Esteemed Chairmen!

In the name of the Hungarians of Voivodina I ask for your participation in a meeting in which I may inform you about the situation and the political efforts of this ancestral ethnic group.

The reason for my request is that the Balkan crisis is plunging our ethnic group into a more grave and hopeless situation. As a result of the activities of Mr. Geert Ahrens and the other European mediators, the Hungarians of Voivodina - perhaps momentarily - are not threatened with extinction, but owing to the series of measures taken by the Serbian leadership, a whole range of minority rights are being presently eliminated or curtailed. To this day, dialogue between the Serbian government and the DCHV has not taken place, even though we have been urging it from the beginning: We think that the autonomy-concept - which we have developed using Lord Carrington's peace plan as a basis - can serve as the theme for our proposed discussion, for its implementation would allow the Hungarians of Voivodina to preserve their identity right through the next century.

Our consistent opposition to the war, as well as our ongoing democratic struggle for autonomy is viewed by the Serbian public opinion, including the opposition, in a negative manner. The ruling party and the Serbian power structures have been waging a psychological war against nur ethnic group since the start of the civil war. The Serbian government forced the Hungarians of Voivodina to go to war against their will, The government mobilized 2.5 times more Hungarians into front-line battalions than the Hungarians' percentage in Serbia's population would warrant. The forced mobilization of Hungarian reservists - barring a few brief pauses - continues to the present day.

Approximately 25,000 young Hungarians, most with their entire families, fled the forced mobilization and the war propaganda campaign, Their repatriation is uncertain, indeed a large part of them will not return home, but instead join the flood of refugees as they attempt to settle in other countries.

Ethnic cleansing continues covertly among those still employed. On the basis of incomplete data collected solely by the DCHV, we can state that in the job loss process Hungarians are in a three times more precarious position than presently employed Serbs. In certain areas, such as within the ministry of the interior, in the justice system, in education, as well as in culture the number of Hungarians without jobs is particularly high.

Hungarians are not armed. For this reason they are particularly wary of the armed threats which the ruling party has recently taken to using, as a new tool in its ongoing psychological war. The member of federal parliament representing the Zombor (Sombor) region, as well as the region's vice-president, are touring the settlements in Western Bácska where Hungarians are in a minority, warning the settlers of armed atrocities should the latter cast their votes for the representatives of the DCHV in the upcoming elections. The latter is an extreme case, but grave threats are increasingly becoming a daily occurrence.

Nevertheless, the greatest threat to the Hungarians of Voivodina remains the forced resettlement process known as the "third colonization." The Serbian government has not abandoned its plan of settling Serb refugees into Hungarian-inhabited regions. In our opinion, it would be particularly dangerous if the UN High Commission fur Refugees also supported Serbian attempts to forcefully alter the ethnic composition of the region. Such action would create a new problem and the Hungarian emigration tide - which has diminished, though it has not ceased since the end of the civil war - would again gain momentum.

Hoping that you find the above concerns worthy of discussion, and that you both take steps towards the realization of this meeting being initiated by me, I remain, respectfully yours, Ágoston András, President of the DCHV