RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 3, No. 16, 25 January 1999

CANADA REJECTS ROMANI ASYLUM REQUESTS. A Toronto
immigration committee has rejected the asylum requests
of two Romani families from Hungary, MTI reported on 22
January. A lawyer for the committee said the families
arrived in January and May 1998 and that an
investigation into their cases determined that they face
neither persecution nor denial of their rights in
Hungary. The committee met with a Hungarian delegation
that included Florian Farkas, chairman of the National
Romani Self-Government Council, before making its
decision. Farkas said that Roma in Hungary just face
discrimination, but not persecution. He said it is
important Budapest to help Roma who are denied asylum to
return to Hungary. Hundreds of Roma are still in Canada
awaiting a decision on their requests. Dozens have been
granted asylum. PB

ROMANIAN PARLIAMENT WANTS AGREEMENT MADE PUBLIC. Both
chambers of the parliament, meeting in an extraordinary
session on 22 January, approved a declaration affirming
their support for the actions of Vasile in his defense
of "state institutions, the constitution, and all
democratic values," Rompres reported. The resolution
condemned the violent actions of the miners and called
on state officials to ensure that the crisis not be
repeated. It also urged the government to present by 15
March an economic and social program intended to stop
the economic decline in the country. In addition,
lawmakers want the government to detail how it plans to
pay for the concessions made to the miners. The leader
of the ethnic Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania,
Bela Marko, criticized the agreement between Vasile and
the miners and called for the protesters to be detained
and prosecuted. Marko, whose party is a member of the
ruling coalition, said the government will lose
credibility if it does not prosecute those involved in
violence. PB

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
               Copyright (c) 1999 RFE/RL, Inc.
                     All rights reserved.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx