OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 200, 15 October 1996

HUNGARY'S DISMISSED PRIVATIZATION MINISTER RESENTFUL IN OPEN LETTER. In
an open letter to his Socialist Party, Tamas Suchman blamed his
dismissal on the media and the Socialists' junior partner in the
governing coalition, the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), Hungarian
media reported. He accused the media of bias, claiming "some of the
press have not pardoned us for our 1994 electoral success." Interior
Minister Gabor Kuncze of the SZDSZ described the letter as the statement
of a hurt man, and said his party had always been against political
interference in the privatization process. Meanwhile, the Socialist
Party presidium issued a statement on 14 October refuting statements by
opposition parties and the Free Democrats that left-wing policy is
marked by corruption. The statement described the conduct of opposition
parties in the scandal that led to Suchman's dismissal as irresponsible
and accused the Free Democrats of trying to wriggle out of the
responsibility of joint governance. -- Zsofia Szilagyi

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Tom Warner

OMRI SPECIAL REPORT: PURSUING BALKAN PEACE
Vol. 1, No. 41, 15 October 1996

SERBIA AND CROATIA FIGHT OVER ETHNIC MINORITY IDENTITY. Nor has this
been the only site of Serb-Croat tensions. Hido Biscevic, an aide to the
Croatian foreign minister, protested Serbian Vice Premier Ratko
Markovic's recent statement on the Backa Croats, known as Bunjevci.
Markovic had said that the people in question "are neither Croats nor
Serbs, but only Bunjevci," and will receive the status of a nation
(narod) in Serbia, Vjesnik reported on 11 October. Hungarian Croats had
earlier protested Markovic's statement that the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia is also the "motherland" of Bunjevci living in Hungary. Those
Hungarian Croats issued a statement that the Bunjevci are Croats and of
the same origin as the ones in Lika, the Croatian Primorje, and
Dalmatia, Hina reported on 4 October. According to Hina, the Serbian
authorities first devised the new national group "Bunjevci" for the 1991
census. The apparent purpose is to reduce the absolute size of and to
split the "Croatian" minority in Serbia, as well as to stake a claim on
the Croats of Hungary. -- Daria Sito Sucic


Edited by Patrick Moore