Copyright © July 1996 by Human Rights Watch.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
ISBN 1-56432-168-1
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 96-76384

This report is based on a mission conducted by Rachel Guglielmo and Timothy Waters, consultants for Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, during the summer of 1995. The report was written by Ms. Guglielmo and Mr. Waters, and edited by Jeri Laber and Holly Cartner. Anne Kuper provided production assistance.

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki expresses its appreciation to all those who contributed to this report. The writers would especially like to thank József Göbölyös, György Fehér, Dr. Gábor Noszkai, Éva Kiss, Thomas Schwieters, and Ferenc KÅszeg of the Helsinki Committee of Hungary for their invaluable advice and assistance in researching and preparing this report.

This report is based on information gathered by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki in some 120 interviews conducted in more than forty cities, towns, villages, and settlements across Hungary, between June 1, 1995 and August 20, 1995. It follows the 1993 Human Rights Watch/Helsinki publication on discrimination against Gypsies in Hungary, titled Struggling for Ethnic Identity: The Gypsies of Hungary, which examined the discrimination that Gypsies, or Roma as they are called throughout this report, faced in the early post-communist period. The present report deals principally with events and developments since early 1993. The introduction to each section, however, covers, usually in two parts, discrimination against Roma up to 1989, and from 1989 to 1993, a period covered by the earlier report but in a somewhat different form.

Although the difficult social, political, and economic transition in Hungary and the other countries of Eastern Europe is continuing, the initial period of tumultuous change has passed. Hungary now faces a less dramatic, but equally critical, long-term period of change. Endemic discrimination against Roma appears to be growing, even as Hungary is transforming itself. This report therefore gives equal weight to events of immediate concern - attacks on Roma, open discrimination and abuse by government officials - and to broad social patterns of discrimination and marginalization which, unfortunately, seem likely to continue in Hungary well into the foreseeable future.

We would be in a completely different situation if the majority would come to realize that we have been living together for many decades now, that their history is our history too.

- Ágnes Daróczi, Magyar Narancs, July 13, 1995, pp. 8-9.

As Hungary completes a fifth year of painful restructuring, the economic and social diagnosis for Roma is increasingly desperate. The most immediate and dramatic threat to Roma comes from attacks and harassment by racist hate groups. For the meantime, less visible patterns of endemic discrimination and increasing social marginalization pose an equally serious danger for Hungary's largest minority.

The major social and structural upheavals in Hungarian society since the collapse of communism, coupled with increasingly open discrimination, have had a disproportionately large and negative impact on Roma, whose low social status, lack of access to education, and isolation make them relatively unable to defend themselves and their interests. Reforms initiated by Hungarian politicians have often been undertaken without considering their devastating impact on the country's Roma. Roma suffer nearly total marginalization within Hungarian society: they are almost entirely absent from the visible political, academic, commercial, and social life of the country.

Roma have borne the heaviest burdens in the economic restructuring that has followed the transition to a market economy. They were the first to be fired from their jobs in 1989 and 1990, and many have been unemployed since. Unemployment among Roma is more than 60 percent; outside of relatively prosperous Budapest, areas with nearly 100 percent unemployment among Roma are not uncommon. Unemployment rates for the entire country, including the high figures for Roma, are about 13 percent. Roma comprise 5-6 percent of the current population of Hungary.

Roma suffer discrimination in schools and in the general community. Only a handful of Roma graduate from, or even attend, academic high schools. Barely half of all Roma finish primary school; a large percentage of those have received most of their education in "remedial" classes and schools in which very few Hungarian children are placed. Most urban Roma live in ghettoized slums, or in the worst housing projects; in the countryside, they live on "Gypsy rows," orincreasingly, in separate, all-Roma villages. Many public establishments exclude Roma, often quite openly.

Economic hardship and freedom of expression have led many Hungarians to become increasingly willing to voice negative opinions about Roma; people are less reluctant to state openly anti-Roma views and/or to support government policies or individual actions that directly or indirectly focus on "bringing the Roma into line." Roma complain of an "everyday racism" that colors all of their relations with the majority Hungarian population.

Roma are frequently victims of community violence: many are routinely subjected to harassment and intimidation by skinheads and other extremist elements of society; many have been subjected to physical attack, or to the threat of physical attack. After peaking in 1991, skinhead attacks on Roma and other minorities declined; in the spring of 1995, however, local human rights monitoring groups reported a sudden jump in the number of attacks, perhaps signaling a renewed campaign of anti-Roma violence. Many of the attacks in recent years have involved not only the acquiescence of local police, but even their active involvement. The national government has consistently denied the existence of racial violence in the country.

There are areas of progress: Roma, like other Hungarian citizens, enjoy new political freedom to form groups and associations, and the number of Roma organizations has grown consistently since 1989. Open expression of Roma cultural and ethnic identity is no longer officially discouraged. President Árpád Göncz has proposed legislation that would specifically address discrimination against Roma, although only the portion dealing with the criminal code has as yet been adopted. Additionally, there have been several potentially important political initiatives by the government since the end of 1995 - including the formation of a Roma Program Commission in the Parliament, as well as a public foundation and a coordinating council to deal with the effects of the economic and political transition of the Roma community. However, these initiatives are not unambiguously positive developments, and to date, they have produced no concrete programs or results [see section on The Legal Situation of Roma - Abuses under the New Minority Law, below].

Perhaps the single most important development in the past two and one-half years is the establishment of a system of minority self-government for Hungary's thirteen recognized minorities, including the Roma. The Law on Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities, passed in July 1993, proposed an ambitious and progressive system of minority rights, including the election of local and national councils, or self-governments, with authority over the cultural, linguistic, and educational concerns of the respective minorities. Elections for the local self-governments were held in late 1994, and the national assemblies were formed in early 1995.

However, the new minorities system has largely failed to deliver on its promise. The self-governments are only nominally funded and are completely dependent on the local Hungarian councils. There is strong evidence that the government interfered with the election of the national Roma self-government, effectively violating the autonomy it had just granted to its largest minority.

Many observers believe the law's real purpose was to bolster Hungary's foreign policy goals and image in the West and that there was never any real commitment to improving the situation of minorities, especially Roma, within the country. It is perhaps telling that, in the first draft of the legislation creating the new self-government system, Roma were not on the list of protected minorities; only after vociferous protests did the Parliament include them.

Many Roma feel that the promises of democratic political reform, so strong in 1989, have amounted to very little for them. The initial interest that some of the liberal, Western-oriented parties showed in minority affairs has largely been jettisoned in the face of widespread hostility from the majority Hungarian populace. Roma remain on the periphery - isolated, despised, and denied effective participation in the process that is shaping the new Hungary and the role of minorities within it.

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki urges the Hungarian government to:

· Abide by and fully implement its obligations under international law and the obligations towards its minority citizens that the nation has undertaken in its own laws. This should include:

(1) ensuring to all its citizens, whether Hungarian, Roma, or of another minority, equal protection of the laws;

(2) guaranteeing the security of all persons, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or background, from violent attack or bodily harm, whether inflicted by agents of the government or by individuals

(3) prohibiting all forms of discrimination against Roma or other minorities in the governmental, public, and commercial spheres; and

(4) enacting President Göncz's three legislative suggestions for improving the status of minorities.

· Deter and punish private violence against Roma. This will require that the government:

(1) prosecute any individuals or groups of individuals, including citizens' guards, who attack Roma or other minorities under Paragraph 156 or similar legislation;

(2) investigate reports of police failing to respond to attacks on Roma or other minorities, failing to investigate such attacks, or shielding assailants from prosecution; make public the findings of such investigations; and

(3) investigate the activities of skinhead groups or other groups that commit acts of violence against minorities and publish the results of any investigation.

· Deter and punish police violence against Roma. Of primary importance will be measures taken to:

(1) prosecute any policemen participating in attacks on Roma or other minorities under Paragraph 156 or similar legislation;

(2) investigate reports of beatings, forced interrogation, unlawful imprisonment, harassment during identity checks and other mistreatment during official procedures; make public the findings of the investigation, including the number ofcomplaints, their disposition, and the results of disciplinary actions.

· Establish a fully independent and permanent internal affairs review board, with a separate staff and budget, to investigate complaints against policemen. Make public any findings of such a review board.

· Ensure that the regional investigating prosecutors offices have sufficient staff, technical resources, and funding to carry out their own investigations independent of the police when they are inquiring into complaints against policemen.

· End large-scale raids by commando squads against Roma settlements; prosecute and punish and police or private citizens found to have taken part or authorized such raids.

· Create an effective independent channel for lodging citizen complaints against the police. Expand and enforce the authority of the newly created ombudsman's office, and give it adequate and independent financing.

· Require policemen to make a record of all identification checks and vehicle checks; make that record reviewable by members of the public or the ombudsman.

· Increase training in human and civil rights and limited use of force for policemen.

· Encourage the recruitment of Roma into the police force.

· In the field of education, it is of primary importance that steps are taken to:

(1) reform the selection process for remedial classes and schools. Investigate any remedial class or school in which Roma children make up a disproportionately large share of the students. Require objective standards for whom to test and how to test them;

(2) investigate and reform the admissions policies and practices of high schools to ensure they are not discriminatory against Roma students; and

(3) allow local school authorities to keep confidential and `blind' statistics on ethnicity for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the above-mentioned measures.

· To combat discrimination in the labor market, the government must:

(1) enforce and expand the existing prohibitions against discrimination in employment; and

(2) investigate reports of racial coding and discriminatory treatment of Roma applicants at government employment agencies. Establish disciplinary procedures for agency workers who fail to report a client's request for only non-Roma applicants.

· To prevent continued discrimination against Roma in access to housing and land, the government should:

(1) prohibit, in statute and practice, discrimination against Roma or other minorities in the extension of credit for housing, and enforce such a prohibition;

(2) prohibit, in statute and practice, discrimination against Roma or other minorities in the sale or rental of housing, and enforce such a prohibition;

(3) prohibit the eviction of tenants and squatter tenants without due process; investigate cases in which a large number of Roma are being evicted; and

(4) investigate the operations of the coupon compensation program to determine if Roma who worked on collectives were denied equal access to compensation.

· In order to combat a persistent pattern of discrimination against Roma in access to government services, the government should:

(1) prohibit discrimination against Roma or other minorities in public establishments, and provide substantive punishments - in the form of heavy fines, loss of license or closure - for owners or merchants who continue to bar Roma from their establishments;

(2) prohibit and punish criminal harassment of Roma or other minorities on public transportation and in public spaces; and

(3) ensure that Roma are accorded full and equal access to government offices and services.

The Roma have no written history of their own - but their past may be pieced together nonetheless through records kept by others. The common themes running through the Roma past are isolation from and marginalization by the societies in which they lived.

Roma arrived in Europe from northern India in successive waves of migration from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries. Europeans did not know where this new group had come from, and this confusion is reflected in the names they are known by today. "Gypsy" in English (gitano in Spanish) derives from the commonly held belief of the time that Gypsies were Islamic peoples; Gypsy derives from Egyptian. Similarly, tsiganes (French), cigány (Hungarian), zingaro (Italian), and zigeuner (German) all derive from the misapplied Greek term Atsingani, originally used to describe a heretical sect from Asia Minor, whose members were known as seers and magicians. Europeans mistakenly associated the mysterious newcomers with this sect.2

Today many Gypsies prefer to be called Rom/Roma (which means "man/men" in their language), because the terms employed by majority societies across Europe have come to be used in a pejorative manner. We have chosen to use the word "Roma" in this report since this is the term increasingly preferred by many in the Roma community.

Although many Hungarians tend to view Roma as a single community, there are in fact a number of distinct Roma groups in Hungary, each possessing unique historical, cultural and linguistic traditions. Many of the earlier clan-based and trade-based distinctions have disappeared, and today language is the most apparent division among Hungary's Roma. Although there have been some efforts toward political and cultural cooperation, the different groups are united mainly by their common status as "outsiders."

About three fourths of Hungary's Roma are Hungarian speakers, known as "Romungro" - meaning literally "Hungarian man" in the Roma language, an indication of their more advanced degree of assimilation. Another one fifth are Olah, or Romany-speaking, and a smaller group of about 50,000 speak Beash, a dialect of Romanian. The Beash are concentrated in the southwest, and the Olah predominate in the northeast, although they and the Romungro are widely spread about the country. There are also small numbers of Sinti, who migrated to Hungary from Western Europe.

Estimates of the total Roma population in Hungary are traditionally very inaccurate. In the past, censuses classified individuals based on their use of language, a practice that effectively hid the majority of Roma who are native Hungarian speakers; in the 1980 census, only 27,000 people declared that they spoke Romany, and only 6,400 identified themselves as Roma. The 1990 census, by contrast, estimated the Roma population at 400,000. While there is still no consensus on the number of Roma in the country, most experts agree on an estimated Roma population of between 450,000 and 500,000.

The first major wave of Roma appeared in Hungary during the reign of King Zsigmond (Sigismund 1387-1437). Most of them continued on to western Europe. Over the course of the next century and a half, as they were systematically expelled from the western lands, Roma began to settle in the Carpathian Basin. During the Ottoman occupation of Hungary, spanning some 150 years until the late seventeenth century, Roma had a measure of autonomy and began to specialize in certain sedentary trades, working as blacksmiths, weapon-makers, horse traders, carpenters and barbers. Little is known of Roma culture of the period or of Roma relations with the non-Roma (the "gadzikane" in Romany or "gaje"3), though it appears that segregation into ghettoes was widespread.

After defeating and expelling the Ottoman Turks, the Hapsburg monarchy initiated an aggressive assimilation campaign. This was based on a mixture of rewards, such as residency and trade permits, and punishments, notably the prohibition of the itinerant lifestyle (1761 edict of Maria-Theresa), a ban of the use of Roma names (1761) and the Romany language (by Joseph II in 1783), and forced adoptions of Roma children by non-Roma families.

As a result of assimilation coupled with an upsurge in migration of Roma seeking to escape these policies, the Roma population fell into decline and did notrecover until the mid-nineteenth century, when Hungary received an influx of Romanian Roma, or Beash.4

Following its defeat and loss of substantial territory in the Treaty of Trianon5 at the end of World War I, Hungary initiated a fierce "magyarization" policy, pressuring sedentary Roma to become fully assimilated and taking draconian police measures to deport Roma whose Hungarian citizenship could not be verified. As a decree of the Ministry of Interior stated: "Special attention must be paid by the police and security organs to ensure that the wandering Gypsies, or other wandering groups, should not even be allowed near the cities."6 Nonetheless, many Roma continued to migrate, and settled Roma remained isolated in small settlements.

The fate of Hungary's Roma during the Holocaust (or "Porajmos") has not been adequately documented, but it is believed that large numbers of Roma were deported to various concentration camps and exterminated after Germany's 1944 invasion of Hungary. The total number of European and Hungarian Roma murdered remains unknown; some maintain that around a quarter of Europe's one million Roma were exterminated while others estimate the figure to have been closer to 500,000. Estimates on the number of Hungarian Roma murdered vary from 60,000-70,000 to 20,000-30,000, though a recent study suggests that the number may have been lower, around 5,000.7

Roma remained extremely isolated from the majority society up through the second world war. After the war, they were the subject of intensive assimilation programs during the communist period, which set the patterns for treatment of and discrimination against Roma up into the post-communist transition. Developments during the communist regime and after are treated in the various sections of this report.

Physical attacks against Roma are the most immediate and serious violations of their rights. Such attacks directly threaten individual Roma and cause fear and insecurity throughout the entire Roma community. Roma have suffered attacks on their persons, homes, possessions and property, and the racial nature of the majority of these attacks constitutes a challenge to their right to equal treatment as citizens of Hungary and to their identity as Roma.

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki is particularly concerned by reports of police failing to respond to or to investigate racially motivated attacks when they occur, and even accusations of active police participation in violent attacks on Roma. The continuing activity of skinhead and ultra-nationalist groups, and support for these groups by official state bodies and political parties, also remain a cause for concern.

Under the communist regime, open expression of nationalist and racist sentiments was discouraged. Violent attacks against Roma by individuals or groups from the community occurred only sporadically and generally were not covered in the press or countenanced by the authorities.

However, Roma were frequently subjected to harassment and intimidation by the police, who operated with relative impunity in their dealings with the Roma community. Police often engaged in arbitrary identification checks, arrests, and routine beatings during interrogations. Special commando squads were occasionally employed to intimidate and control entire Roma settlements. Each police district maintained a department dealing with "Gypsy crime," and kept statistics on "Gypsy modes of criminality." Such police activity was tolerated and encouraged by the central authorities as a means of controlling the Roma population.8

As central authority weakened throughout the 1980s, public expression of intolerance and anti-Roma sentiments became increasingly common. By themid-1980s, groups of skinheads began to form in Budapest and several provincial cities; Roma were increasingly subject to open harassment and to violent attacks.

After 1989 there was a sharp rise in the number of violent attacks on Roma and foreigners, which peaked in 1991-1992. However, police and the courts were generally reluctant to acknowledge the racial character of these assaults, often failing to press charges or only bringing minor charges such as hooliganism; in one case, for example, a skinhead assault was pronounced by the court to be "a child's prank." The number of incidents abated somewhat after 1992 - a phenomenon some commentators have identified with the approaching 1994 elections and an attempt by extremist groups to gain seats in the parliament.

In the year after the change of government some reform measures were taken: the "Gypsy crime" departments were closed in 1990, and the police were barred from keeping statistics on the ethnicity of criminal suspects. However, there have been few comprehensive efforts to reform the actual behavior of police: no effective system of internal review exists, and many policemen continue to use intimidation, arbitrary arrest, and violence against Roma, who have little capacity to effect the political system which continues to give the police a relatively free hand.

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki has recently received reports of a renewed upsurge in the number of violent attacks against Roma, beginning in early 1995 with major and well-publicized incidents at Kalocsa, Kunszentmiklós, and Kálóz, as well as a large number of serious incidents that received less publicity. Many of these incidents apparently involve the active participation of uniformed and/or off-duty policemen. Incidents of violence against Roma in the past two years conform to a consistent pattern in which all violent acts are attributed to an isolated extremist element, the racial character of the attacks is denied, and the involvement of the community and/or police complicity in the attacks is ignored or tacitly sanctioned.

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki has found that, while some recent incidents have involved self-identified skinhead or extremist groups, in fact a significant number of incidents involve mixed skinhead/non-skinhead groups, individuals orcommunity groups without any contact with skinhead organizations, and even elements of the police. The commonly held belief that attacks on Roma and foreigners are committed exclusively by an extremist minority is unsubstantiated, and despite a general impression that the more serious attacks have been confined to the economically depressed Northeast, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki has collected reports of violent attacks from all sections of the country.

Moreover, when attacks on Roma do occur, police and investigators generally deny any racist intent, even when the assailants themselves have admitted to such motivation. In other words, police and government authorities are reluctant to acknowledge either the presence of openly racist groups such as skinheads in Hungary, or the occurrence of racially motivated attacks, regardless of who commits them; hate crimes legislation has been incorporated into the Hungarian Criminal Code since the 1960s but has never been used, and has been invalidated by the Supreme Court [see section below on Failure to Prosecute Violent Hate Crimes - Paragraph 156 of the Hungarian Criminal Code]. Anti-Roma public opinion supports the belief that violence against Roma has nothing to do with racism but is instead a response to the supposed anti-social behavior of Roma or a result of their socio-economic status; violence against Roma is frequently seen as somehow distinct from violence against other groups.

This attitude has effectively granted the police license to intimidate and harass Roma and to themselves participate in violent attacks on Roma with relative impunity. Police units frequently stall investigations or fail to investigate adequately cases of assault against Roma; in many cases Roma who bring accusations against police officers find themselves accused.9 Recently formed citizens' guards - a kind of unofficial police auxiliary - ostensibly patrol neighborhoods to control crime, but in fact often harass and intimidate Roma residents.

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki believes that the failure of the government and police to respond decisively to incidents of violence against Roma, especially to incidents committed by the police themselves, contributes to an atmosphere in which such violence is tolerated and tacitly encouraged, and thus is more likely to continue. As a human rights activist noted to Human Rights Watch/Helsinki:

Basically, [the authorities] are just sweeping things under the rug, refusing to identify the problem and admit to its seriousness. We are not facing this issue, and that's why the situation hasgrown more serious again in the past few months. We don't think this is happening by chance - it's a trend.10

Skinheads remain active in Hungary despite frequent assertions to the contrary by the police. Moreover, elements of the community apparently not affiliated with skinhead groups also engage in violence against Roma.

One of the most significant and well-publicized incidents occurred on May 1, 1995, in Kalocsa, located on the Danube in south-central Hungary. Katalin Sztojka, the president of the Kalocsa Gypsy minority council, who was present when the attack occurred, described what she saw:

Many people had gathered in the Bishop's Garden [a park] for the May Day celebrations. . . . Around 2:00 a fight broke out. A young guy poured a bottle of beer down the back of an elderly Gypsy man, József Kolompár. Then, when István Soltész (also a Gypsy) went over to help the older man, the young man broke that bottle over his head. Fragments from the bottle fell upon several people sitting nearby, wounding a little boy in the head. At that point, the young man and a bunch of his friends ran, and Soltész and three other Gypsies chased them into the woods next to the park. There they were set upon by a large group of skinheads who had steel rods, baseball bats, and some other weapons, too. Soltész was beaten so badly that he had to remain in the hospital for nearly a month. Back in the square smaller fights had broken out, and many young people grouped together and began to harass Gypsies - including women and children - who were attempting to leave the scene. All in all, seventeen people were beaten - even an expecting mother. They were shouting racist slogans, such as "We want a white Hungary!," "Hungary for the Hungarians!" and "We're going to exterminate all the ethnics!" The police arrived at 4:30 - two and a halfhours after the fighting began. This I can't understand, because I called them at 2:30.11

Many Hungarians and Roma identified the perpetrators of the violence, since there were so many people on the square that day.12 However, Sztojka herself heard a policeman telling one of the Hungarian assailants to go home:

I asked "Why are you sending him home? Why aren't you bringing him into the police station?" and he told me "There aren't any witnesses. There is no proof that he was involved." You see, in Hungary Gypsies aren't considered witnesses by the police.13

A number of Roma and Hungarians were taken into custody. István Németh was already handcuffed and in the custody of the police when, according to him, ". . . a skinhead came over and head-butted me in front of the police. I began to scream, because it hurt like hell, and at this one of the policemen came up to me, pressed my head against the wall, and, while blood was flowing from my eyebrow, told me it would be better for me to shut up, because I only fell on some stairs."14

Fifteen Hungarians and two Roma were charged in connection with the incident.15 The Kalocsa police maintain that the youths arrested because of their involvement in the violence have no connection with the skinhead movement, and that there are no skinheads in Kalocsa. Roma in the town maintain that provocation by skinheads was the direct cause of the fighting and that racial slurs and threats are commonplace, a sentiment echoed by Márton Ill, the director of MEJOK (The Hungarian Human Rights Center), who investigated the incident:

One thing is for sure: in spite of police assertions to the contrary, there are skinheads in Kalocsa. This is a fact. And it is a fact that there are many witnesses - including Hungarians - who testify that there was a racially motivated element to the attack. They were attacking Gypsies, not X person or Y person: there were Gypsies on one side and ultra-right-wing Hungarians on the other."16

Since May 1, tension in the town has been very high, and many Roma interviewed on television by the weekly Roma television program Cigány Patrin Magazine say that for several weeks following the incident they were afraid to go to work or let their children go to school; guards were organized to watch the neighborhoods at night. An older woman interviewed on the program, who works for the city as a street-cleaner, reported that someone driving by in a car yelled out the window at her:

You rotten Gypsy whore - how dare you show your face on the street - I'll cut the flesh off your body and make soap out of you!

Kalocsa Roma have also protested the investigation of the incident, saying that key witnesses were not questioned, and that many Roma who were prepared to act as witnesses have now been placed under suspicion. Márton Ill told Human Rights Watch/Helsinki that:

Many Gypsies who were prepared to act as witnesses have now been placed under suspicion for one thing or another. The man who was attacked first was in the hospital for a week, but the police never questioned him. Everyone else went there - reporters, minority leaders, Gypsies, human rights organizations - but not the police. Now, isn't that strange that your key witness, who was the first victim, is not even questioned? Many witnesses were never allowed to make a statement.17

Local Roma leaders have made a formal request for Hungary to honor its national and international agreements to punish racial discrimination and racially motivated hate-crimes. However, the investigation has been closed, and no charges have been brought under Hungarian hate crimes statutes (see section below on Failure to Prosecute Violent Hate Crimes - Paragraph 156 of the Hungarian Criminal Code).

Government officials and police frequently deny the racial nature of attacks, or characterize attacks that do occur as isolated incidents. Consequently, the authorities have made few efforts to employ hate crimes statutes to prosecute assailants. However, many of the publicized attacks, especially those committed by skinhead groups, have in fact been only the most visible flashpoints in a pattern of harassment and violence. A series of conflicts between the Roma and non-Roma populations in the town of Gyöngyös preceded a particularly violent skinhead attack on a Roma home with Molotov cocktails which attracted national attention.

On February 11, 1993, three young Roma women were attacked and injured by a group of twenty-five to thirty youths carrying "brass knuckles, cables, pipes, gas spray and baseball bats."18 The eighteen young men who were accused had, according to the charges filed against them, set out with the intent of beating up "some Gypsies" (with no one targeted person in particular) and had come upon these three young women purely by chance. One prosecutor interviewed by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki characterized the incident as a cigánymentesítés, "a de-Gypsifying action," and human rights activist Imre Furmann noted: "They did not have any particular preconception about the people they wanted to beat up; the only condition was that they had to be Gypsies."19 All eighteen suspects were subsequently released and charged in September 1994 with hooliganism, a lesser charge that carries no overtones of the racial nature of the attack, and therefore themore serious penalties such a crime would have incurred under Hungary's hate crimes law20 were not levied.

On June 4, 1994, a young Roma was attacked near his home by a group of young men with shaven heads. When he fled inside, they threw stones through the windows and painted a Nazi swastika and the phrase "Gypsies, you are going to die!" on the side of the house. The county police captain reported that the police were not able to catch the attackers, and that:

Although witnesses reported that they saw young people who looked like skinheads on the streets of Gyöngyös that night, these accusations have not been substantiated by the police investigations.21

In July 1994, a group of twenty to thirty young men who had closely shaven heads and were wearing army boots, and other military gear, attacked a family home with baseball bats, gas-pistols, cables, steel pipes and broken bottles. Several Roma were injured. Here again, although early reports by the press indicated a skinhead attack, the police denied the presence of skinheads, and referred to "personal conflicts" within the town.

Finally, in November 1994, the growing tensions came to a head when in two separate incidents, two Roma families were the victims of organized Molotov cocktail attacks. The alleged attackers in both incidents were the same individuals - a group of teen-aged young men. In the more serious attack a house was surrounded by fifteen to twenty youths, a shutter was torn off and several Molotov cocktails were thrown in the window, starting a fire in the house. A two-year- old child sleeping in the room narrowly escaped injury.

After extinguishing the fire, G. Farkas, the man of the house, set out after the attackers. He apprehended two young men and was beating them with a belt when the police arrived. The two young men maintain that they were not present at the attack; Farkas asserts that a baseball cap he found next to his house was reclaimed by one of the young men at the police station, and that he himself was beaten by the police when filing his complaint.

Farkas has now been accused with "taking the law into his own hands" and is under investigation for beating the young men. The local police insist that the conflict was a "private" one and that there are no skinheads and no "ethnic conflict" in the city, despite the fact that several of the suspects admitted upon questioning that they were skinheads and that they had been planning a series of attacks against the Roma population. House investigations carried out against the suspects turned up numerous weapons and Nazi paraphernalia (swastikas, fascist literature), and the county police later admitted that the incident indeed involved youths who were, by their own admission, skinheads.

Despite the recommendation of the prosecutor that the suspects, because of the serious nature of the crime, would constitute a public danger and that they should therefore be held in custody, they were released. Aladár Horváth, member of the Roma Civil Rights Foundation (Roma Polgárjogi Alapítvány) and a former MP, asked for an official accounting of the events from the police. At the meeting that followed, the principal of the school that many of the accused youths attend and the mayor of Gyöngyös were both present. Horváth reports that the principal asked for the release of the youths, saying that he possessed the "pedagogical tools necessary to inflict a proper punishment" while the mayor said that "people are irritated by the fact that the police don't act decisively enough against the rich Gypsy families who are the principal criminals and tax-evaders in town."22 The subsequent trial of the accused youths was closed to the press by the National Police Headquarters.

A protest against anti-Roma violence organized in Gyöngyös after the attack attracted many spectators who voiced varying degrees of support for the attacks, suggesting the depth of anti-Roma sentiment among the general populace. Reporter Judit Sárközi questioned one group of youths present at the demonstration, who said:

If people who hate Gypsies are going to be called skinheads, then everyone in Gyöngyös is a skinhead, because we don't like Gypsies here.23

A flyer handed out around the city the day before the demonstration said:

The Gypsies are a noxious species of animal originating in India which spreads disease, and therefore they should be banished from the city.

Anna Csongor, a specialist on Roma education, was also present at the demonstration, and remarked in an interview with Human Rights Watch/Helsinki:

In Gyöngyös, for the first time, I was really afraid - the atmosphere created by the crowd and by the special forces police units surrounding the demonstrators was eerie, frightening. I felt that we must be afraid - that we have something to fear.24

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki believes the failure of the police to address the racial nature of attacks in Gyöngyös has only exacerbated tension, increasing the confidence of those expressing anti-Roma sentiment, and discouraging Roma from even reporting crimes against them. A source at the Heves county prosecutor's office commented on this tendency in an interview with Human Rights Watch/Helsinki:

As far as the events in Gyöngyös are concerned, it is not just the attacks themselves which give cause for concern, but the fact that there is a tangible tension in the town, and the attacks - the cycle of beatings and reprisals - are only the "high points" or consequences of that tension. In fact, a good many such attacks are never recorded by the police or even reported to them . . .[P]artly, the police make a conscious decision not to treat these "background conflicts" as crimes - they allow a degree of "settling the score" and so the game goes: attack, reprisal, counter-reprisal and so on. Molotov cocktails are only thrown at the end of a long chain of events.25

A similarly destructive skinhead attack took place in the spring of 1995 in Hatvan, when a group of youths leaving a pub one night decided to attack a Roma home. The youths used sledgehammers to demolish a house where they knew a Roma family lived. The family was not at home at the time of the attack, but because of the extent of the damage, they have been unable to occupy the house since the attack. During investigation of the crime, a core group of the accused admitted openly to investigators that they were skinheads and that they had attacked the house because they didn't like Gypsies. Others who also participated in the attack said they had just gone along for the fun after a night of drinking.26

Court officials, human rights activists, and journalists interviewed by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki have suggested that the recent activity in Gyöngyös and Hatvan, situated relatively close to each other sixty kilometers east of Budapest, may mark the transfer of the acknowledged `headquarters' of the skinhead movement from Eger, where it is been located since the 1980s, to other towns. Many commentators had viewed the decline in skinhead activity in Eger, which has been subjected to considerable national and international scrutiny, as proof of the declining influence of extremist elements. While it is undeniable that skinhead activity is less visible than it was in 1991, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki believes that the movement may in fact be reasserting itself in renewed attacks on Roma; several human rights monitoring organizations have noted an increase in the number of attacks on Roma and foreigners in the spring and summer of 1995.27

Police frequently fail to respond or to conduct a thorough investigation of attacks that are reported to them. In some instances, there are suggestions that policemen either took part in assaults or acquiesced in covering them up. Many Roma families interviewed by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki consequently feel that they are "beyond the law" - that the protections of the law do not apply tothem. In September 1993, Mrs. Gyula Illés and her family were attacked by a group of forty to fifty people in the small town of Bérhida:28

We were at home - in fact, we were cleaning the house that day, and all of the furniture was outside in the yard so we could clean the floors. Some men pulled up in a car, and came up to the door asking for Mr. Illés. When I asked them on what business, they became angry and one of them struck me. Then I saw some cars coming down the street toward our house - I could see that some of the young men were wearing bomber-jackets. Some of them were skinheads, some of them had long hair. We locked ourselves in the house. Soon the house was surrounded. One of them threw a brick through a window, which hit our little girl in the head. All of us were so scared - they were shouting and destroying our furniture (in the yard), our car. We didn't know what was going on - why they were attacking us - who they were.

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki also interviewed I., a neighbor of the Illés family, who witnessed the attack:

I was sitting on a bench in the yard when I saw a Mercedes pull up slowly - a man yelled to me "Where does the Illés family live?" I didn't know what they wanted, so I said "Right here, in the neighboring house." Then more cars came - at least thirty cars. The windows were rolled down, and I could see that the people inside were holding big sticks and bars. I ran into my house - but even before I could get inside I heard breaking, smashing sounds - they were attacking [my neighbor's] car, throwing bricks and stones at his house. There were between forty and fifty men. They were here for a good half hour, and I couldn't do anything. I was afraid to leave my house.

The police did not arrive for another half hour.

Some days later, the Illés family went to the police station to describe the crime and to participate in the identification of their assailants from a criminal lineup. Both Mrs. Illés and her daughter-in-law identified (separately) one man inthe lineup as one of the men who initiated the attack. Mrs. Illés told Human Rights Watch/Helsinki that:

The policemen laughed at this. They said "this man is a gentleman - a well-known man in Veszprém [the county capital]. How could he have been there?" Later we saw that man drinking coffee with the other policemen, and since then we have seen him a number of times at the police station - it turns out he is a young investigator on the police force.

During the course of the police investigation, the Illés family surrendered all physical evidence - weapons (a baseball bat found in their destroyed car), photographs of the damage and even the doctor's certification of their injuries. The local police have told them that the investigation has been turned over to the Veszprém county police headquarters and that probably the attack was the result of a case of mistaken identity. Two years later, the family has received no notification of progress made on the investigation and has little hope of receiving financial compensation for their destroyed property or of hearing that those guilty of carrying out the attack have been apprehended and punished. I. (the neighbor) complained:

They didn't even put these people on trial - they managed to cover everything up. If I were to give someone a slap, you can be sure that they would put me away - but not them.

In addition to police indifference and failure to adequately investigate serious racially-motivated crimes, police are frequently actively involved in the mistreatment of Roma and foreigners residing in Hungary. Beatings and other "mistreatment during official procedures, forced interrogation and unlawful imprisonment. . . take place every day [in Hungary]."29 Roma activist Ágnes Daróczi claims:

We have to confront the fact that the Hungarian police, far from being impartial, often actively collaborate against Roma in actions motivated by racial discrimination.30

In many cases, this violence is not reported or punished, as victims are either not aware of their rights or convinced that they have little chance of exercising them successfully in the face of entrenched hostility within the police department, a lack of legal mechanisms to pursue their complaints, and indifference to or even support of abuse of Roma rights within the community.

Although the special "Gypsy crime" units that functioned within the police force during the Communist era have been shut down, and the government has publicly repudiated the concept of a category called "Gypsy crime,"31 the belief that Roma constitute a "criminal element" within Hungarian society is common. "In police circles it is a common and dangerous generalization that `Gypsy' means criminal."32

Many policemen feel a lack of constraint as to the necessity of observing "correct" or "professional" behavior with Roma, perhaps because of their generally low social and economic position, their low level of education, their lack of power, and the low esteem in which they are held, an attitude at odds with some of the partial reforms initiated after 1989:

Some policemen just don't know that they can't tell a Gypsy: "Shut your mouth, you stinking Gypsy." - that they could say, for example, "Shut your mouth" in some situations, but that they should leave off the "you stinking Gypsy." They got used to the idea that they could do anything with impunity and now all of a sudden it turns out that they can't.33

So-called "chicken-stealing" crimes (petty crimes) are often handled extra-legally:

Let's say a Gypsy steals a chicken. It's much simpler for [the policeman] to just slap him around a bit - at his leisure - than to launch an investigation. That would take a half-year, maybe even a year or two. It's much too complicated, and over what is after all just a small matter. The police force simply doesn't have the capacity to deal with hundreds of such "chicken trials", and so they try to take care of such problems through "short cuts" - threats or beatings.34

The many policemen who do not support such methods, and who try to follow correct and neutral procedures may face peer and administrative opposition. The Illés family of Bérhida [see above] reported that one policeman attempted to protect the family in the immediate aftermath of a mob attack which apparently included off-duty police; he was subsequently transferred.

Two recent incidents illustrate the consequences of such police attitudes. In an interview conducted with TV2 Patrin Gypsy Magazine reporters and recorded on video, László Pánki from the village of Fajsz related the following story:

Between 10 and 11:00 I went out for cigarettes and to get some sweets for my kids. As I passed a telephone booth, the man inside told me to hang on a minute, because he wanted to talk to me. While I was waiting a white Ford pulled up and stopped, and two men got out. One of them was a policeman from Kalocsa. The other was also a policeman, from Fajsz - I know him. They were not in uniform. All of a sudden the Kalocsa policeman kicked me in the stomach, and I fell down. Then the other guy began to kick me, too - the first one warned him to kick me only in places where there wouldn't remain any trace. They started to ask me who stole some chickens. I had no idea what they were talking about, and I told them that. They said that only a Gypsy could have done it, and that, since I am a Gypsy, I must know about it. At one point I managed to break away, but they caught up with me and began to beat me even more, threatening to kill me and throw me in the Danube - far away so that no one would be able to find me.

Panki suffered numerous cuts and bruises, and has since moved out of his home in Fajsz, claiming that he had received threats from the local police about reporting the above incident. A non-Roma man was later apprehended for the chicken theft.

On November 12, 1994, investigators of the Heves county police and local policemen from Nagyfüged subjected six Roma to a forced interrogation and beatings in the course of an official investigation concerning a petty theft. The local doctor made a record of the injuries of the men, and reported that "each of them says unequivocally that he was beaten in the police station." One of the men reported that the investigator (in civilian dress):

. . . twisted my ear and told me to begin talking. [My friend] said "admit it - don't get yourself beaten up, we've already been beaten up - I can't even move from my seat, they've beaten me so badly." I was supposed to admit whatever they said, that I was in this store, in that store, too. Whatever theysaid, we had to say it. But I can't read or write - I didn't even know what I was signing. . . .

Another of the men reported similar treatment:

They called me into one of the rooms, and there four of them began to beat me. . .there was a bald man, an ensign, one with gloves and a bearded man with glasses. You couldn't say no to these policemen, only yes. And the bald man, quite frankly he is a Gypsy-hater, because he said slanderous things to me - he told me, for example, that they would bring me to a concentration camp, that my hands would be cut off if I had stolen, and other things like "you god-damned Gypsy son of a bitch."

A third man was threatened with a gun:

They put a pistol in my mouth and told me to admit [that I had been at the scene of the crime]. I told him that he could go ahead and shoot, but I still wouldn't admit that I was there. Then he took the pistol out of my mouth and wiped it on my coat.

According to the information of the lead prosecutor from the investigator's office, Dr. Tibor Vékony, the case against seven policeman has been transferred to the municipal court of Heves county to be tried for infliction of light injuries. As of fall 1995 there has still been no decision in the case.35

Aggressive police violence against Roma has on some occasions reached dramatic proportions, with large-scale raids being used to intimidate entire communities. Roma who have attempted to protest against such violence, either while it is occurring or in its aftermath, often find themselves accused of crimes.

On May 21, 1993, at least sixty policemen36 - among them members of the Budapest assault force - staged a large-scale raid on a Roma community in Örkény, southeast of Budapest. The events began when local police attempted to search a private home in connection with a suspected theft, and then called in massive reinforcements to put down the local residents' protest of the search. The reinforcement detachments beat members of the Roma community indiscriminately, including women and children, without regard to who had been involved in the initial house search:

Two policemen in civil dress came [to my house] and asked me to identify myself. I was giving them my papers when one twisted my arm behind my back and shoved me up against the police car. They shouted that they were investigators, and that I was being handcuffed in the course of an investigation. At this my wife ran out of the neighbor's house [to help me], but they slapped her. Her mouth was cut, some of her teeth were broken . . .[later] the special forces arrived, and without any discussion they began beating people with big sticks. All the while, the police were shouting that we will all be destroyed, because a great concentration camp is already being prepared for the Gypsies, where they will make soap out of us.37

Several Roma were hospitalized for injuries suffered in the attack including a woman who had a miscarriage and one elderly woman on a respirator who had her breathing tube torn out. One man claimed that the commanding officer called the special forces together after the action and asked them "Well, did you enjoy yourselves?" The mayor of Örkény, furthermore, reportedly congratulated the assembled police force on the action, saying "this is what the Gypsies can expect in the future as well."38

Proceedings were ordered against eight Roma in connection with the incident, and six were sentenced to prison in the first trial, a sentence confirmed at the trial on appeal. The regional investigating prosecutor's office dropped the charges brought against the police by local Roma, and no action of any kind has been taken against the police. NEKI [Nemzeti és Etnikai Kisebbségi JogvédÅ Iroda, Office for the Defense of National and Ethnic Minority Rights] has protested the decision of the appeals court, citing serious inconsistencies and gaps in the investigation against the police and plans to bring the case before the Supreme Court.39

