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NOVI SAD -- Bojan Pajtiæ said that the new Serbian constitution must guarantee autonomy for Vojvodina. Pajtiæ, President of the Vojvodina Executive Council, said that the region must receive clear guarantees for a functional autonomy within the charter of the next Serbian constitution. “Vojvodina must have guarantees for a legislative government, as well as the right to its own budget and properties.” Pajtiæ said at a two-day conference regarding regionalism and the models for Vojvodina’s autonomy, held by the Vojvodina Parliament. “Serbia cannot adopt a European constitution if it continues to ignore the demands of the Vojvodina citizens. We are...

Though very small in number, Serbia’s Jewish community is being increasingly targeted by an array of ultra-nationalist groups. The slogans hint at a future settling of accounts. "Juden Raus", "Achtung Juden", "Jews out of Serbia" and "Death to Jews and Gipsies", they proclaim, the words providing a chilling echo of the Holocaust that decimated European Jewry more than half a century ago. But few Jews actually see these slogans in Serbia today. Providing ample proof of the claim that anti-Semitism doesn't need Jews to flourish, the latest wave of anti-Semitism in Serbia has broken over a community that is a...

NOVI SAD, BELGRADE, BUDAPEST -- Tuesday (B92, Beta, Dnevnik) – Hungarian Democratic party of Vojvodina leader Andras Agoston is interested in discussing a similar kind of autonomy for Hungarians in Vojvodina that Serbs in Kosovo are asking for. “I believe that it could be an interesting solution for us.” Agoston said, adding that such a solution needs to be discussed for inclusion into the new Serbian constitution which is currently being prepared. “I am convinced of this process and an understanding for the creation of personal autonomy for Serbs in Kosovo is being shown by many members of the international...

Morton Abramowitz and Heather Hurlburt are right to urge strong U.S. involvement to help resolve the festering problem of Kosovo ["Where to Start With Europe," op-ed, Dec. 23]. They, however, do not go far enough. Any settlement of the situation in Serbia must include the province of Vojvodina.

Calming the Waters by Sasa Grubanovic 16 September 2004 Hungary's president visits Serbia in an attempt to ease tensions in the multiethnic province of Vojvodina. BELGRADE, Serbia—For months, relations between Serbia and Hungary have been worsening amid reports of violence against Hungarians in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina. In recent weeks, Hungary’s foreign minister has even talked of “atrocities,” and taken Hungary’s concerns to European Union institutions. Alarmed by what it called “an unnecessary internationalization” of the issue, Belgrade has vowed to prevent or prosecute further clashes between the Serbian and Hungarian populations in Vojvodina. After a visit this...

SUBOTICA, Serbia, Sept. 15 - When the Setets family set off this morning to take their 13-year-old daughter to school, they got a shock. As they left their small, two-room house on the outskirts of Subotica, in northern Serbia, they found a 15-inch kitchen knife imbedded in their front door. Alongside it, someone had sprayed the Serbian word for "death" in red. Further to the right was "Drop dead, Hungarians." Such ethnically motivated attacks by Serbs against people like the Setets (pronounced sheh-tets), members of this country's 300,000-strong Hungarian minority, have become rife, souring relations between Serbia and neighboring Hungary....

Minorities report increasing number of assaults by Serb nationalists. “I am afraid of the hooligans who insult and attack us because we speak Albanian,” said Nusret Gashi. “The police defend us but they don’t always make it on time.” Gashi, 30, his wife and his four children live in constant fear of attacks by Serb extremists in their small house in the Veliki Rit, a suburb of Novi Sad, in Vojvodina The Gashis are not Albanian but members of the Ashkalija community, themselves refugees from Albanian violence in Kosovo, which they fled after Nato’s air war pushed out Serbian forces....