Serbian Vojvodina

"At the May Assembly, held in Karlovci from May 13 to 15 (1848), the Serbian people proclaimed themselves as politically free and independent within the frameworks of the Habsburg monarchy and Hungary and adopted a decision on the creation of Serbian Vojvodina , made up of Srem, Baranja, Backa and Banat. The Serbian Metropolitan 's diocese was proclaimed a patriarchate and the Metropolitan became the Serbian Patriarch. A colonel from the Ogulin regiment in Lika was chosen as the Voivoda and a Supreme People's Committee of 48 members was set up as the Assembly's executive body. The Assembly also decided that the Vlach (Romanian ) people's independence be recognized and that Serbian Vojvodina enter a political alliance... based on freedom and absolute equality, with the tripartite Kingdom.

A delegation headed by the Patriarch set out the decisions of the May Assembly to the Croatian Assembly which accepted them, even though during the debate in the assembly the question of Srem as an integral part of Serbian Vojvodina, or rather the Kingdom of Slavonija as part of the Tripartite unity, cropped up. However, Emperor Ferdinand, who was at Innsbruck with his court, rejected the decisions of the May Assembly and refused to recognize the Serbs as a people..."

(Slavko Garvilovic in the 1991 anthology of the Matica Srpska 1991)

Vojvodina's Population (1991 Census)

Serbs 1.151,353 57,255

Hungarian 340,946 16,94%

Croats 97,644 4,85%

Slovaks 63,941 3,17%

Montenegrins 44,721 2,22%

Romanians 38,831 1,92%

Ruthenians 17,887 0,88%

Macedonians 16,641 0,82%

Yugoslavs 168,859 8,39%

Others 71,703 3,56%

Parameters of Colonization

The document of the Serbian Commissioner's Office for Refugees (of August 9 this year) explains that the plan for the resettlement of refugees was made up on the basis of the conclusions adopted by the Serbian government in June. The "potential possibilities for accommodation" were thus investigated in cooperation with the Republican Institute for Development and compared with the present situation. The "analysis" includes the proportional participation of the municipality in the population of the republic, the national per capita income, employment rate, percentage of flats in the total number of flats and participation in the number of households.

The Democratic Union of Vojvodina Hungarians protested against a table drawn up in such a way because it noted that Senta, for example, could accommodate 2,836 refugees and now only had 140, Kanjiza 2,491 (compared to the 86 present there), Backa Topola 3,398 (835), Mali Idjos 1,745 (245) and so on. Interestingly, Subotica is not on the list.

The Hungarian community in Vojvodina did not mention the fact that similar disproportions have been noted in many municipalities in Serbia too. If what is concerned is truly colonization, then , for example, Majdanpek (eastern Serbia) could expect 3,316 refugees, but has only 100, Raska 2,611 (30), Gadzin Han 1,882 (8), Babusnica 1,380 (76), Crna Trava 1,988 (0) , etc.

The fact that the Commissioner's Office is asking for data on the "state and number of facilities for collective accommodation, the number and structure of elderly households etc." seems to have provoked the most concern.