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki has received numerous reports of arbitrary and repeated identification checks carried out on members of the Roma population. A. Kostics, the Hungarian wife of a Roma leader in Pécs, says "all you have to do is walk down the main street in Pécs to see it - Roma are stopped constantly to the point of being harassed - up and down the street, the only people being stopped for identification checks are Roma." János Kozák, a representative of the Roma minority self-government in the western town of Pápa and a vice-president of the National Gypsy Self-Government, reported in an interview with Human Rights Watch/Helsinki:

The police do not treat the Gypsies correctly - they humiliate them, ask them for their identifications repeatedly, and look for ways to fine them. I have a Hungarian friend who is dark, like a Gypsy. He was stopped by the police once [at a roadside identification checkpoint] and they asked him `Are you a Gypsy?' When he said no, they let him go. This is the way it always is - the Hungarian will get off with a warning, but Gypsies get fined. I think they want to get us off the road.40

There are often allegations of brutality during identification checks. The Hungarian Gypsy Democratic Alliance has publicly taken exception to the conduct of police during routine checks of identification in Piliscsaba. Attila Horváth, working in the Sanco pub, reported on an identification check that took place in the pub one evening:

Around 10 o'clock five policemen came in and, without a word of greeting, demanded our identification. I didn't have mine on me - it was out in my car - right in front of the entrance. They put me up against the wall and kicked me in the leg. I askedthem "What kind of an investigation is this?". . . at that they kicked me in the legs again. . . and one of them beat my head against the wall. They took me in handcuffs to the police station, and two hours later they let me go." According to the mayor of Piliscsaba, Péter Kasza, such "strict" police behavior is completely appropriate, because it is all in the interest of upright citizens.41

Some Roma have reported that random or arbitrary identification checks often serve as the pretext for their harassment; they claim that they are made to pay excessive fines for minor violations or for not having their papers in order. The tension generated by this practice has on several occasions spilled over into violent conflict involving the whole community.

Roma in the town of Kunszentmiklós, where an altercation between police and Roma occurred in April 1995, claim that the local police have subjected them to repeated and unwarranted identification checking; more than ten Roma were stripped of their licenses in the months preceding the incident, and some Roma maintain this has been part of a larger police campaign to get Roma off the road. One elderly woman commented "the police deal with nothing else besides harassing Gypsies."

On April 30, 1995, J. Rupa and L. Rupa (both Roma) were driving their car when they were stopped by two policemen for an identification check. The police found one tire to be in bad condition and ordered the men to remove the license plates from the car. According to one of the men, the police began to beat him, whereupon he fled and the police pursued him. A bystander, Géza Farkas, stepped in "because they had begun to beat J. Rupa" (the man who was fleeing). In the altercation that followed, both of the men who had originally been stopped escaped, while Farkas was handcuffed and brought into the police station.

Between fifty and sixty Roma gathered in front of the station to protest. The police, attempting to disperse the crowd, mistakenly identified a man driving a car as one of the original two men stopped and tried to apprehend him. The driver, Lajos Sarközi, attempted to flee in the car, slightly injuring a policeman in the process. The injured policeman and a colleague fired several shots at the car,which had three other women and two children inside. No one was hurt, but the driver was brought into the station and charged with assault on an official person. The Bács-Kiskun county police headquarters has ruled that the policemen acted within the bounds of their authority. Farkas and Sarközi have been charged with assault on an official. In response to the suggestion by a reporter that police in Kunszentmiklós came down hard on the Roma, police chief Mihály Rákosi asserted "We come down hard on criminals, because that's our job. We can't help it if there are more criminals among [the Roma] than among others."42

The incidents related above underscore one of the most serious deficiencies in the Hungarian system: there is no effective independent mechanism for investigations of police violence. If someone makes a complaint against the police, it is investigated by a network of regional investigating prosecutor's offices.43 However, according to attorney Imre Furmann:

. . . this is an investigation office in name only. It has no professional investigators, no trained employees, and no money to finance the investigations. Even in cases that involve the police, the initial investigation is carried out by the police. Against themselves! In a beating affecting an entire Roma community even the most basic investigatory activities are not carried out: for example, they fail to question the policemen involved. . .which is not surprising, since the police are not likely to collect evidence against themselves.44

According to a report of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee,

Investigating authorities usually find every twentieth report unfounded, but every third report filed against police officers for such suspected crimes is dismissed as unfounded. [But] victims are kept from reporting crimes [committed by police] not only due to the small chances of success. They also have to take into account - in case they file a report - the possibility of the police filing a report against them for force against a public official or for hindering police procedure - where the rate of effectiveness of investigations is 90 percent."45

Following the attack in Örkény, for example, one human rights activist noted that:

Gypsies who denounce the police don't appear as victims, but as suspects. . .One Gypsy told us that people hardly go in to give evidence, because either they are automatically treated as suspects, or the evidence is taken down in such a way that [Gypsies] feel it is turned against their relatives and friends, and not against the actions of the policemen.46

Complaints by Roma against an abusive or racist officer seldom bring any response from the police authorities. In addition to feeling that official channels for complaint are effectively closed off to them, many Roma report that the police attempt to intimidate them into silence when an incident has occurred.

On May 18, 1995, S.C., a Roma teenager was walking through Republic Square in Budapest when he was attacked by dogs - Dobermans and a German shepherd - loosed on him by an off-duty policeman from that district and two of his friends who also were walking in the square. The boy was bitten on his leg and hand, and suffered a concussion from a blow to the head with a metal leash.

The policeman visited the boy's family that evening in uniform, and "advised" them not to report the incident or to obtain an official medical report. The family refused. Later that night, the policeman returned with some of his "friends" - all of them skinheads - broke into the apartment, and threatened the family with sticks, steel rods, bats, and other weapons. The family, and friends of theirs who were visiting, were able to beat back the attack. A complaint has been filed by the family against the policeman, who is still on the job.47

Public scrutiny of police behavior is a relatively recent development in post-communist Hungarian society, and even now "the public is only informed by chance, and only in conspicuous cases. Guilty police officers are very rarely condemned, and the majority of the officers suspected of such crimes remain on duty."48 Police accountability is still a "paper concept," especially in rural areas and among the poorer and less educated communities in which Roma are over-represented. As a consequence of this:

Many times. . . you can sense that the most important goal [of the police] is to "hush up" the incident instead of finding out the truth about what really happened. They don't want to admit that they or one of their colleagues may have made a mistake - even a very serious mistake.49

Hungarian human rights organizations consider the lack of decisive government action against allegations of police violence to be particularly troubling. It is important to note that police violence is not directed solely against Roma: foreigners have frequently suffered abuses, and there have been attacks on ethnic Hungarians. Human Rights Watch/Helsinki therefore believes that the violence Roma suffer is in part the result of a "vigilante" police force that is not subject to any effective outside controls.

Nevertheless, there is an additional element of aggressive racism in the actions of the police, and in the tolerance shown for such behavior by the public so long as it has been directed against Roma. As one human rights activist wrote in an article in May 1995:

Hungarians don't realize that lawlessness and humiliating treatment can touch them too, at any time. Because in a society where [the police] can flout the law without punishment, no one can feel secure.

When, during one week in July 1995, a Hungarian man from Marcali in southwest Hungary was beaten severely by police and had to be hospitalized for his injuries, and in Pásztó, north of Budapest, a Hungarian man was beaten so badlyduring a police interrogation that he died the same day from internal injuries, the issue of police violence finally generated public outcry and major media coverage. However, previous attacks on Roma had never generated a similar reaction. With significant exceptions, most of the press has failed to give comparable attention to the pervasive nature of police abuse against Roma, a fact which, as one human rights activist concedes, the police themselves recognize:

The police have a very well-developed sense of social hierarchy. They know that no one will care if they beat Roma. It is beyond a doubt that Roma are the main target of police brutality.50

A rise in the crime rate and a scarcity of policemen in Hungary has spurred the formation in many towns of polgárÅrség (citizens' guard organizations). Officially, these are private social organizations, registered with the local court like any other organization. There is no law defining their responsibilities and actions; they establish their own working rules and agreements of cooperation with the local authorities separately from town to town. Their principal function is to cooperate with the local police in a strictly advisory or informative capacity: if they witness a crime or any suspicious behavior they must report it to the police.

Members of citizens' guard organizations do not have any special rights or powers beyond those of an ordinary citizen. They are not allowed to carry weapons, to carry out arrests, or to inflict punishment. The national organization of citizens' guards claims that crime rates have gone down in towns where citizens' guards operate. However, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki has received reports of citizens' guards attacking Roma families in their homes in an effort to exercise "preemptive justice" against perceived criminal elements in the Roma community.

In March 1995, the citizens in the village of Pápateszér (1,500 inhabitants) elected to form a citizens' guard in order to respond to a perceived rise in petty street crime. In Pápateszér, the citizens' guard sends out two teams of three persons every night, patrolling the streets by car or on foot and carrying powerful flashlights and walkie-talkies. Human Rights Watch/Helsinki conducted an interview with the Birkas family, which was attacked by members of the Pápateszér citizens' guard (all Hungarians) on the night of April 15, 1995, following an argument between the son and a local Hungarian youth that afternoon:

There were nine of us at home that Saturday night - we had a few guests over. Suddenly the lights went out, and five men came into the house asking for our son, Kopi. I told them I didn't know where he was - but then I got scared because the men were carrying gas pistols and baseball bats - I put my two little girls out the back window and ran out of the house. ThenI saw that there were at least fifty people outside. Of course I recognized them - they were all members of the citizens' guard - the mayor was there, members of the local council, a local teacher, the vice-president of the guard, and many others. Somebody yelled "if you come out you'll be killed!"51

Meanwhile, the five men (all members of the citizens' guard known to the family) had shot off the gas pistol and beaten several of the people inside with baseball bats. However, after it became clear that the son was not at home, the men left the house and the crowd followed them down the street. Kopi was beaten severely later that night as he came out of a nightclub in a neighboring village.

When Human Rights Watch/Helsinki questioned the police captain who had just completed the investigation of the case, he insisted that the incident had had nothing to do with the citizens' guard, (although he admitted that "several" of the nine suspects are members of the citizens' guard), but was a "reaction to a personal disagreement carried out by private individuals." When asked why the mayor would have been there at the scene and whether he had been questioned, the police chief responded "the mayor was not questioned as a suspect because that would not be in the public interest."52 János Kozák, a local Roma leader, says:

It is scandalous that he has refused to question the mayor, who, according to more than ten witnesses, was a participant in the terrorization of an entire family. This action only strengthens the conception that many people share, that where Gypsies are concerned, they will not be held accountable for their actions.

