As we have described in our previous newsletter, the local administration of the town of Dărmănești/Dormánfalva has recently taken ownership of a Hungarian military cemetery in neighbouring Harghita county, under dubious circumstances. The cemetery located in Valea Uzului/Úz-völgye (Valley of Uz) was the site of several battles during World War II, and many Hungarian and German soldiers are buried there. The cemetery has come to be almost like a place of pilgrimage, not only for Hungarians living in Transylvania, but for all Hungarians. Officials from Dărmănești/Dormánfalva have already put up numerous crosses made of concrete next to the wooden crosses put up on the graves, and they have also erected a monument in memory of the Romanian soldiers that fought in World War II.
After the issue became known, it seemed for a while that the situation might be resolved, Romanian politicians seemed open to finding a solution. This was thwarted, however, when on the 16th of May, an unknown group of people covered the crosses that have been illegally put up by the local government of Dărmănești/Dormánfalva with black sacks. Although members of the Hungarian community immediately removed the sacks, the Romanian media took the opportunity to initiate a hate campaign against Hungarians.
On the same day, the Szekler Council of Local Representatives released a statement in which they qualified the act of covering the crosses with black sacks as an obvious provocation and they publicly distanced themselves from both the persons committing the act, as well as the act itself. The obvious purpose of the act in question was to prevent the process of clarifying the situation of the cemetery by denigrating the Hungarian community, and to divert the attention from the illegal acts of the mayor of Dărmănești/Dormánfalva.
In connection with the incident, Árpád Antal, the president of the Szekler Council of Local Representatives, declared that in the past 30 years the leaders of the Hungarian community have never resorted to actions that go against the basic principles of democracy or that would harm the rights or the dignity of another community.
Due to the instigation by the Romanian media, on the 17th of May George Simion, an independent candidate for the European Parliament, Cosmin Iosub and Mihai Armaș showed up at the cemetery. The populist candidate who has so far campaigned almost exclusively on anti-Hungarian messages, broadcasted live on Facebook. One of the recordings was made at the entrance of the cemetery, where he got into an argument with a few elderly men, while continuously provoking members of the Hungarian community who were present at the scene. He asked them about covering the monument. Those present denied having had anything to do with that and asked him not to film them. The recording was then abruptly cut off – in all likelihood he dropped his device -, after which Simion complained that he had been attacked.
Following the events, Simion and his two colleagues who accompanied him to the cemetery reported the incident, after which investigators from Bacău county conducted perquisitions this morning at the local council of Sânmartin/Csíkszentmárton, as well as the houses of five individuals, among them the deputy mayor. Four persons were then brought in to the police headquarters in Harghita county for questioning.
While no investigation was initiated regarding the crosses that have been illegally put up, or the illegally spent public funds by the local government of Dărmănești/Dormánfalva and its leaders, the representatives of the Hungarian community continue to be subjected to atrocities. This is clear proof that in investigating the case, Romanian authorities apply double standards.
“I am not as naïve as to believe that this was a coincidence. I have been in politics long enough not to believe in such coincidences. I think that solving the issue is presently in the hands of authorities in Bucharest first of all, after which the next step should be to assign a location for those who wish to erect a monument for the Romanian soldiers” – declared in a press conference Hunor Kelemen, the president of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania.