whichever you prefer - he is the head of the household, whether you like it or not. Although I am aware that Mr. Milosevic has in recent years given promises which he didn't keep, and there is danger that the same will happen this time agaom, my estimate is that he will not disregard the word and that the next meeting will happen, in fact new meetings.