In Ózd, a former steel-producing center in the impoverished north which has an unemployment rate that exceeds 80 percent for the Roma population, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki heard in several separate interviews with Roma residents that the citizens' guard routinely beats Roma scavenging wood for heating from the forest next to the town or illegally collecting scrap metal from the grounds of the closed steel mill:

A few members of the citizens' guard came up to us - they were armed with rubber sticks and pistols - and asked us what we were doing there [in the woods]. I said "We're looking for mushrooms - see - here's a mushroom, there's a mushroom - that's what we're doing." Well, for saying that they dragged us over to their car and began beating us. My jaw was broken, and my son, who is only sixteen years old, was struck hard three or four times in the chest. These guys were members of the citizens' guard! - But when I went into the police station with my story they said we couldn't prove anything . . . that there wouldn't be any investigation. I didn't want to be stubborn - I said "OK, nobody bothered me" and that was the end of it.

Another man reported:

They brought me in and beat me with an iron rod, because I had been collecting these lousy scraps of metal that I'm reduced to scavenging for. This scrap metal is a chance for very poor families to make some money. They shouldn't prohibit this, they should allow it, so there would be some means of survival for these people - what else can we do? We don't have anything to eat.

Yet another resident commented that:

The citizens' guard is not any different from the police - they go out in patrols in three shifts covering the whole day, and they patrol the old factory area and the areas surrounding the city with a car. If they find someone they beat him up.53

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki also collected reports of citizens' guards aggressively exceeding their mandate in the town of Kálóz in western Hungary. On April 6, 1995, about forty armed members of the local citizens' guard in Kálóz approached the house of a local Roma representative, asking that he accompanythem to the Roma section of town to "create some order." When the representative said he wouldn't go, they attacked him, and then proceeded to the Roma area in a bus. In the fighting which followed, both Hungarians and Roma were injured. The police arrested four Roma - including a man who was not present at the time of the fight - at the direction of the citizens' guard. The police took these four men into the station, where they were beaten. One man's hand was broken, and the police also threatened the man's son. No charges have been brought against any of the citizens' guard members or the police, although an investigation of the incident has been initiated by the prosecutor's office.54

Skinhead attacks on Roma and foreigners reached a peak in 1991-92, when, according to MEJOK, "there were several skinhead attacks per week, whereas now [in 1995] there are only several skinhead attacks per month."55 Most commentators agree that the number of skinhead attacks has in fact declined, and that the skinhead movement has largely failed to gain a substantial foothold in Hungary, beyond a very marginal fringe; efforts by far right politicians such as István Csurka to make gains at the polls in the 1994 parliamentary elections failed completely, and vocal supporters of skinheads lost virtually all representation in the parliament. The skinhead movement is seen by the majority of Hungarians as a radical, unwelcome element in their communities.

However, several experts interviewed by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki suggest that although the number of physical attacks has decreased, the skinhead movement, far from disappearing, has instead made moves to consolidate its support in its own local, regional and national organizations.56 While these groups themselves remain on the periphery of Hungarian politics, skinheads have also received substantial financial and organizational support from established Hungarian parties of the political mainstream. Moreover, while the general public does not support skinheads or the skinhead movement as such, many Hungariansidentify with anti-Roma discrimination and demonstrate a tacit tolerance of violence committed against Roma by fringe groups.

Although skinheads seeking to establish themselves politically soon realized that it would be expedient to shed an overtly racist image, they have nonetheless successfully attracted a number of young adherents and a much larger number of sympathizers.

The group which was leading the attacks. . .in 1991-92, almost without exception, has "settled down." They've gotten married, found jobs, begun to raise families, and now they've taken a step back from all the violence - the fighting in the streets. They've turned that over to "sympathizers" now much younger than they - the "new generation." But I want to add that they are still around, in the background. Even if they deny it, they provide the spiritual foundation and leadership for the younger ones. For example, after the Molotov cocktail attack in Gyöngyös, a group of skinheads from Eger went to Gyöngyös to demonstrate their support [for the attack], and precisely this "old guard" led the demonstration.57

According to a study conducted by the Ministry of Welfare in 1994, approximately 40,000 youths between the ages of fourteen and seventeen identify with the skinhead ideology in its entirety (although they do not necessarily take active part in the movement); 160,000 identify "to some extent" with skinheads. Police estimates also show that there are roughly 4,000 youths who, on the basis of some past contact with the police, can be considered skinheads.58 Moreover, many youths who would not identify themselves as skinheads have participated in anti-Roma attacks; an apparent decline in the number of skinheads does not necessarily indicate a decline in anti-Roma sentiment:

I don't care if you call them "skinheads" or "young men with closely shaven heads" or "long-haired nationalists" or what have you - I'm more interested in what they are saying, thinking, and doing. If they are attacking and beating people because of their ethnic background or the color of their skin; if they are shouting racist slogans; if they propound a racist ideology, they are a problem.59

Some very small political parties of the radical right have openly welcomed skinheads into their ranks. Izabella Király's Hungarian Interest Party (Magyar Érdek Pártja) gave high-level positions within the party to skinheads convicted of crimes; however, results at the polls show that this party was not taken seriously by the Hungarian population as a whole and was soundly defeated in the 1994 elections. It would seem that the Hungarian electorate is not inclined to support overtly racist parties or groups that openly embrace the skinhead movement.

However, the skinhead movement has received support from more mainstream political parties as well. Human Rights Watch/Helsinki has found that there has been a consistent pattern of contact and cooperation between the Independent Smallholders Party and various skinhead organizations. The Smallholders Party is a recognized, legitimate actor within Hungary's political process - the Smallholders were a member of Hungary's first post-communist coalition government and received 11 percent of the vote in the 1994 elections - and its leader, József Torgyán, is one of Hungary's most popular political figures. Support for skinhead organizations from one of Hungary's major political parties extends legitimacy and tacit approval to the overtly anti-Roma position of these organizations and their members.

Local and national leaders and branches within the Smallholders Party have provided various skinhead organizations with office space, technical support, administrative support, and financial support as well, although this is denied by Smallholder representatives. An observer of the skinhead movement in Eger comments:

The young men giving speeches in the name of the Smallholders, from the Smallholders' Eger office, were the same young men who lead the Eger skinhead movement. It's impossible to say that there is no connection between the two. They [Smallholders] still deny it - but it is the truth, and it's all there in black and white - in newspapers, journalists' photographs, and city records.60

Known skinhead leaders from various parts of the country have, or have had, open connections to the Smallholders. One skinhead leader has stated that Hungarian skinheads chose to align themselves with the Smallholders because they felt that "the Smallholder mentality is the closest to our own."61 The president of the Eger "National Youth" (Nemzeti Ifják) organization, Péter Fazekas, who, along with ten other members of the "National Youth," has been accused of a racist attack on Roma, had been entrusted with the following responsibilities in a letter signed by József Torgyán, president of the Smallholders:

The leadership of the [Smallholders] entrusts Péter Fazekas with organization and recruitment for the party, as well as the work of organizing the "youth" and "preservation of national tradition" sections. . .throughout the country.62

Vice-president of the Veszprém county Smallholders, Kornél Pintér, has a history of involvement with skinhead organizations. In June 1992 he was named leader of the Smallholders National Youth Association. He was forced to resign this position on October 29, 1992, amidst the scandal following his appearance at a national skinhead assembly in Budapest on October 23 (the anniversary of the1956 Hungarian revolution and a national holiday since 1990) at which he read the "Skinheads' twenty point program."63

One of the most notable instances in which continuing Smallholders' support for skinhead youths was exposed occurred on January 6, 1995,64 when two young men broke into a synagogue in Debrecen on January 6 and set the tabernacle on fire, burning the torah inside. These two young men were the nineteen-year-old president of "The Alliance of Comrades-in-Arms of the Eastern Front" (Keleti Arcvonal Bajtársi Szövetség - henceforth KABS) and another sixteen-year-old member of that organization. In police custody, the teenagers admitted that the attack had been motivated by anti-Semitism.

The name of this organization is identical to that of an ultra-nationalistic, fascist organization that operated in Hungary during the second world war, and the group incorporated traditional ultra-nationalist symbols into the coat of arms they adopted as their registered emblem. The official objectives of the organization were stated to be the "preservation of tradition" and "the creation of a pure and strong Hungary - absent from free-riders and traitors." When the incident happened, the young president of the organization was already under investigation for breaking in the windows of several Roma homes. Despite a national ban on the incorporation of organizations using fascist names or symbols, KABS had been legally registered by the Hajdú-Bihar county court just two days before the attack, listing the city Smallholders' headquarters as its base.

Debrecen police assert that "the young vandals weren't really aware that they were committing the [attack on the synagogue] on the anniversary of the birthday of Ferenc Szálasi." Other members of KABS say that their friends were "drunk, and didn't know what they were doing. . .they probably didn't even know they were in a synagogue. If there had been another building there, they would have gone into that one."65

The Smallholders county director, Mihály Kapronczy, who first met these young men at the Smallholders' national headquarters in Budapest, had offered them the use of Smallholders space in Debrecen for their "club meetings." In his own defense, Kapronczy said that the boys "were nicer then [when I met them in Budapest]."66 Kapronczy has been dismissed from the Smallholders by Torgyán, but continues to hold a seat as an independent MP.

