“The Hungarian Cabinet has submitted a letter of protest to the Romanian Cabinet because of events at the military cemetery in Úzvölgy (Valea Uzului) on Thursday”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Parliamentary State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minster Levente Magyar told Hungarian news agency MTI.

“In the letter, the Government calls on the Romanian party to perform a comprehensive instigation of the affair and to comply with the relevant international obligations”, he stated. The Deputy Minister called it unacceptable that Romania tolerates atrocities of this nature, the “barbarism” of which recalls the most savage past provocation against the Hungarians. “The Hungarian Government expects Romania to at least provide satisfaction and an explanation to the hundreds of thousands of Hungarian citizens who have been deeply offended in their identity after the fact, if it was incapable of preventing the events from occurring to begin with”, the politician added.

Recalling the background to yesterday’s events, Mr. Magyar explained that following the First World War a military cemetery was established in Úzvölgy (then Hungary) to commemorate Hungarian soldiers who had died in 1916. “Although there was absolutely no proof that the cemetery also contains the mortal remains of any Romanian soldiers, the local government of the closest settlement decided to erect concrete crosses in memory of the Romanian soldiers who were supposedly laid to rest there. However, even the responsible Romanian authorities have admitted that the local government concerned had no legal basis for doing this, and the decisions are also in violation of international law”, the State Secretary said. “Romanian non-governmental organisations advertised the inauguration of the concrete crosses, which took place on Thursday, for which the visibly drunk Romanians had to break through a wall of peacefully protesting ethnic Hungarians (Szeklers). After gaining entry, the Romanian crowd knocked down the cemetery’s commemorative Szekler gate and ripped wooden crosses marking the graves of Hungarian soldiers out of the ground, while the Romanian police present at the scene looked on without taking action”, the Hungarian Deputy Foreign Minister said.

(MTI)