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November 20, 1983

HUNGARY CRACKS DOWN ON DISSIDENT GROUPS

By JOHN KIFNER
BUDAPEST— A growing sense of nationalism appears to have bolstered Hungary's small group of dissidents, but also to have led to a Government crackdown.
A Western diplomat said the Hungarian Government had tolerated the dissidents ''because they were good window dressing for the West.'' Another reason, he said, was that their writings were ''so obscure and turgid they didn't have much appeal.''
But in the spring, dissidents here say, policemen began harassing them on the street and raiding and searching their apartments.
The dissident movement is rather miniscule in Hungary, a country that has steered its economy toward relative plenty and its society toward some measure of freedom, backed by a sober acceptance of Soviet military power.
But change in their status has come, the diplomat said, now that the dissidents are beginning to ''talk about the national issue'' - the fate of the Hungarian ethnic minorities in parts of Rumania and Czechoslovakia, territories Hungary lost after World War II. The dissidents say the minorities are ill-treated and discriminated against, their schools and churches closed and their property seized.
The question of the traditionally Hungarian area of Transylvania, which is now a part of Rumania, is a particularly sensitive one for the Hungarian Government, and has caused strains between the two countries.
About 60 Activists
Janos Kis, a philosopher who is one of the most prominent of the dissidents, said in an interview that there are about 50 to 60 activists, generally clustered around the quarterly underground publication Beszelo. He said there were perhaps 200 supporters and a readership of ''several thousand'' who share the group's ideas.
But Hungary also harbors a large group of people who style themselves as ''free intellectuals'' in universities and official institutes, many of them even advising the Government on economic policy and other matters. Up to now they have enjoyed some independence in their writing and discussion.
Dissident sources date the sterner Government attitude to an article published in December in Nepszabadsag, the newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, by its assistant editor, Peter Renyi, who is generally considered a spokesman for hard-line elements.
''The imperialist centers long ago made it their strategy to support by various means the erosive, subversive elements within socialism, the oppositionist groups and organizations, the trends propagating the bourgeois political system and bourgeois nationalism,'' Mr. Renyi warned dissidents.
''Consider what way you have chosen, what course will follow once you have crossed the Rubicon that separates a critical ideological attitude from hostile political activity.'' The 'Rajk Boutique'
Until that point, underground publications had reportedly been distributed without restriction and sold, along with smuggled Western publications, in the apartment of an architect, Laszlo Rajk. But the dissidents said the police closed what had become known as the Rajk Boutique.
More recently, Ferenc Kulin, editor of a well-established literary magazine, Mozgo Vilag, was abruptly dismissed. The magazine, which had been concentrating on such subjects as the Stalinist years and Hungary's role on the side of the Axis in World War II, was condemned last year by the Communist Party Central Committee for ''undesirable writings.''
One of Hungary's most eminent poets, Sandor Csoori, has been effectively banned from publishing after writing an attack in the spring on what he called the ''raging perversity'' of the treatment of the Hungarian minorities.
Mr. Csoori's criticism came in an introduction to a political autobiography, ''The Choke Collar,'' which was published in New York and written by Miklos Duray, an ethnic Hungarian who was brought up in Czechoslovakia.

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December 8, 1983

HUNGARIAN IN SLOVAKIA FIGHTING FOR RIGHTS

To the Editor:
In his report about dissidents in Hungary who, in defiance of Government policy, are giving voice to rising concern over the treatment of Hungarian minorities in neighboring countries, John Kifner identified Miklos Duray as ''an ethnic Hungarian who was brought up in Czechoslovakia'' and noted that he had a book published in New York (news story Nov. 20). This might create the impression that Mr. Duray is now living abroad.
In fact, Mr. Duray still lives in Slovakia's predominantly Hungarian- populated southern region and is founder of the Committee for the Legal Defense of the Hungarian Minority in Czechoslovakia. Last February, he was tried for treason (one specific charge was that he had prepared a memorandum for the London-based Minority Rights Group on discrimination against Slovakia's Hungarians).
The trial, in Bratislava, was attended by representatives of Amnesty International, the Western press - and Hungary's Writers Union. Rumor has it that, behind the scenes, the Hungarian Government intervened, which may explain an unexpected verdict: Mr. Duray was set free under condition that he refrain from any future seditious activities. STEPHEN BORSODY Pittsburgh, Nov. 21, 1983

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May 22, 1984 AROUND THE WORLD

AROUND THE WORLD; Czechs Said to Arrest A Minority Leader

Reuters
BUDAPEST, May 21— The unofficial leader of Czechoslovakia's Hungarian minority has been arrested, dissident sources in Budapest said today.
They said they believed the arrest of Miklos Duray was related to his campaign against plans to cut Hungarian- language teaching in Czechoslovak schools.
They said Mr. Duray, a geologist in his 40's, was suspected of harming Czechoslovak interests abroad and could face as much as six years in prison if convicted.
The sources said Mr. Duray was detained last week in Bratislava.
Attempts to reach Mr. Duray's home by telephone from Vienna encountered a constant busy signal.

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Chronológia činnosti Výboru pre ochranu práv maďarskej národnosti v ČSSR / A Csehszlovákiai Magyar Nemzetiség Jogvédő Bizottság tevékenységének kronológiája