Article in The Budapest Sun suggests that one of the first challenges for newly elected Serbian president Boris Tadic will be the current level of violence being directed against members of the Hungarian minority in Vojvodina

On 27 June 2004 Boris Tadic won the presidential elections in Serbia

with a comfortable margin of 53% to 45% of the vote over Tomislav Nikolic,

the extreme nationalist candidate. This victory could not have come at

a better time for Serbia's political future. The stalemate of domestic

political forces, the isolation from general European developments and the

worsening of inter-ethnic relations threatened to undermine its prospects

for rejoining Europe.

An immediate challenge that looms as a threat to the Tadic presidency

is the deterioration of Serbian-Hungarian relations in Vojvodina.

After the fall of Slobodan Milosevic (in October 2000) and the rise

of Vojislav Kostunica, it was assumed that the new Yugoslav/Serbian

administration would address this question. Instead, obfuscation,

delay and avoidance has characterized the Kostunica policies. In fact,

he has been characterized as the ‘tuxedo-ed Vojislav Seselj’ (the latter

awaiting trial at the Hague along with Milosevic!).

Instead of cleaning house, Kostunica has continued to facilitate the

mystical and frenzied nationalism of the Serbs. Among other things, he

has supported the Serbian Parliament's resolution, which would exonerate

the Serbs who had been handed over by former PM Djindjic as war criminals

to the International Tribunal at the Hague.

In Vojvodina, with its almost 300,000 Hungarian minority, this

has had ominous consequences. Since the assassination of Djindjic

in the spring of 2003, the Hungarians have been targeted for abuse

and mistreatment by the extreme nationalists.

In an increasing crescendo, the Serb nationalist press has been inciting

the majority against the Hungarian and the other non-Serb minorities

of Vojvodina.

The tension and the persecution have become ever more intense

since the anti-Serb riots in Kosova this past spring and the lead-up

to the June elections.

Hungarian and other minority cemeteries and churches have been

desecrated. In cemeteries, a whole series of atrocities have occurred

during the past year, grave stones, crosses and grave markers have been

destroyed in large numbers.

Catholic and Protestant churches in the region have had graffiti

sprayed on their walls, frequently in both Cyrillic and Latin script,

that ‘this is Serb land’, ‘the Serbian Orthodox faith is the faith of

the land’, ‘Hungarians go back to Hungary’ and, even more to the point,

‘Death to Hungarians’. Beyond these symbolic atrocities, ethnic Hungarians

have been targeted for abuse on the streets, in places of entertainment,

the workplace and in school yards.

Many have received threatening phone calls, including Jozsef Kasza, the

leader of the VMSZ (Fereration of Hungarians in Vojvodina). They have been

confronted for speaking Hungarian to one another. Gangs of young Serbs

have beaten up young Hungarian speakers.

Minority girls have been publicly groped and sexually molested by Serbs

to provoke fights, in which minority youngsters almost always end up

with severe beatings, in many instances requiring hospital care.

School authorities and the local police have turned a blind eye

toward these abuses.

After the assaults, when the police belatedly show up, the majority

youngsters usually receive mild rebukes, while the minority youngsters

may be accused of starting the altercation and at the very least

are taken in for questioning. In recent history, Serbs have not

been held accountable for their abuse and humiliation of minorities

and the incidents have become numerous, almost everyday occurrences,

intimidating the minorities with the hidden, but implied agenda of

ridding the land of all non-Serbs.

On 26 June, for the first time, members of the minority struck back

in blind rage. Five Hungarian young men severely beat a Serb man in

the town of Temerin. In this case, the police immediately apprehended

the culprits. However, the Serbian press now uses this brutal attack

as the sign of the Hungarian threat against the Serbs.

Fortunately the newly elected Serb president, Boris Tadic, distanced

himself from the extremist press and politicians by saying that ‘this

incident should not be used as a pretext to incite national hatreds’.

He also contended that if the attack was based on ethnic hatred then it

should be countered with the most severe application of the law and that

this should also be the case when other hate crimes are committed. Indeed,

living memory can testify to the destabilizing effects of national hatreds

and the Serbs more than anyone else should be aware that what happened

in Bosnia and Kosovo should be prevented from spreading to Vojvodina.

The challenge for Tadic is that many of the evicted Serbs from Krajina,

Knin and Kosovo have been re-settled in Vojvodina. This restless mass of

about 220,000 refugee Serbs now constitutes 10% of Vojvodina's population.

They are conflict oriented because in their former homelands they have

lost their properties, while in their new setting they are envious of the

properties of Croats, Hungarians, and other non-Serbs. (Furthermore, many

of them still have weapons stashed away from their previous conflicts.)

Most of the trouble stems from this ‘refugee group’. They do not believe

in peaceful coexistence with others and they are the most vociferous

supporters of the extremists. Finally, Kostunica, ‘the tuxedo-ed Seselj

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