The State Department’s views on Hungary

A right wing columnist chastises the US State Department for pronouncing unfounded opinions about Hungary.

In her Magyar Nemzet editorial, Zsuzsanna Körmendy comments on a new country report from the US State Department. She thinks the contents of the report reflect the influences that shaped it – and would not be surprised to find that Hungarian-American professor Charles Gati (See BudaPost August 15, 2011) and Hungarian-Austrian columnist Paul Lendvai (See BudaPost, June 5, 2011), both vocal critics of the Hungarian government, were the main sources. It’s the same old song about anti-Roma sentiment, discrimination, anti-Semitism and ‘inciting hatred’, as if – she complains – it were not the present Hungarian government which initiated an all-European system of national strategies to integrate the Roma. She thinks the report reveals its bias when it deplores the presence of paramilitary organisations intimidating the Gypsies, without mentioning that they have been banned. It also fails to mention – she adds – that the serial killings of Roma families took place before the present government took over. The report also ignores the fact that neo-Nazi groups were prevented from entering the country. Körmendy asks for evidence substantiating claims about condoning public corruption, politically motivated lay-offs in the media, and human trafficking. She advises the authors of the report to look into the files of the Canadian Immigration Service and see for themselves how a few Hungarian Roma criminals organized mass emigration to Canada to use their victims as forced labour overseas. Are the Canadian police who let them into their country racist, then? – she asks.

Tags: human rights, Roma, US