Free Republic

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....