József Torgyán has denied in his speeches and press conferences any connection with anti-Semitism, anti-Roma activity, and the far right, but a reporter from a large national paper told Human Rights Watch/Helsinki:

Even if [Torgyán] says that when skinhead bands were given permission to practice and perform in Smallholders national headquarters in Budapest, he didn't know about it, and that he kicked them out when he found out; even if he begs the pardon of those who have been offended by skinheads associated with Smallholders; even if he publicly distances himself from them, he continues to use skinheads and skinhead groups to further his own purposes. With my own eyes I saw some skinheads and neo-Nazis campaigning for him [before the national elections] in Borsod county - the skinheads were distributing Smallholders' pamphlets from a charter bus; later one of the papers carried a photo of Torgyán shaking hands with one of these young men.67

According to a recent survey conducted by the Szonda Ipsos polling organization, the Smallholders are now the most popular political party in Hungary,having pulled ahead of the Socialist party, the leading party in the present government.68

Thus, significant numbers of Hungarians support a political party which, although it has itself never made any racist declarations or incorporated any racist policies into its platform, has nonetheless given more or less open sympathy and support to extremist, anti-Roma and anti-foreigner nationalist groups. Although most Hungarians distance themselves from openly racist or skinhead organizations, many show sympathy for the anti-Roma sentiments that skinheads advocate and act upon:

There is a lot of sympathy [for the skinheads], because Gypsies live the way they want, and in all likelihood they'll never assimilate. . .It's not certain that everyone will take to the streets with [this feeling], but you certainly can't say that the average person is particularly tolerant.69

Despite the common perception in the press and public opinion that violence directed against Roma is only committed by a relatively small fringe of extremist skinheads, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki believes that in fact much of the violence is committed by persons having no connection to the skinhead movement. Not all attacks are committed by teenagers or young men. On June 16, 1994, Dr. Khaled Hazimot, a Syrian doctor living in Hungary, was attacked by eighty-year-old Gyula Kocsis as he stood in a public telephone booth near the Astoria metro station in Budapest. Dr. Hazimot narrowly escaped injury only by grabbing the blade of the knife of his attacker. Kocsis later explained that he had mistakenly knifed the Syrian: "I thought I was knifing a Gypsy."70

Individual citizens, members of citizens' guards, and policemen account for many of the attacks directed against Roma [see sections above on violence]. While the great majority of Hungary's citizens do not take part in such attacks orcondone them, many do sanction and tacitly support a level of intolerance and discrimination that allows such attacks to continue.

Even the other parties that do not have any meaningful links with skinhead organizations recognize that the general public is sensitive to policies that might be seen as too favorable to Roma. One former MP for the Free Democrats (Szabad Demokraták Szövetsége or SzDSz), a liberal party generally viewed as most closely conforming to Western political standards and now in coalition with the Socialists, told Human Rights Watch/Helsinki that MPs actively avoided being seen as `favoring' Roma in their votes. He cited the recent debate over restricting the subsidy to families with children, part of a cost-cutting austerity package: an early proposal suggested that the subsidy only be given to families with four or more children, but leaders from several of the parties rejected that level, saying that it would be interpreted as a government subsidy to Roma, whose birth rates are higher than those of ethnic Hungarians.71

Hungary has a law on ethnic and racial hate crimes. Paragraph 156 of Hungary's Criminal Code (Büntetési Törvénykönyv, or BTK) states that:

[a] person causing grievous bodily or spiritual harm to another for belonging to a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group commits a criminal offense punishable by between two and eight years of incarceration.73

Hungary therefore has instituted a law that explicitly punishes assailants who express a racial motivation for their crimes, quite apart from any other law governing assault. However, while BTK 156 remains on the books, it was declared inoperable in November 1993. Hungarian courts during both the communist period and the post-1989 period have refused to enforce BTK 156 and have effectively invalidated any provisions under which ethnic hate crimes might be acknowledged and prosecuted. Many individuals who have committed assaults on Roma are only charged with lesser crimes, such as hooliganism, which deny the explicitly racist nature of their attacks.74 In March 1996, new provisions of the criminal code were passed, which again recriminalize hate crimes as such; while too little time has passed to determine if this new law will provide effective protections, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki views the adoption of these new provisions as a positivestep in reversing the neglect and denial which has characterized the legal system's reponse to hate crimes.

BTK 156 was drafted based on language used in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, but specifically focuses on acts committed by individuals. Although it has been Hungarian law since 1961, it was never used during the communist period. As one prosecutor explained, the communist authorities dealt with the infrequent incidents involving ethnic or racial motivations under different "political crimes" statutes:

Before the change of government, crimes were not classified under 156 - those things just didn't happen. Maybe they did, but it wasn't as intense, as public, or as sharply defined. If someone attacked another person, or insulted someone, because he was Roma, or Jewish. . .right away they punished that person for agitation and whitewashed the matter. . .When Roma were beaten in Budapest at the end of the 1950s, they didn't use BTK 156; instead, it was [classified as] a political crime.75

During the 1980s, however, open expression of racist sentiments - especially anti-Roma sentiments - became increasingly common, and concurrently incidents of violence against non-Hungarians by skinheads increased in frequency.

In 1986, the Hungarian Supreme Court, acting on the instructions of the Communist Party leadership, declared Paragraph 156 to be invalid. Budapest's present Chief Prosecutor Endre Bócz described this decision as an attempt to deny the existence of racial or ethnic violence in Hungary by ensuring that no charges could be brought on the grounds that an attack was motivated by ethnic hatred. Instead, explained Bócz, assailants were charged with hooliganism, assault and battery or agitation.76

Following the change of government in 1989, and in light of the political nature of the previous court's decision, new attempts were made to use BTK 156; most visibly, at a large trial referred to as the "Great Skinhead Trial," prosecutors attempted to indict a large number of skinheads under BTK 156. The hate crimes charges were eventually reduced to lesser charges77 by the Capital City Court. Only a few of the defendants were given prison terms, albeit for short periods.78 One prosecutor describes his experiences during this period in a trial involving alleged skinhead attacks on Roma in northeastern Hungary:

I had a case of this kind. I brought ten to twelve youths before the court, intending to hold them in preliminary custody under 156. They had gone to the Eger bus station and beaten Olah Gypsies - Gypsy musicians. It was obvious what their intentions were: . . .[they told them to] "go back to India." They hated Gypsies; it was quite clear. We initiated proceedings under 156. The court didn't have them put in detention; the case was sent up to national police (Országos rendÅrfÅkapitányság, or ORFK), who played with it at the national headquarters for a good long while before they sent it back to us as "hooliganism" - and that was it. Because 156 investigations belong to a special investigative authority. . .these cases have to be sent to Budapest. They didn't jail them, ultimately the county court punished two [of them] - and these because they had prior convictions on their records.79

In 1993, following this and other attempts by some prosecutors to bring charges against skinheads under the hate crimes law, the new Supreme Court again declared BTK 156 inoperable.80 Ostensibly, the court invalidated 156 because it had been based on the text of the Genocide Convention, which the court interpreted as regulating only the activity of states, not individuals. A prosecutor in Heves county explains the court's rationale:

When [a number of attacks] occurred after 1989. . .this is where BTK 156 could have been used. But the Supreme Court said. . .that it wasn't applicable to these cases. . .because originally the form in international law only recognized genocide.

Hungary's law provides specific penalties for individuals who commit racially motivated crimes; nevertheless, the court determined that, as the Convention on Genocide which provides the framework for the language of BTK 156 refers to the actions of states, the latter law must also apply only to states and only in the same circumstances. Many human rights activists have challenged this interpretation:

The fact that they don't apply 156 is deceitful. If we look at certain incidents, and at the motivations behind them, then we simply have to admit that, yes, these incidents were motivated by racism, and saying that the racism described in 156 is somehow a different type of racism is ridiculous.81

In fact, the manner in which BTK 156 became law suggests that it was explicitly not intended to duplicate the Convention, as Dr. László Temesi of the chief prosecutor's office explained in Judit Sárközi's recent booklet Kopaszok (Skinheads):

It is well known that the Genocide Convention. . .provides the background for BTK 15582 and 156. However, when the Hungarian legislature created these two paragraphs, it split up the section of the Convention concerning acts of genocide. The Convention recognizes as acts of genocide serious physical or mental injuries, (which are included in paragraph 156). . .[but] created an independent legal category out of them, so that extraordinary or genocidal intent (such as is found in paragraph 155) would not be required. Instead, a special motive based on national origin or membership in a [protected] group is required in order for the action to fall under the category.83

In an interview with Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, Budapest Chief Prosecutor Bócz stressed his belief that this second invalidation of the statute in 1993 was not politically motivated, but reflected a technically deficient reading of the law by the justices. However, in an article examining BTK 156, Bócz identifies elements of the court's decision that suggest an unwillingness to acknowledge the racially based nature of the attacks, noting that "the court determined that the perpetrators had not endangered humanity and peace, but rather the physical well-being of individuals."84 Bócz also quotes a passage from the Supreme Court's decision which seems to voice sympathy for the motivations of the assailants:

The accused - who at the time of the crime were mostly fifteen and sixteen years of age - were not at all clear about the dangers to society that their actions constituted; in fact, as many of them expressed, they imagined that they were helping to solve the real problems of society.85

Others interviewed by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki suggested that in fact the 1993 invalidation, like the earlier one, was also politically motivated, and reflects a continuing desire on the part of the government to deny the existence of ethnically based violence against Roma and foreigners:

Now, clearly it wouldn't put us in a good light if it came out that in Hungary people will burn Torah scrolls or beat you on the street just because you are black, or Arab, or Roma, or that foreign students are leaving the country because there are people here who will beat them to death. These kinds of facts don't really put the country in a good light - but unfortunately that's how it is.86

Since the Supreme Court rejected the use of BTK 156 in the 1993 "skinhead trials" and declared the statute inoperable, prosecutors have been unable to bring any charges against those who commit violent crimes against Roma or foreigners that focus on the ethnic motives for the attack; only the general statutes governing assault have been employed. These other statutes are sometimes modified by a ruling that the assault was carried out "with malicious intent," a standard that allows for an increased sentence, but which still does not acknowledge the specifically racist intent of the assault.87 One official questions why this "malicious intent" standard is invoked in lieu of the hate crimes statutes:

If this malicious intent happens to involve skin color, or membership in a particular group; if someone is beaten to death solely because he is a Gypsy - that crime can be interpreted under 156 without any further debate. Causing such "physicaland mental harm" that someone dies - well, that can easily be interpreted under BTK 156.88

Bócz believes that there is still a possibility to employ BTK 156 under the Supreme Court's ruling, but identifies that possibility as very narrow and technical, and notes that to date no cases have arisen that would meet the very strict technical standard.89

Although there have been numerous calls for reconsideration of the decision or for reform of the statute from human rights groups and voices within the political and legal community, neither the courts nor the Parliament proposed any change in the statute or in its implementation; the only proposals came from the office of President Árpád Göncz, and these ultimately were not acted upon until March 1996 [see below]. To journalist Judit Sárközi, this inaction casts doubt on the intention of the courts and government:

Now this is the question: if it really isn't possible to apply [156], because it isn't [active] in the BTK, then why hasn't the law been modified during the past five or six years [since the change of government]? Why haven't they modified it so that it could be applied?. . . No one can answer that.90

In a more recent development, JenÅ Kaltenbach, the ombudsman for minority affairs (a newly created post), noted in an interview with Human Rights Watch/Helsinki that, in part due to President Göncz's urging, there will be a review of BTK 156: "there were problems with the original language [of 156], and that is why it returned to the Justice Ministry, which reviewed and corrected it; it now will go before the parliament again. . .in the near future."91

It is important to note that those who commit violent hate crimes in Hungary are generally punished, although under different statutes. As Sándor Nyíri, Assistant State Secretary at the Interior Ministry, noted to Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, "the absence of 156 does not mean that any crime is going unpunished." Indeed, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki has not uncovered any substantial evidence to suggest that the courts are failing to try and convict individuals who commit violent crimes against Roma, Jews, foreigners, or other non-Hungarians; rather, the courts convict such individuals, but for other, generally lesser, crimes.92

Nonetheless, numerous incidents that have received broad publicity within the country - such as the incidents at Kalocsa and Gyöngyös [see section on Violence and Police Response] - as well as many smaller incidents in Eger, Pápateszér, and other cities appear to have an overtly racial element which the courts and police investigators have failed to acknowledge. Independent human rights monitoring groups and Roma organizations have in these instances presented evidence to the police investigative units of the racial nature of these attacks and have called for investigations to proceed under BTK 156; in none of these cases, however, have any charges been brought under the hate crimes legislation.

