From hungary-report-owner Wed Apr 10 00:47:35 1996 Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) (fnord) by nando.yak.net (8.6.5/8.6.5) id AAA21116; Wed, 10 Apr 1996 00:47:35 -0700 Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) (fnord) by nando.yak.net (8.6.5/8.6.5) id AAA21107; Wed, 10 Apr 1996 00:47:13 -0700 Received: from jbrown@isys.hu () via =-=-=-=-=-= for hungary-report@hungary.yak.net (21105) Received: from kingzog.isys.hu (KingZog.iSYS.hu [194.24.160.4]) (fnord) by nando (8.6.5/8.6.5) with ESMTP id AAA21092 for ; Wed, 10 Apr 1996 00:45:59 -0700 Received: from [194.24.161.32] (dialup-1-032.dial.isys.hu [194.24.161.32]) by kingzog.isys.hu (8.7.Beta.11/8.7.Beta.11) with SMTP id JAA30177 for ; Wed, 10 Apr 1996 09:45:40 +0200 (MET DST) Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 09:45:40 +0200 (MET DST) X-Sender: jbrown@mail.isys.hu Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: Hungary-report@hungary.yak.net From: jbrown@isys.hu (Jennifer Brown) Subject: 1.45 Sender: owner-hungary-report@hungary.yak.net Precedence: bulk Reply-To: hungary-report@hungary.yak.net ======================== The Hungary Report Direct from Budapest, every week Also available on the World Wide Web (http://www.isys.hu/hrep/) No. 1.45, April 8, 1996 ======================== SPONSORED BY: iSYS Kft., providing full Internet solutions for companies and individuals in Hungary. For further information, send e-mail to , view our World Wide Web home page (http://www.isys.hu) or call (+36-1) 266-6090. ALSO BY: Hungary Around the Clock, the most comprehensive daily English-language news service on your desk by 9 am each morning. For a trial subscription, contact Kingfish Communications. Call (+36-1) 351-2440. Fax: (+36-1) 351 7141. Internet: Kingfish@dial.isys.hu ======== CONTENTS BRIEFS European Commission president visits Hungary Sony invests $20 million in CD factory U.S. government to pay for IFOR damages Former PM wins libel suit Szolnok to host summer Partnership for Peace exercises Suchman returns to the Socialist Party Costs increase on Budapest flights Trade deficit increases Half of Hungarian women feel disadvantaged NUMBERS CRUNCHED Inflation this year Refugees in Hungary Foreigners employed legally Purchasing power in the region World ranking in deaths from cancer WACKY AS USUAL Basilica doors shut to Evita filming FEATURE STORY Estranged in a familiar land PARLIAMENT WATCH Suchman's return spices up party convention The Hungary Report is also supported in part by: MTI-Econews, a daily English-language financial news service. For online (fee-based) subscription information, contact the Internet address: . (It's not automated -- write a nice note.) ====== BRIEFS By Jennifer C. Brown Copyright (c) 1996 ------------- GENERAL NEWS European Commission president visits Hungary European Commission president Jacques Santer arrived in Budapest from Prague Thursday where he met with Hungarian leaders including Prime Minister Gyula Horn, President Arpad Goncz and Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs, reports Nepszabadsag. After meeting with Horn Friday, he announced to the press that negotiations with European Union (EU) associate countries for membership in the EU could begin in 1998 after the Torino intergovernmental conference was completed. Magyar Hirlap reported that Santer said countries seeking membership in the EU will receive a questionnaire by April 15 that would help the commission to assess their economic and political situation. As a sign of encouragement, Santer told Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs that he supported Hungary's policy toward neighboring countries. He added that promoting regional stability would be an important factor in admitting any country to the EU. --------------------- BUSINESS & ECONOMICS Sony invests $20 million in CD factory The Japanese have made its second largest investment in Hungary to date with Sony Corp's $20 million greenfield factory in Godollo, reports the Budapest Business Journal. The factory will hire 200 workers to manufacture 40,000 CD players a month. Later, 700 employees will be brought on to produce mini-stereo systems, color televisions and VCRs. Sony, which established a DM 1 million TV assembly plant in Poland last September, chose Hungary for the investment due to its location and the potential of increasing sales in Hungary. Local authorities in Godollo were also reported to be cooperative with Sony. The company will purchase a 109,000 sqm area from the local government for Ft 1,000 per sqm. The town was chosen over Retsag, where the Japanese company TDK has a factory. Japanese companies have made investments of $200 million since 1990 out of investments in Hungary totaling $13 billion. ----------- SHORT TAKES THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HAS AGREED TO PAY FOR 75% OF DAMAGES IFOR army vehicles caused to buildings and roads in Kaposvar and Tazsar, reports the Budapest Week. Hungary's Ministry of Defense will pay the other 25%. The U.S. government said it would pay in full for damages made during unofficial duties. U.S. operations have caused HUF 200 million (US$ 1.4 million) worth of damages in Kaposvar and Taszar so far. FORMER PRIME MINISTER WON A LIBEL CASE AGAINST LOCAL daily Esti Hirlap, reports the Budapest Week. The paper ran a story linking Boross and his son to an Ukrainian organized crime circuit. The two were not directly named but they argued that their was no doubt as to whom the article was referring to. The Pest Central District court ordered the paper and its publisher to pay damages of HUF 1.2 million to Boross and HUF 300,000 to his son. The paper is also required to publish the court's decision. SZOLNOK WILL HOST THIS SUMMER'S PARTNERSHIP FOR PEACE exercises for regional air forces from July 20-26, according to Nepszabadsag. Some 17 countries from Central and Eastern Europe will take part in simulated search and rescue operations. NATO and Hungary will cover most of the costs of the exercise, estimated to be HUF 150 million. PRIVATIZATION MINISTER TAMAS SUCHMAN INFORMED PARLIAMENT last week that he has decided not to leave the Socialist Party after all, reports Magyar Hirlap. He resigned from the party after failing to secure a position on the presidium during the party's congress last weekend. Suchman cited support from member MPs and pressure from Gyula Horn as reasons he changed his mind. FLYING IN AND OUT OF BUDAPEST WILL BE 3% TO 10% MORE EXPENSIVE due to price hike issued by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), reported Magyar Hirlap. Airlines argued that annual forint devaluation necessitated a price hike. HUNGARY'S TRADE DEFICIT INCREASED BY US$ 80 MILLION in the first two months of the year to US$ 500 million, according to deputy Industry and Trade state secretary Lajos Berenyi. Hungary exported US$1.8 billion worth of goods in January and February, an increase of 5.5% from 1995. Imports amounted to US$2.4 billion, an increase of 11% from the year before. HALF OF WOMEN IN BUDAPEST BELIEVE THAT MEN HAVE GREATER ADVANTAGES, according to U.S. polling group Gallup,. The poll, which was conducted in the fall of 1995, revealed that only 6% of women believe their status is better than men's while 44% believe that Hungarian society treats both men and women equally. About 10% of men said they would like to be reborn female compared to 21% of women who said they would like to be reborn as men. ------------------ NUMBERS CRUNCHED * Inflation rate expected in 1996 (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development): 22% * Refugees left in Hungary, 2,500 of whom live in camps (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees): 7,000 * Foreigners legally employed in Hungary by the end of 1995, up 500 from the year before (Magyar Hirlap): 21,000 * Hungary's consumer purchasing power in Central Europe (Statistical directorate of a European Union committee in Brussels): third behind Slovenia and the Czech Republic * Hungary's world ranking in cancer-related deaths (Magyar Nemzet): first -------------- EXCHANGE RATE April 4, 1996 (National Bank of Hungary) Buying Selling Deutschmark 99.41 100.42 U.S. dollar 147.17 148.55 -------------- WACKY AS USUAL Basilica doors shut to Evita filming The commotion over Madonna's casting as the lead role in the film Evita has followed the pop goddess from Argentina to Hungary, where most of the film is being shot. Here, Catholic Church leaders have been adamantly opposed to the shooting of scenes in the famous Szent Istvan Basilica. According to church spokesperson Laszlo Lukacs, having Madonna in the basilica would tarnish the church's image. "Christian churches are really sacred places, meant for devout worship. They are not to be used for any profane purposes," he told the Budapest Week. According to the film's producer Andrew Vajna, Madonna wants to portray religion positively by depicting Eva Peron's meeting with the pope in Rome. The paper reports that the film's producers have been unable to persuade the Church to allow filming in the basilica, even with an offer of over US$ 400,000. =========== FEATURE STORY Estranged in a familiar land By Jennifer C. Brown Copyright (c) 1996 War, economic problems and nationalism have forced thousands of Hungarians living in Romania and the former Yugoslavia to flee their countries for Hungary since the late 1980's. The late Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) Prime Minister Jozsef Antall once extended his sympathies to Hungarian minorities when he called himself "the Prime Minister in spirit of 15 million Hungarians [around the world]." Today, the treatment of Hungarians in Slovakia, Romania and the former Yugoslavia is still a concern for today's ruling Socialist-led coalition, mostly due to pressure from NATO and the European Union to promote stabilization in the region. But for Hungarian refugees from Voivodina such as 27-year old Laszlo Hindicki, Hungary is no land of hospitality. Laszlo, 27, left his friends and family at the end of 1991 for Sweden along with 700 other Hungarians in the heavily Hungarian-populated region of northeastern Serbia known as Voivodina. Like many young Hungarian men, Laszlo chose to avoid the draft rather than fight for the cause of Serbian nationalism. But in September 1993, the Swedish government rejected the Hungarians' applications for amnesty and told them they could live in a refugee camp in Bicske, Hungary rather than return to Voivodina, where they could still be punished for avoiding the draft. But Hungary has neither promised, nor provided a home. Here, they get little financial assistance and they say obtaining work and residence permits is nearly impossible due to recent restrictions, expenses and bureaucratic red tape. "In Sweden, they help you, not so much, but they help you. It's not enough if they say you can live here," says Laszlo. Today he lives in a cramped dormitory-style room with four other Hungarian men who pass their time drinking. Otto and Gabriella, a Hungarian couple from Kishegyes, are a little luckier. They have a room to themselves though they share one cooking space and two toilets with six other families. Their room is equipped with a bunk bed, a television and VCR. Instead of a refrigerator they keep their food in a bag hanging outside from the window handle. One television in the recreation room entertains the camps 700 inhabitants. After returning from Sweden, 26-year old "Imre", a Hungarian from the town of Zenta, opted for a better life than the one the refugee camp could provide. He lives alone in an apartment on the outskirts of Budapest and works illegally in an auto body shop. He said the only way to get a residency and work permit is through bribing a cop. Just a few months ago, it would have been easy to slip a cop 1,000 Deutchmarks for the papers. But now, bribing is next to impossible with a recent government crackdown on police corruption that discourages requires applying for visas in person. Over shots of homemade fruit brandy, Imre explains that in Sweden, the asylum seekers could earn the equivalent of $20 a day doing odd jobs. After a year and a half, officials told the 400 Hungarians under temporary amnesty that there was no war in Voivodina and they could go back freely. "They always say there is no war there," said Laszlo. "I don't believe them." Many of the Hungarians think that the Swedish government paid Hungary money to take the refugees but Swedish immigration and Hungarian embassy officials say a payoff would have been impossible. Whether swapped for cash or not, the Hungarians believe they got a raw deal. "We're all mad about this. It's not just that our standard of living was better. Everything is more difficult to do here," said Imre. "It looks like we're always going to be refugees. I didn't ask to come here." When asked why Sweden rejected the asylum request of the Hungarian refugees, Swedish Immigration Board member Olof Carlstedt said, "The young men claim they wanted to avoid draft but in Sweden, we found that it is not reason enough to grant asylum." Sweden's attitude reflects Western Europe's closed-door policy towards immigration, remarks Oszkar Nikowitz, head of the Government Office for Hungarian Minorities Abroad. "This is the hypocrisy of the Swedish government," he said. "If someone is not beaten up to the point of bleeding, it doesn't mean they aren't subject to abuse." Rejected by Sweden, fearful of returning to their still- unstable homeland and disappointed by a lack of opportunities to settle down in Hungary, many of the refugees such as Otto, Gabriella and Laszlo are seeking asylum in Canada, where they are almost guaranteed a home of their own, job possibilities and financial assistance. "The immigration application form asked: If you are a Hungarian minority, why not stay in Hungary?" said Otto, who argued back in a letter that the only jobs available to him were illegal and hardly enough to survive on. "Hungary is not making life easy for temporarily protected people, including Hungarians from other countries," said Hungary's United Nations High Commission for Refugees representative Philippe Labreveux. "Their status is a non-status legally speaking because they have no social or economic rights. They can only stay, and every three to four months they have their permits renewed," he said. "They move west to a country that will give them more benefits or work opportunities and second, here they can't really survive." Clearly, Hungary's immigration policy has changed with the political tide. Hungary experienced its first wave of Hungarian refugees from Romania in 1989 and 1990 following the death of Nicolae Ceausescu. Labreveaux characterized Hungary's policy toward those Hungarian minorities and later, Hungarian draft-dodgers from Voivodina who came in 1991 and 1992 as an act of solidarity. "That solidarity has worn off, in part, because of economic pressure," he said. Hungarians may have both linguistic skills and connections to rely on, giving them an advantage over other refugees in their day -to-day activities. But when it comes to standing in lines and filling out forms for visas, a Hungarian is no different from any other refugee, said Oszkar Nikowitz, who deals with the Hungarian refugees' complaints daily. The current Socialist-led government's policy toward immigration is a reaction to the previous regime, Nikowitz said. Forty years of communism has also taught Hungarians to reject sympathies for Hungarian minorities in surrounding countries as primitive. "The Antall government's sympathy for Hungarian minorities was miscalculated," he said, explaining in part, why the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) lost popularity in the opinion polls. "When Prime Minister Gyula Horn's government decided to change attitudes toward this issue [Hungarian minorities], they chose total abandonment." Applying for citizenship is the biggest obstacle for any refugee wishing to stay in Hungary. Since 1993, it has requires an applicant to demonstrate a means of living even if he or she can't be legally employed, explained Labreveaux . "If you look at the implementation of citizenship law in 1993, it's become more difficult and more arbitrary to get citizenship and a lot of Hungarians from Voivodina and the Baranya triangle have given up," he said. Compared to 60% of the Bosnian refugees, who said in a recent UNHCR study that they would eventually return home, not many of the 2,000 