Many commentators speculate that the courts' inaction has encouraged extremist elements to believe they may attack Roma with relative impunity. As television anchor Ágnes Daróczi noted in an interview with the weekly Magyar Narancs:

The fact is that various racist groups have the opportunity to organize; they are like a hand raised to strike that no one moves against in time, or with any determination. When people wink and look the other way, the opportunity for these groups to continue to organize is strengthened. . .Yet there are certain lawful provisions, for example the BTK 156, which Hungarian courts do not apply. Even when two young men killed a Gypsyin Salgótarján93 they didn't mention racial discrimination as a cause.94

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki believes that the Hungarian courts' refusal to use BTK 156, which is existing Hungarian law, is troubling evidence that the courts and government do not wish to acknowledge the existence of ethnic tensions in the country, while maintaining to the international community that racist attacks are not tolerated. The message that the Hungarian courts and government send to the county's minorities by refusing to use the appropriate statutes to punish those who commit hate crimes is that such crimes and the motives behind them do not matter. This seems, in fact, to be the attitude of government officials interviewed by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki; Assistant State Secretary Sándor Nyíri of the Interior Ministry dismissed the racial component of violence against Roma by characterizing Roma-Hungarian conflict as "barroom brawls," adding that the use of ethnic slurs in such situations is insignificant and generally forgotten about the next day. Not all public officials take this view, however; as prosecutor Nándor Horváth explained in an interview published in Kopaszok (Skinheads):

In these cases it is not necessarily the most important thing that someone is beaten on the streets, but rather, the reason why he is beaten. When the courts declare a symbolic equality between simple hooliganism in a bar and skinheads' beating Gypsies, they are making an enormous mistake. There is a qualitative difference between beating on a drinking buddy when you yourself are drunk, and harming another person because his skin is a different color or because he belongs to a different religion. If the judiciary cannot see this, then we may all become the victims of very serious errors.95

The Hungarian government has recently taken some important steps to respond to this gap in the legal code and in enforcement. In 1994, President Árpád Göncz sent the Parliament a series of legislative recommendations on minority issues [see Introduction], which included proposals for a new law on hate speech and incitement. These proposals, which were intitially opposed by most of the political parties, were heavily modified before being adopted in March 1996 following sharp debate in Parliament. The new law replaces the text of BTK 155 and 156 with an accurate translation of the actual text of the Convention on Genocide;96 moreover, it separately provides criminal penalties of up to five years' imprisonment for violent attacks motivated by ethnic hatred, and three years' imprisonment for inciting hatred against national, ethnic, religious or social groups.97 The new provisions do not become effective until May 1996.98

The new incitement law, BTK 269, which criminalizes not only hate speech resulting in violence, but also any hate speech directed at ethnic or religious minorities,99 is seen by some observers as being too broad, and as compromisingfree speech rights in the name of protecting minorities.100 The very broadness of the law, which brings into question the ability of the criminal justice system to implement the law effectively, suggests that the law may have more symbolic and public relations value that substantive impact when it becomes effective.101

"Educate them? We ought to shoot them." - Hungarian man from Nagykanizsa, giving his opinion on plans to open a private high school for Roma students.

Lack of access to education continues to be one the greatest barriers separating Roma from the larger Hungarian society. Almost no Roma complete high school or university; more than half effectively drop out of the school system before completing eighth grade. Throughout the country, Roma leaders and parents interviewed by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki cited improvement in the educational possibilities for Roma youth as one of their most pressing concerns.

Where Roma do attend school, they do not receive the same educational opportunities as Hungarians. Roma children are frequently isolated in segregated classes; in the larger cities, schools are increasingly divided into "Gypsified" and "Gypsy-free schools", and the system of "remedial" schools is used as a means of warehousing Roma students.

Roma have historically been excluded from the parallel system of schools designed to teach minority children in their own language and culture; the post-communist governments have made only marginal efforts to improve this situation. Resistance to cultural education for Roma is very strong within the mainstream society, though there is broad acceptance of cultural education for Hungary's other minorities.

Prior to the second world war, Roma did not attend school in any significant numbers, and their schooling rates remained very low through the first decades of communist rule. Roma attendance and graduation rates for primary school improved markedly through the 1970s and 1980s, as the government completed programs aimed at bringing Roma into the main workforce. However, very few went on to academic high schools or received more than a rudimentary education.

Under the communist system, Roma were excluded from the government program that provided limited language and cultural education for other minorities. All so-called "national minorities" had the right to be educated in their motherlanguage and culture; while this right was never fully realized in practice, most of the minorities did have grade schools and high schools that taught mostly or partly in the native language. The Roma, as an "ethnic minority," did not have the right to their own educational facilities. While a few grade schools for Roma were opened, they were designed as experiments in remedial education, rather than as ethnic educational facilities such as those established for the other minorities.

More widespread were separate Roma class forms, which were legalized for a period in the 1970s but then outlawed again. These separate forms did not actually teach Roma language or culture however, again being seen as a form of remedial education. Roma language and culture were not taught, either to Roma or to Hungarians, in the pre-1989 educational system.

Formal educational possibilities for Roma changed dramatically following 1989, although educational practice has changed little. Recent laws have accorded Roma the same status before the law as other minorities, including the right to educational facilities that teach the minority language and culture.

However, the level of education among Roma in Hungary continues to be extremely low. As economist Gábor Kertesi notes, "[t]he participation of young Roma in higher education has always been marginal. In recent years, however, it has shrunk to the point of near invisibility." Despite a rise in the number of Roma children who finish primary school and a subsequent rise in the literacy rate (today between 60 to 75 percent of Roma children finish grade school), it is still extremely rare for these children to advance beyond this level. Although nearly half of all Hungarian children continue their studies beyond the eighth grade at a secondary school, only 3 percent of all Roma children are admitted to secondary school, and of these a mere .1 percent go on to university.102

Roma children experience endemic discrimination at every level of the school system. Most Roma children are already at a disadvantage when they enter school because of poverty, parents' lack of education, and direct prejudice. Roma parents interviewed by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki reported that their children were treated differently from others in school. József Bogdán of Kölked, where more then 50 percent of the primary school population is Roma, remarked:

Gypsy children enter school with a completely different background. They know different "rules." But when they don't behave the same way as Hungarian children, when they don't eat correctly or even speak correctly . . .the teacher doesn't understand - she just thinks they are stupid. I have had to teach my daughter to expect to work twice as hard to receive the same grade as her Hungarian classmates.103

Most teachers do not expect Roma students to perform well, and view Roma children and good students as mutually exclusive categories. One primary school teacher interviewed by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki in the town of N. described a pair of twins, two of her best students:

Although they are half-Gypsy, their skin is very light and they are so well-behaved and clever that you would almost think they were Hungarians.104

This kind of discrimination continues for those few Roma who do go on to high school or even university. ErnÅ Kala described the reaction of the examining board when he applied for university:

When I went to sit for the university examinations, I was the only Gypsy student there. When I entered the examinations room, the first thing they asked me was, "Excuse me, are you looking for someone?" They almost fainted when they realized I was there for an examination.105

The difficulties faced by Roma children are rendered more intractable by the segregation of Roma children into different classes or even different schools asearly as the first grades of primary school; this has created an increasingly polarized educational system in Hungary. Despite being a minority of only 5 percent of the total population, Roma are much more likely to study with other Roma than with Hungarians.

Roma children are routinely shifted into separate classes. While the formation of an 100 percent Roma class is relatively rare, it is quite common for a single class in a school to have a much higher percentage of Roma students than the other classes of the same age group, or than the population in the community as a whole.

In many communities, these concentrations of Roma are found in so-called remedial classes. These classes in theory provide students with extra help and aim to reintegrate them into the mainstream educational system at a later grade; in reality, such reintegration almost never takes place. In an interview with Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, the mayor and principal of the primary school in the town of Z. in Zala County, openly discussed these "separate forms:"

There is a need for separate classes, I admit. But there are reasons for this. The parents do not prepare their children for school, or help them or encourage them in their schoolwork. If we put the kids who aren't ready for school together with those who are, the better prepared kids suffer. We make separate classes so that the teacher will have the opportunity to spend more time with those children who can't keep up. If there is an outstanding Gypsy student we move him/her over to the "normal" class.106

Roma families interviewed in the town insisted that their children were ignored in the "special class," and that even the brighter, more prepared Roma children were kept there. Tibor Szegedi, a Roma serving on the city council of the nearby city of Barcs, protested the formation of an all-Roma class at the local primary school in 1994:

Last September, the school organized a Gypsy class. It was a completely separate, completely Gypsy class. The parents were very upset - some tried to transfer their children to the only other primary school in town, but they were told it was already full. So I organized a meeting with the principal, at which heassured the parents that this class would benefit their children. I went to visit later in the year to observe the class, and I saw that the kids were not getting any special attention. The teacher simply wasn't dealing with them. I know all of the children in that Gypsy class; some of them are very intelligent. If my child had been that age, I wouldn't have let him go to school there. I would have kept him at home.107

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki has also received reports of forms in which the letter "C" (for "cigány," i.e., Gypsy) was placed on the wall at the front of the "special class," as recently as 1993.

In many towns, one school has a remedial form serving all of the grade schools in the town; larger towns often have a completely separate remedial school. These schools are supposed to provide extra assistance for students who cannot keep the same pace as in the regular schools, and while in theory students graduating