registered Hungarians from Voivodina want to stay for fear of prosecution. But the option to return home may open up for the Hungarians if a law is passed in the Serbian government granting asylum for draft-dodgers. The prospects for asylum could ease the fears of hundreds of Hungarian refugees still living in Hungary. But they still could face job discrimination, or even petty abuse for leaving the country at a time of war. "Temporary is a word that characterizes the situation most. Hungary is waiting to send the refugees back," said Nikowitz. "They fear that if Serbs realize that Hungarians are welcome here, it would give them the perfect argument to back up their idea that those Hungarians in Voivodina aren't loyal to Serbia, but to Hungary." * * * Jennifer C. Brown is a freelance journalist based in Budapest who writes for business and general interest publications. A version of this article will appear in a future issue of Pozor Magazine. ============ PARLIAMENT WATCH Suchman's resignation spices up Socialist Party convention Without the announcement of Privatization Minister Tamas Suchman resignation from the party, the Socialist Party Convention on the last weekend of March would have been an unqualified bore. Prime Minister and party president Gyula Horn ran unopposed for re-election, and the most important ideological issues have been settled at a convention last November. The election of former labor minister Magda Kovacs as acting vice president of the party was not a surprise either, though it is somewhat difficult to understand why the delegates refused to create a new position of deputy president and instead entrusted all the power of the would-be deputy president to the acting vice- president. Nevertheless as a result the Socialist Party has now an undisputed second person in charge, someone who can fill in for the president when necessary and is responsible for the day-to-day management. Before this decision, the acting VP was a sort of organizing secretary without any special political power. The election of the other vice presidents, Gyorgy Janosi, Bela Katona and Imre Szekeres also failed to make headlines. Environmental Minister Ferenc Baja replacing Ivan Vitanyi as the Chairman of the National Council of the Party was more of a decision based on age than on political substance, though the party will definitely miss the excellent contacts Vitanyi had with the opinion-forming intellectual community and the Socialists' liberal coalition partner, the Alliance of Free Democrats. The new presidium seems rather balanced as well; no particular current in the party seems to have gained significant influence or positions. The trade unions did not manage to elect a representative into any of the top jobs in the party, signaling that with the departure of Sandor Nagy as the head of the socialist trade union federation has significantly eroded labor's political influence. Nagy did not run for any office this time. The election of former ministers (Magda Kovacs, Bela Katona and Pal Kovacs) to high party ranks may signal a wish to improve grassroots relations or may be a rank and file protest against the austerity measures introduced by another former minister, Lajos Bokros. The power of increased name recognition resulting from the appointment of former cabinet members should not be underestimated, either. Prime Minister Horn will certainly have to pay more attention to the party leadership in the future but he has also managed to assemble a team that could run the 1998 elections by claiming to have government expertise while positioning itself against unpopular though economically rational austerity measures. Until Sunday morning, everything looked perfect and according to schedule. Then Tamas Suchman took the podium, complaining that the party has rejected his values and theatrically left his party card- "the plastic card that has grown so close to my heart"- at the speaker's stand. The hero of privatization seems to have taken it too personally that he received only 302 votes out of over 700 in his effort to be elected to the party presidium. The "minister without portfolio, responsible for privatization" left the convention hastily, announcing that his decision was irrevocable. Since then he has published a statement announcing that his decision was irrevocable. Since then he has published a statement announcing "that after consulting with many of my fellow party members I have come to the conclusion that my behavior at the party convention was inconsiderate," and withdraw his announcement. In chess there is a rule that once a move is made there is no way to undo it. Maybe it was time to apply this rule in politics, too. * * * Tibor Vidos is a lobbyist and consultant in charge of the Budapest office of GJW Government Relations. His email addresses are: 7602.2227@compuserve.com and Vidos@ind.eunet.hu =========== FINAL BLURB The Hungary Report is free to readers. 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Brown, Editor Tibor Vidos, Parliament Watch Attila Beno, Magyar Net Watch * * * For its briefs, The Hungary Report regularly consults the news sources listed below -- for information about subscriptions, contact them by email: The Budapest Business Journal <100263.213@compuserve.com> & Budapest Sun <100275.456@compuserve.com> Budapest Week <100324.141@compuserve.com> Central Europe Today (free online) , as well as most Hungarian-language media (e-mail addresses to come). ================= END TRANSMISSION